mod 70 trimaran argo

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In march, the louis vuitton 37th america’s cup saw significant developments and preparations, the most olympic trofeo princesa sofía by iberostar starts in mallorca, happy go takes the double – winning line honours and irc overall in the 2024 rolex china sea race, isa launches project unica 40m – the epitome of contemporary trends, azimut gets even more grande with the unveiling of the project of grande 44m, the new fleet flagship, zuckerberg buys $300 million russian superyacht, a symphony of art and science: introducing spear, the 140m trimaran yacht concept, mazzella and nolot champions, with maeder as the super-champion of the european formula kite in the mar menor, introducing the new ima mediterranean maxi multihull challenge, jordi xammar and nora brugman, world champions in the 470 class with only six months until paris 2024, team nika wins the calero marinas and becomes the first leader of the 44cup, 222 offshore receive uim class 1 trophy in monaco, riva at the i.c.e. st. moritz – international concours of elegance 2024, timeless elegance, modern craftsmanship: the boatmaker channeling 1960s inspiration on a remote swedish island, classic elegance revived: 5 modern runabout boats paying homage to timeless designs, riva celebrates italian excellence at the “identitalia the iconic italian brands” exhibition, easter mona inspired by america’s cup sets sail in barcelona, introducing the deep sea dreamer: a visionary concept by designer steve kozloff, the ultimate superyacht with a detachable private airship, return of the caleros, splash into adventure: the 11 best personal watercraft for high seas fun and play, searider unveils dual-motor electric crotch rocket for water adventures, gost(r) partners with boat fix for enhanced 24/7 monitoring, recovery and customer service, the ocean race, virtual regatta and accenture launch metaverse experience, sailgp launches official digital collectibles, yacht club monaco marina metaverse – monaco, capital of advanced yachting, yacht manufacturer tactical custom boats completes the first nft sale on the blockchain for a new 110 ft yacht, the story of mod 70 trimaran, powerplay, and her owner peter cunningham.

Within the space of just a few weeks two of the most aggressively campaigned big trimarans had between them broken and re-broken two great ocean racing records no less than four times

The MOD 70 trimaran class has history and form, plenty of both. In total, seven boats have been built, all are still sailing and some are still setting records. Peter Cunningham’s distinctive blue PowerPlay (formerly Concise), and now actively for sale as a turnkey package, is among those that continue to lead the charge, having recently set new records over the Fastnet racecourse and the classic Cowes to St Malo route.

But in a clear indication of just how competitive this unique fleet of oceangoing trimarans continues to be, it took little time for a sistership to up the ante. In the case of the Cowes-St Malo route, it was just minutes before Maserati had broken PowerPlay’s new record after the pair had set out on the same morning from the Solent in a cross-Channel duel.

Cunningham and his crew, led by longtime MOD70 skipper Ned Collier- Wakefield, set an extraordinary pace around the traditional Fastnet racecourse. A month later Maserati did the double and raised the bar even further, beating PowerPlay’s time by over an hour, completing the 605nm-course in a staggering 23 hours, 51 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 24.94kts.

To have held an impressive record across an internationally famous offshore route for such a short period of time was doubtless frustrating for the PowerPlay crew, yet the ongoing rivalry is another reminder as to why the MOD70 continues to be an appealing and reliable inshore and offshore machine. Unlike other designs, the MOD70 hasn’t just kept pace with current developments, but in many cases has led the way.

The world of performance sailing has advanced rapidly over the last decade with speeds accelerating both inshore and offshore. The development of foil technology, driven initially by the big changes in the build-up to the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, saw the 72ft foiling leviathans raise the racing above the water’s surface taking the top speeds with them. Then, the following season, the wing-masted AC45s were up on foils as the Cup looked ahead to another high-speed foiling event.

The technology triggered responses throughout the racing world with foiling finding its way into offshore racing aboard the Ultime class of 32m multihulls as well as the Imoca 60 monohulls. Everyone it seemed wanted to fly.

Meanwhile, the MOD70s appeared to be still operating in displacement mode yet in reality their C-section daggerboards had already been quietly providing foiling assistance, generating vertical lift that was not only increasing the power through additional righting moment but also helping to prevent the bows from burying at speed. While they may not have been seen primarily as foiling boats, the lessons learned aboard the MOD70s, especially in offshore conditions, were being fed back into the system helping to fuel the highspeed revolution.

The original concept of the MOD70 started back in 2009 as a one-design oceanic racer. The aim was to build a boat which would be the standard for the next 10 years. The development of the MOD70 was a collaboration between the VPLP design firm (Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and Marc Van Peteghem) and the Lausanne-based founding company Multi One Design S.A.

The original 10-year goal has clearly been achieved, albeit in a slightly different way as the one-design element has changed and various boats have been modified and tweaked. Yet despite the range of modifications that have taken place aboard some of these boats, the racing remains impressively close when MOD70s line up against each other.

So, what is it that has made these trimarans so enduring while also remaining so quick?

‘I think VPLP, got it right with the original design as they put more emphasis into building a stronger boat compared with the Orma days,’ says skipper Ned Collier-Wakefield. ‘These boats are bulletproof. We can push them hard and they just lap it up. You can set out on a record attempt and smash it across the Atlantic and you tie the boat up at the dock at the end of the day, wash it down and it’s pretty much done.

‘Plus, I think they’re pretty safe. You can push them really, really hard and yet they’re still quick, amazingly quick. And while we’re all doing little upgrades, they’re generally pretty small ones aside from Maserati’s fully foiling package and even then, there are positives and negatives depending on what kind of racing you’re doing.’

Another interesting feature of the class is that unlike many other grand prix machines, especially ones that are capable of similar speeds, the MOD70s don’t require a large shoreside team to maintain them.

‘Martin Watts has run the boat since we took her on in 2015,’ continues Collier-Wakefield. ‘Essentially it’s been him by himself, plus a couple of young guys helping him occasionally. But there’s not much to it. They’re simple boats and don’t require much in the way of staffing. We deliver with five crew, race offshore with six or seven and inshore we might take a few more big guys to help on the handles,’

Watts is quick to confirm this while describing the maintenance of the big blue beast in even simpler terms. ‘I think of the MOD70 as a TP52 with some bits strapped to the sides,’ he says. ‘When you look at it, the winches are not huge and there’s not masses to service. The winches are the main focus as we do push them pretty hard, especially with the modern high-performance ropes which mean that the loads are up to their maximum. We also service the hydraulics every six months. These rams allow us to cant the rig and so we do change them from time to time but apart from that the maintenance programme is the same as any other boat and simply about managing wear and tear.’

But behind the scenes, PowerPlay has something that sets her apart from her sisterships, and that is her owner. Peter Cunningham is a lifelong racer, having raced a wide variety of craft in a number of different locations around the world. But after he sold his business in California he decided that he wanted to take part in some offshore racing and started looking at the MOD70. There is nothing particularly unusual in that, other than he was already in his mid-seventies when he decided to buy PowerPlay. Now, having raced across the Atlantic, competed in the Middle Sea Race and many other events, he was on board for both of the most recent record-breaking runs around the Fastnet and to St Malo. A few weeks later he would celebrate his 80th birthday.

‘It’s a physical boat and you’ve got to be careful when you’re down below, especially at speed,’ he says. ‘Plus, there are some unusual motions especially in breezy conditions when you might lift the leeward daggerboard. This means that rather than heeling over when a gusts hits, you skip sideways which can catch you off guard. So, my rule is always having three points of contact!’

Having come from monohulls, albeit with some quick ones such as a TP52 and a J70, how had he found the experience?

‘It’s exciting, probably more exciting than I thought and at times it makes you afraid, but you do get used to it after a while and when you’re steering from 20ft above the water’s surface at speed it’s just magical.

‘Experiencing flat-out sailing for five or six days non-stop is pretty special too,’ he continues. ‘It’s pretty stressful on all of the crew and while this boat is actually very forgiving, it still highlights the need to really know what you’re doing at a level that is very different to monohull racing. That in itself is very rewarding as you learn a lot about yourself and the importance of how a team needs to work together at this level. Sometimes there are decisions to be made intuitively in a split second that involve everyone, teamwork is crucial, without it you can be in trouble.

‘Seeing this, understanding it and being a part of it has definitely benefitted my sailing in other areas, it helps you put things into perspective, understand how people deal with issues and has improved my manner on other boats. I have learned a great deal.

‘I treat my sailing as a project and after you’ve experienced something like this it’s difficult to think of what kind of project you could move onto, but I do still have at least one goal. ‘My top speed at the helm is 38.9kts, I want to hit 40 and I can’t sell her until I do.’

• MOD 70 trimaran

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Argo beats rival MOD 70 trimaran PowerPlay to Transpac win by 29mins

Despite a slow initial start, Jason Carroll and crew were able to push their MOD 70 trimaran  Argo  into the lead ahead of two rival MOD 70’s in this year’s 50th edition of the classic LA-Honolulu Transpacific Yacht Race.

Having fought to get out of a wind hole on the first night, the team found the strong offshore breeze first to take the lead. Argo’s official elapsed time of 4 days 11hrs 20min 32sec was remarkable considering their first day’s slow start, and only 5 hours behind the record pace set in 2017 by the ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe  of 4 days 6hrs 32min 30sec.

Peter Cunningham’s team on  PowerPlay , a sistership MOD 70, finished just 29 minutes astern after 2225 miles of racing. Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati – slowed by collision with a floating obstacle – finished in 4 days 18hrs 26min 51sec.

Maserati had a big accident when they struck a floating object that ripped off the port rudder wing. Soldini was pleased with the Transpac performance nonetheless: “We’re super happy about the long steps forward we made with the latest changes, the rudders’ settings that we developed in the last months, work very well and we’re able to fly much steadier. On port tack we reached an average speed of 30 knots and we were able to fly for very long distances, we sailed 670 miles over the last 24 hours!”

Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant’s VPLP 100  Comanche  was the first monohull to finish, winning the coveted Barn Door Trophy, while Manouch Moshayedi’s Bakewell-White 100 RIO100  was the fastest monohull without powered performance systems to finish, and claimed the Merlin Trophy. Jason Seibert’s Schock 40  Gamble  was last boat home after almost 11 days.

The final tally of boats completing the course successfully was 81, with 678 sailors aboard. Nine yachts retired from this year’s race: seven returned to the mainland, one continued to Hawaii, and one sank at sea – the Santa Cruz 70 Orient Express foundered after losing its rudder, and the crew were picked up by rival 68ft Pyewacket .

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Jason and the Argonauts

• By Michael Hanson
• Updated: August 17, 2020

Moments after the start, the boatspeed jumps to 35 knots, and I am terrified. If I was driving, I’d be white-knuckled. The wind-whipped Caribbean Sea thrashes Argo ’s hulls, but Jason Carroll is cool at the tiller of his 70-foot trimaran. He leans back in his driving chair and squints through the visor of his crimson helmet at the turning mark ahead.

A few days earlier, one of Argo ’s new T-foil rudders snapped during the delivery from Antigua to St. Martin for the Caribbean Multihull Challenge regatta —a delivery of less than four hours despite the breakage. Carroll’s team spent the night swapping to Argo ’s older rudders, but combined with the boat’s newer and longer J-shaped foils, the boat isn’t set up correctly. “Things could get a bit sporty out there,” Carroll had warned me before we shoved off. “As long as the conditions aren’t too crazy, we should be fine.”

So much for that. With 30-knots blowing across the bows, we hurtle out of Simpson’s Bay, and I take a knee at the back of the cockpit and brace for dear life. I’ve seen the video of Argo ’s capsize before the 2019 Caribbean 600, so I’m stoked with my decision to extend my insurance coverage to include extreme watersports. Still, I’m having one of those what-have-I- gotten-myself-into moments—one hand gripping a GoPro, the other clenching the lifeline.

Carroll and company outmaneuver the other MOD70, Maserati, leaving them behind in trio of wakes. Ahead, Serge Durrant’s Irens 63, Shockwave, cruises along with a storm jib and three mainsail reefs. The Argonauts tucked only two reefs, and in a blink, the boat is careening past Shockwave . A gust fills the sails and the speedo jumps again—this time to 39 knots. The boat shudders as waves smack its underbelly; up ­forward, the bows begin to rise.

I’m having one of those what-have-I-gotten-myself-into moments—one hand gripping a GoPro, the other clenching the lifeline.

T-foil rudders would have ­prevented the bows from riding too high, but the big J-foils ­generate so much lift that water flowing over them begins to boil, causing cavitation. Argo ’s bows slam into a trough, and the front beam takes a direct hit. In a situation such as this, one of two things can happen, and the outcome depends on Carroll’s ability to make the correct split-second decision. Option A is to ride it out and hope the trimmers ease the sheets quick enough to depower the sails. If they fail to do so, the entire crew will soon be dogpiling through the companionway as the boat pitchpoles. Option B is for Carroll to make a sharp turn to try to spill power quickly.

The 42-year-old helmsman chooses wisely, pulling down the bows with authority. The foils regrip, and after this little pucker moment, Carroll guides the trimaran through a wide, arcing turn upwind around the mark. The Argonauts are safe for now, but challenges await.

“The boat is actually easy to steer when everything is set up right,” Carroll says. His relaxed and intellectual demeanor is a calming presence, contrary to the sheer madness of the trimaran. As a co-founder of Hudson River Trading, Carroll put his Harvard computer science degree to use developing high-frequency trading algorithms, and when he’s not flying across the ocean, he’s soaring across the sky as an enthusiast pilot. Yet the MOD70 is like nothing else he has experienced. “We’re hitting speeds we never imagined,” he says. “But nothing happens out here without having complete trust in the guys next to you, so it all comes down to the team.”

The Argo crew is a lean but talented squad. Such a boat demands experience. At its core is 48-year-old Chad Corning, who manages the operation. He’s been Carroll’s go-to guy since before they captured back-to-back Melges 32 World Championship titles in 2013 and 2014. When he first started sailing with Carroll, Argo was an all-­amateur team of college buddies. “The scope of the program was small,” Corning says. “Eventually, we started sailing internationally and doing distance racing on Jason’s Gunboat 62, Elvis. At one point, we even had three Melges 32s. It just became too much for Jason to organize on his own, so I stepped in.”

The two have been thick as thieves for years, and the team eventually transitioned into the GC32 foiling catamaran scene, a circuit that pitted Carroll, an amateur helmsman, against a few of the finest pro drivers in high-performance sailing. In 2018, they traded in the Gunboat for the MOD70 and started racking up victories with a combination of longtime Argo teammates and specialized offshore multihull sailors, including Brian Thompson, the first Englishman to break the round-the-world record twice. Thompson has also sailed nonstop around the world four times, won the Volvo Ocean Race, and broken 27 world sailing records.

“He’s the guy who knows when to push and when to back off,” Corning says. His primary role on Argo is to act as point man for the boat’s complex maneuvers.

“This is very much a close-knit team,” Thompson says. “Jason is one of the best drivers out there. The guys know the boat really well, and they work hard maintaining everything to minimize breakdowns. Chad has done a remarkable job developing the boat and the team, and it’s good fun off the water as well.”

On the long beat toward the rounding point off Tintamarre Island on the northeast side of St. Martin, Thompson marshals the troops as the breeze spikes to 32 knots. With confused 6-foot swells, Argo smashes its way uphill at 21 knots. “I’d love a wider groove to get through these waves,” shouts mainsail trimmer, Anthony Kotoun. A five-time world champion in multiple classes, Kotoun is a longtime member of the Argo crew. He and Thompson chat for a moment and agree that a lower mode would be ideal.

“Let me check the course with Artie to make sure we have enough water to make that happen,” Kotoun shouts back to Thompson. While most pro race teams are known for their lack of shouting, with more than 50 knots of apparent wind funneling across the deck, communicating on this machine is like rolling down your window on the highway and trying to have a conversation with someone in the passing lane. “Communication is especially important because things don’t happen on demand,” Kotoun explains later. “The boat is so ­complicated with the foils, the canting mast, the rake and the centerboard that something as simple as a mode change can take minutes to achieve. You can’t just sheet out. It’s completely different than most things out there.”

Kotoun staggers to the ­middle of the boat and pokes his head beneath the splash hood, where navigator Artie Means plots a course. Means has the most protected position on Argo , and he’s still soaked head to toe. His eyes are glued to his tablet.

“We can spare a few degrees, but not much,” Means says. “Luckily, we overstood a bit.”

Means and Kotoun take a moment to review the course, and eventually Kotoun makes his way back to the weather hull to relay the information to Thompson, who recalibrates the boat’s upwind mode by raising the centerboard up a bit, adding more foil rake, and moving the transverse jib-lead outboard. These changes allow the boat to sail lower without becoming overpowered. With a mainsheet load of 7 tons, the lines throb as they ease through their systems.

From beneath the spray hood, Means shoots me an ecstatic look as he nerds out over the instrument panels, which in true Argo fashion, have a dancing hula girl mounted above. “We’re going faster upwind than a TP52 would be going downwind today,” he says. “Hey Fouche, check this out!”

Headsail trimmer Thierry Fouchier pops his head beneath the spray hood. Fouchier is another international multihull legend. Originally from Marseille, France, Fouchier won the 34th America’s Cup aboard Larry Ellison’s big trimaran USA 17 before joining Artemis Racing in 2013 and Groupama Team France in 2017. Looking at the data, he gives Means a twisted smile. “ C’est fou ,”—That’s crazy—he says, returning to his jib-sheet winch.

Communication is especially important because things don’t happen on demand.

Thompson soon relieves Carroll at the helm as Argo pitches in the waves. “Be ready for a gennaker around Tintamarre,” Thompson shouts.

My God , I think to myself as water jets through the trampoline and the boat bucks me skyward off the netting, we still have to go downwind.

Even though the ­maneuver is 15 minutes away and the rounding point is over the horizon, the crew preps for the downwind leg. The biggest battle is hoisting the gennaker with the equivalent of tropical-storm-force winds blowing across the bow. Argo ’s slender 31-year-old ­bowman, Westy Barlow, sprints forward and secures the tack while the grinders hoist the furled gennaker to the top of the mast. With Carroll back on the helm, Thompson reminds the trimmers to make sure the main is well-eased and the jib sheet stays on in order to keep the boat under control through the bear away. Once Argo reaches the right downwind angle, the crew explodes into action: deploying the gennaker, raising the centerboard, trimming the main- sheet, changing to the J2 headsail, reducing the mast cant, increasing the mast rotation and adjusting the traveler. When everything is set, Argo romps downwind at 30 knots.

As we enter the Anguilla Channel, Shockwave is nowhere in sight and Maserati is still within striking distance. “Try not to go over 30 knots,” Thompson advises Carroll. “Anything more than that, and we might trip over ourselves.”

As Argo zips down the ­channel, trimmer and grinder Scott Norris taps me on the shoulder and asks, “Hey, can you go below and grab the big water jug and fill up the bottles?”

Norris is a big man with a big personality—one of the longest-tenured Argonauts on the crew.

“Where is it?” I ask.

“Thataway,” he says, pointing downward and aft.

Going below on a search ­mission is hardly what I want to be doing right now, but I scale the ladder into Argo ’s center hull. Forward, the nav station is empty. Beyond that, a pair of berths hang in the dark. As Argo cleaves through the waves, sounds of unimaginable horror pound from wall to carbon wall like drums between warring villages. I crawl toward the stern, glancing out the porthole at our starboard hull, which hangs 15 feet above the waves. I snag the water jug and make it back topside, where Norris smiles down at me.

“Pretty gnarly down there, huh?” he asks as I reemerge. “Don’t worry, the first time we took this thing out, we were terrified. And today…terrified.”

“It’s going to be about a 100-degree reach after the turning mark,” Means shouts out to the crew. With Maserati shrinking on the horizon, Thompson decides to play this leg conservatively. “All right, it’s going to be the J3 and three reefs on the main,” he howls through the wind. This is the least amount of sail area Argo can carry, and when conditions are right, the reduced drag and lower center of gravity produce the highest speeds a MOD70 is capable of, but as they reconfigure the sail setup and round the mark to a reach, Argo is starved for power.

“The first time we took this thing out, we were terrified. And today…terrified.”

“Really searching for it,” Carroll says, emitting one of those are-we-seriously-going-this-slow looks. After a few minutes of letting the conditions settle, they shake out the third reef, and one of the stainless-steel T-bone shackles on the mainsail luff lashes Barlow just below the eye. He drops to the net, his legs ­wriggling in pain.

“Hold, hold, hold. Man down!”

Before the race, Barlow joked that “nobody cares about the bowman,” but watching his teammates jump to his aid, that sentiment is obviously false. He took a hard hit, but there’s no bleeding or signs of a concussion. He even tries to hop back on the ­grinding pedestal, prompting a stern word from Thompson to sit in the companionway and ice his eye, which begins to swell shut.

By the time the excitement wanes, Maserati has halved its deficit. Even though it was a blip on the radar mere minutes ago, in MOD70 racing, you can’t take your foot off the gas for a moment. Slow is slow. The crew shakes a reef, and after one final upwind leg, they cross the finish line first. There’s no time for handshakes or back slapping, though. The shoreline is fast approaching, so they tack and sail back out to sea. The race might be over, but the hard work is not.

“Hey, Helmet, hop on that pedestal and help me with the traveler,” Kotoun says.

Helmet is the ­nickname for English sailor Alister Richardson. A veteran of Carroll’s GC32 squad, Richardson is a former wing trimmer for America’s Cup challenger Luna Rossa, but he says he gets much more ­fulfillment from his Argo gig.

“I spent six years of my life doing the America’s Cup,” he tells me after racing. “Doing that is like joining the Army. It’s fine if you choose that lifestyle, but I enjoy sailing with Argo because I have good fun with these guys. We’re always pushing for performance, but at the end of the day, we’re having the time of our lives. Everyone can get a joke out of each other, which is important.”

That evening, the crew enjoys a private dinner at their rented condo in Port de Plaisance on the Dutch side of St. Martin. They debrief the day and pour a bit of rum, eventually gathering around a table for a late-night card game of President.

“We’re limited in what we can play because Jason will count the cards,” Corning says.

“Anything it takes to win,” Carroll replies mischievously.

Anything it takes—that’s the Argo way. Race hard, never give up, and have fun, no ­matter what.

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Argo had a rough run en route to Bermuda Race record

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By Newport Bermuda Race

Jason Carroll (New York City) stood on the dock at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club well after midnight, looking fatigued yet energized after winning line honors in the 52nd Newport Bermuda Race.   Carroll and his crew on the MOD70 trimaran  Argo  set an elapsed-time record time of 33 hours—faster than any elapsed time ever recorded in the 116-year history of the Bermuda Race—covering the 635-nautical mile course at an average speed of 19.24 knots. But it wasn’t without some pain.   “The forecast under-appreciated just how rough the sea state was,” said the 44-year-old Carroll. Later he added, “The whole crew is wiped out. We’re tired.”   Tired, perhaps, but also happy to set another course record— Argo ’s sixth, to go with two world records—and relieved that they made it to shore in one piece. They were the first Saturday-night finishers in the history of the storied race, co-organized by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

“We’re thrilled about the record,” said Chad Corning (New Rochelle, New York), the program’s manager. “There are only so many major ocean races…to have the Bermuda Race, the Middle Sea Race and the Caribbean 600 means a lot to us. And it’s great to be the only boat to finish on Saturday. The Bermuda Race has so much history, this record is probably the most significant one for us because it is such a well-established race. It’s a great feeling.”   Carroll’s international crew aboard  Argo  included Westy Barlow (Newport, Rhode Island), Corning, Pete Cumming (Warsash, England), Thierry Fouchier (Marseille, France), boat captain Chris Maxted (Melbourne, Australia), Charlie Ogletree (Seabrook, Texas) and Alister Richardson (Bournemouth, England).

It was previously reported that navigator and sailing master Brian Thompson (Cowes, England) was part of the crew, but he tested positive for COVID before the race and did not sail. He was replaced in the crew by Barlow, and Corning filled in as navigator.   “On paper it was very much a rhumbline race,” said Corning. “We ended up to west of rhumb because we had to sail high to keep the boat under control. If we bore away, we’d have sped up too much. We were trying to keep the speed around 20 knots. So, we were keeping a higher course to keep the boat slow, that’s why we weren’t on rhumbline.”

After starting the race with a full main and J1 headsail, clearing the committee boat within mere feet, Carroll said that it didn’t take long for the crew to start depowering.   “We spent a lot of time throttled back, making sure we wouldn’t have a problem. It was quite rough for us in the middle of the race,” Carroll said. “About three hours into the race, we were down to two reefs and the J2. Ten hours in we had the J3. We made a whole bunch of steps down in first few hours as we got offshore.”   Corning echoed Carroll in saying that it was a rough race, mostly due to the sea state.   “We were expecting a sea state of 2 to 2.5 meters, but in general it was 3.5 to 4 meters,” said Corning. “The Gulf Stream was a bit smoother because the current direction was more or less aligned with the wind direction. We had 25-30 knots of wind for most of the race, and the high was mid-30’s at times. We were really just hanging on.”   Corning said that they transited the Gulf Stream at about 90 degrees and saw a 4-knot current flowing west to east, but they were in and out of it quickly. They sailed the meat of the course with two reefs and a storm jib for about 21 hours, from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon.   “It was some of roughest conditions we’ve had on the boat,” Corning said. “The sea state was just nasty, coming from all different directions. You never knew where the waves were coming from and they would hit the boat at all different angles. You had to crawl around the cockpit to get anywhere. It was a very violent motion, a lot of the guys got sick.”

Mālama  Second to Finish At 07:48:43 ADT this morning, almost eight and a half hours after  Argo  finished, skipper Charlie Enright (Barrington, Rhode Island) guided the IMOCA 60  Mālama  from 11th Hour Racing across the finish line.  Mālama , like  Argo  a foil-assisted craft, completed the course in 41h:28m:48s, at an average speed of 15.3 knots. While  Argo ’s elapsed time is the fastest in the history of the race,  Mālama ’s is the fourth fastest. The two foilers bookend the 100-foot  Comanche ’s 34h:49m mark in 2016 and the 90-foot  Rambler 90 ’s 39h:39m time in 2012. As Enright disembarked at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club later in the morning, he said that  Mālama  experienced winds up to 35 knots and never sailed lower than 70 degrees to the wind. “It was pretty impressive,” he said, “sailing with cracked sheets upwind doing 18 knots.” “We had some adversity, but we were able to fight through it,” said Enright, referring to issues that cropped up with electronics and rigging. “In those conditions,” he added, “we try not to come out of the water [on the foils]; we’re trying to displace as much of the boat as possible. We can control how much we come out by adjusting the rake of the foil and the extension of the foil.”

Asked about guest crewmembers big wave surfer Ian Walsh and backcountry snowboarder Elena Hight, Enright said, “Our guest crew was amazing. I was worried about them surviving but they not only survived, they thrived. They enjoyed every second of it and got involved in sailing the boat.”

Gibbs Hill, St. David’s Leaders Approach Island With the foilers safely moored in Bermuda, the focus is now on to be the elapsed-time winner of the race’s major divisions. At 1300 ADT today, there is a battle royale taking place.   The leading boats in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division included Christopher Sheehan’s Pac52  Warrior Won , the Mills 68  Prospector , owned by Lawrence Landry, Paul McDowell and Martin Roesch, and the TP52  Hooligan , owned by John Evans and John Sheehan.   In the St. David’s Lighthouse Division, Kate and Jim Murray’s Pac52  Callisto  from the U.K. is leading the Reichel/Pugh 74  Wizard , chartered by Fred Detwiler and Bruce Aikens.   All of those boats are racing within proximity of each other to the west of rhumbline. The forecast is predicting lighter winds throughout the afternoon, so the first finisher likely won’t cross the line until early Monday morning.   Stay tuned to the race with the  Bluenose Yacht Sales YB tracker  at the  Bermuda Race website  and for more interviews watch the  Bermuda Race Youtube  channel.

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Argo Crew Reflect On Record Breaking Run

Jason Carroll stood on the dock at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club well after midnight, looking fatigued yet energized after winning line honors in the 52nd Newport Bermuda Race.

Carroll and his crew on the MOD70 trimaran Argo set an elapsed-time record time of 33 hours—faster than any elapsed time ever recorded in the 116-year history of the Bermuda Race—covering the 635-nautical mile course at an average speed of 19.24 knots. But it wasn’t without some pain.

The forecast under-appreciated just how rough the sea state was,” said the 44-year-old Carroll. Later he added, “The whole crew is wiped out. We’re tired.”

After finishing, Argo rolls up her jib with St. George’s Harbour in the background and begins motor-sailing slowly around the island to Hamilton. Chris Burville photo

Tired, perhaps, but also happy to set another course record—Argo’s sixth, to go with two world records. They were the first Saturday-night finishers in the history of the storied race, co-organized by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

“We’re thrilled about the record,” said Chad Corning, the program’s manager. “There are only so many major ocean races…to have the Bermuda Race, the Middle Sea Race and the Caribbean 600 means a lot to us. And it’s great to be the only boat to finish on Saturday. The Bermuda Race has so much history, this record is probably the most significant one for us because it is such a well-established race. It’s a great feeling.”

Carroll’s international crew aboard Argo included Westy Barlow [Newport, Rhode Island], Corning, Pete Cumming [Warsash, England], Thierry Fouchier [Marseille, France], boat captain Chris Maxted [Melbourne, Australia], Charlie Ogletree [Seabrook, Texas] and Alister Richardson [Bournemouth, England].

After the finish, the crew of Argo stands in the trimaran’s relatively small cockpit. Overhead, the two reefs in its mainsail testify to the crew’s efforts to use less sail area to avoid overpowering the boat. Chris Burville photo

It was previously reported that navigator and sailing master Brian Thompson [Cowes, England] was part of the crew, but he tested positive for COVID before the race and did not sail. He was replaced in the crew by Barlow, and Corning filled in as navigator.

“On paper it was very much a rhumbline race,” said Corning. “We ended up to west of rhumb because we had to sail high to keep the boat under control. If we bore away, we’d have sped up too much. We were trying to keep the speed around 20 knots. So, we were keeping a higher course to keep the boat slow, that’s why we weren’t on rhumbline.”

“After starting the race with a full main and J1 headsail, clearing the committee boat within mere feet, Carroll said that it didn’t take long for the crew to start depowering.

“We spent a lot of time throttled back, making sure we wouldn’t have a problem. It was quite rough for us in the middle of the race,” Carroll said. “About three hours into the race, we were down to two reefs and the J2. Ten hours in we had the J3. We made a whole bunch of steps down in first few hours as we got offshore.”

On its final approach to the St. David’s Lighthouse finish, late Saturday evening, the MOD 70 trimaran Argo shows its sleek lines and black sails made of carbon. The time-lapse photo turns the port navigation light into a red streak. Chris Burville photo

Corning echoed Carroll in saying that it was a rough race, mostly due to the sea state.

“We were expecting a sea state of 2 to 2.5 meters, but in general it was 3.5 to 4 meters,” said Corning. “The Gulf Stream was a bit smoother because the current direction was more or less aligned with the wind direction. We had 25-30 knots of wind for most of the race, and the high was mid-30’s at times. We were really just hanging on.”

Corning said that they transited the Gulf Stream at about 90 degrees and saw a 4-knot current flowing west to east, but they were in and out of it quickly. They sailed the meat of the course with two reefs and a storm jib for about 21 hours, from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon.

“It was some of roughest conditions we’ve had on the boat,” Corning said. “The sea state was just nasty, coming from all different directions. You never knew where the waves were coming from and they would hit the boat at all different angles. You had to crawl around the cockpit to get anywhere. It was a very violent motion, a lot of the guys got sick.”

Photos of the Argo in Bermuda today:

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TRANSPAC: Jason Carroll's MOD 70 trimaran ARGO is first to finish in fast run into Honolulu

HONOLULU (#1172) – After a slow start on Saturday, Jason Carroll (USA) and crew on ARGO were the first to finish the 50th Transpac Race when the MOD 70 trimaran crossed the finish line off Diamond Head with an elapsed time of 4 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes and 32 seconds.

That was just five hours behind the record pace set in 2017 by the ORMA 60 MIGHTY MERLOE in 4 days, 6 hours, 32 minutes, 30 seconds.

ARGO's average speed on the run from Los Angeles was 20.7 knots.

The rest of the crew is Chad Corning (USA), Thierry Fouchier (FRA), Anderson Reggio (USA), Alister Richardson (GBR), Brian Thompson (GBR), and Westy Barlow (USA).

“Four and a half days is not a bad time at all to do 2,200 miles,” Thompson said. “We’re all chuffed to be here,”

After several hours into the race and having to fight to get out of a wind hole on the first night, ARGO was the first to find the strong offshore breeze to take the lead against the two other MOD 70s in the race. It was never seriously challenged, playing a brilliant tactical game to deftly stay ahead of the other two of the their top competition on the final approach to the finish.

Peter Cunningham (CAY) and team on POWERPLAY, a sistership MOD 70, finished just 29 minutes astern after 2225 miles of racing. Giovanni Soldini (ITA) and MASERATI, which hit an object Monday and had to slow to make repairs, finished more than seven hours after ARGO.

Argo's winning crew celebrates on the dock in Honolulu after being first to finish in the 50th Transpac. Transpacific Yacht Club photo.

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2019 First to Finish: Jason Carroll’s MOD 70 Argo!

After a slow initial start on Saturday, Jason Carroll and his team of Chad Corning, Thierry Fouchier, Anderson Reggio, Alister Richardson, Brian Thompson, Westy Barlow were able to push their MOD 70 trimaran Argo into the lead among two other rival MOD 70's in this year's 50th edition of the LA-Honolulu Transpac. 

After several hours into the race and having to fight to get out of a wind hole on the first night, the team found the strong offshore breeze first to take a lead never seriously challenged during the entire race, playing a brilliant tactical game to also deftly stay ahead of their competition on the final approach to the finish.

Which was needed: Peter Cunningham's team on PowerPlay, a sistership MOD 70, finished just 29 minutes astern after 2225 miles of racing. 

Argo's official finish time was 20:50:32 HST on Wednesday, July 17th, for an elapsed time of 4 days 11 hours 20 min 32 sec ...a remarkable time considering their first day's slow start and only 5 hours behind the record pace set in 2017 by the ORMA 60Mighty Merloe of 4 days 6 hours 32 minutes 30 sec.

This translates to an average speed down the course of 20.7 knots.

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Rolex Middle Sea Race 2021 - The MOD70 trimaran Argo takes the new race record

Article published on 25/10/2021

By Emmanuel van Deth

published in n°180 nov. / dec.

This Mediterranean race is said to offer one of the most beautiful courses in the world. With a startline at the foot of the fortresses in Malta, participating yachts follow a 606-mile counter-clockwise loop around Sicily.

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This Mediterranean race is said to offer one of the most beautiful courses in the world. With a startline at the foot of the fortresses in Malta, participating yachts follow a 606-mile counter-clockwise loop around Sicily. The absolute record for the event (one of the very few that was still held by a monohull) had been set in 2007 by Georges David and his 90-foot Rambler in 47 hours 55 minutes 3 seconds. The existing multihull record dated back to last year: Giovanni Soldini and his Multi70 Maserati managed to complete the course in 56 hours 31 minutes 31 seconds. Now, the MOD70 Argo (USA), skippered by Jason Carroll, has smashed both these previous records: on Sunday 24th October at 20:39:28, she crossed the finish line after only 33 hours 29 minutes 28 seconds.

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Argo Had a Rough Run En Route to Bermuda Race Record

June 19, 2022

By Sean McNeill

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HAMILTON, Bermuda (June 19, 2022)— Jason Carroll (New York City) stood on the dock at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club well after midnight, looking fatigued yet energized after winning line honors in the 52nd Newport Bermuda Race.   Carroll and his crew on the MOD70 trimaran  Argo  set an elapsed-time record time of 33 hours—faster than any elapsed time ever recorded in the 116-year history of the Bermuda Race—covering the 635-nautical mile course at an average speed of 19.24 knots. But it wasn’t without some pain.   “The forecast under-appreciated just how rough the sea state was,” said the 44-year-old Carroll. Later he added, “The whole crew is wiped out. We’re tired.”   Tired, perhaps, but also happy to set another course record— Argo ’s sixth, to go with two world records—and relieved that they made it to shore in one piece. They were the first Saturday-night finishers in the history of the storied race, co-organized by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

“We’re thrilled about the record,” said Chad Corning (New Rochelle, New York), the program’s manager. “There are only so many major ocean races…to have the Bermuda Race, the Middle Sea Race and the Caribbean 600 means a lot to us. And it’s great to be the only boat to finish on Saturday. The Bermuda Race has so much history, this record is probably the most significant one for us because it is such a well-established race. It’s a great feeling.”   Carroll’s international crew aboard  Argo  included Westy Barlow (Newport, Rhode Island), Corning, Pete Cumming (Warsash, England), Thierry Fouchier (Marseille, France), boat captain Chris Maxted (Melbourne, Australia), Charlie Ogletree (Seabrook, Texas) and Alister Richardson (Bournemouth, England).

After starting the race with a full main and J1 headsail, clearing the committee boat within mere feet, Carroll said that it didn’t take long for the crew to start depowering.   “We spent a lot of time throttled back, making sure we wouldn’t have a problem. It was quite rough for us in the middle of the race,” Carroll said. “About three hours into the race, we were down to two reefs and the J2. Ten hours in we had the J3. We made a whole bunch of steps down in first few hours as we got offshore.” (In the interview below, Carroll spoke again the next day with Media Team member Dave Reed, of Sailing World .)  

  Corning echoed Carroll in saying that it was a rough race, mostly due to the sea state.

“We were expecting a sea state of 2 to 2.5 meters, but in general it was 3.5 to 4 meters,” said Corning. “The Gulf Stream was a bit smoother because the current direction was more or less aligned with the wind direction. We had 25-30 knots of wind for most of the race, and the high was mid-30’s at times. We were really just hanging on.”

Corning said that they transited the Gulf Stream at about 90 degrees and saw a 4-knot current flowing west to east, but they were in and out of it quickly. They sailed the meat of the course with two reefs and a storm jib for about 21 hours, from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon.   “It was some of roughest conditions we’ve had on the boat,” Corning said. “The sea state was just nasty, coming from all different directions. You never knew where the waves were coming from and they would hit the boat at all different angles. You had to crawl around the cockpit to get anywhere. It was a very violent motion, a lot of the guys got sick.”

Mālama  Second to Finish At 07:48:43 ADT this morning, almost eight and a half hours after  Argo  finished, skipper Charlie Enright (Barrington, Rhode Island) guided the IMOCA 60  Mālama  from 11th Hour Racing across the finish line.  Mālama , like  Argo  a foil-assisted craft, completed the course in 41h:28m:48s, at an average speed of 15.3 knots. While  Argo ’s elapsed time is the fastest in the history of the race,  Mālama ’s is the fourth fastest. The two foilers bookend the 100-foot  Comanche ’s 34h:49m mark in 2016 and the 90-foot  Rambler 90 ’s 39h:39m time in 2012. As Enright disembarked at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club later in the morning, he said that  Mālama  experienced winds up to 35 knots and never sailed lower than 70 degrees to the wind. “It was pretty impressive,” he said, “sailing with cracked sheets upwind doing 18 knots.” “We had some adversity, but we were able to fight through it,” said Enright, referring to issues that cropped up with electronics and rigging. “In those conditions,” he added, “we try not to come out of the water [on the foils]; we’re trying to displace as much of the boat as possible. We can control how much we come out by adjusting the rake of the foil and the extension of the foil.”

Asked about guest crewmembers big wave surfer Ian Walsh and backcountry snowboarder Elena Hight, Enright said, “Our guest crew was amazing. I was worried about them surviving but they not only survived, they thrived. They enjoyed every second of it and got involved in sailing the boat.”

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TWICE ON TOP

Argo racing breaks two records in a doubleheader week of racing.

First, it was the Around Jamestown record, then it was the Vineyard Race, a mix of excellent conditions and determined crew gave Jason Caroll’s MOD70 Argo the opportunity to break, not one, but two records this week on New England waters. Is the team excited? Yes. Are they satisfied? No. North Sails sat down with Project Manager Chad Corning to talk about their titles, and what they are aiming for next.

NS: What a week! Tell us about the sailing.

Chad Corning: The first one was the around Jamestown record, which is a cool local record here in Newport. It’s about 19 miles around Conanicut Island in Narragansett Bay. We had been doing laps around Jamestown as a training exercise. In the MOD 70, it gives us a focused training session. It was probably been the fourth or fifth time that we had contemplating doing a lap of the island this summer.

We got out on Tuesday, the wind was easterly, southeasterly, it was an okay direction for going around because you want an easterly or westerly to reach the whole time. So we got out and we got the boat ready to go, the sails up, and by the time we opted to start, the wind had become even more easterly, which made it even better. We were able to fetch out to Beavertail, have a nice fast Gennaker run down the backside of Jamestown, and then just have to do one tack on the way back up to the bridge. As it goes with records , everything needs to be perfect and it was a perfect day on Tuesday.

The Vineyard Race was quite different, you look at the weather and you download it into the computer and it spits out a route and there’s a lot of modeling. Hypothetically, the record was possible, but the conditions in the forecast didn’t quite meet up. By the time we got back into the sound, it looked to be impossible because of light winds between the tower and Block Island and the entrance to the sound that was not really expected.

Then things looked up, there was much more wind than forecast for the next leg, from the entrance to the sound to the finish. So all of a sudden we started ripping and started doing the math and made the decision to keep pushing the team. From the navigator’s desk, I knew it would be kind of five minutes either way with a couple of hours to go. It was an exciting few hours, the boat was lit and everyone was just kind of pushing as hard as we could. Which makes it very satisfying after an intense effort like that to get it that was really cool. It was just by a few minutes and it was kind of breaking the record that we set in 2018, but a record of a record and it was cool.

With no other boats to race against, in a race like the Vineyard Race, it’s really the only way to kind of stay focused. So it was great to get it.

NS: How did the sails and equipment affect the decision to keep pushing for the record in changing and building conditions? How was the performance of the boat?

Corning: Our relationship with North Sails, starts with our sailmaker Fuzz Foster and Steve Calder our sail designer, it’s a great collaborative process with those guys and that sets us up to be very confident. We didn’t think twice about anything with the sails and we had a mixed sort of mixed inventory age-wise. We had our original 3Di main, we have a newer one, but didn’t use it. We had our original Gennaker which is two-plus years old. It’s been around the block, it’s been to Hawaii and we pushed that sail very hard and didn’t even think about it.

We know that even if it’s older stuff, we can be confident in pushing just as hard as we want. We’ve had zero trouble and the sails have been perfect. In terms of North, I can’t give enough credit to Fuzz and Steve, in terms of how they set us up on all this, that’s the secret sauce.

NS: Because of travel restrictions, your crew is mostly Americans, right?

Corning: We have a great team of sailors. Some guys from the UK and France that we would normally have weren’t here because of travel restrictions, but that’s okay. We’ve got good people here in Newport and here in the US that we tap into. Seven out of eight onboard were American, other than Brian Thompson who came from the UK, who’s a multi-hull sort of God and he helps us sort of stay out of trouble.

Charlie Ogletree has the same sort of status in terms of experience as Brian, so those two guys gave us sort of the depth of experience on the boat and then the rest of the team, it was Jason Carroll , myself, some guys here from Newport, and US sailors, all who have a lot of experience on the boat. It’s kind of a low drama, good chemistry team and that just makes everything very easy. Everyone’s got each other’s back and everyone knows what to do instinctually without … there’s very little verbal communication. It’s a bit of a machine.

NS: What’s next for the Argo crew?

Corning: A record that we really want is the Caribbean 600 record, which has been elusive, although we’ve tried a couple of times, so we are reconfiguring the boat with new foils and new rudders for this winter campaign and the campaign next year. We have a very focused program to start that race on the very best possible foot. So, hopefully, the conditions are such where that’s possible.

Then next year we’ll be in Europe with the boat, for the Fastnet and Middle Sea Races. It’ll be cool to do the Fastnet on the new course for the first time and I suspect many of the hundred footers will race, so a record or anything line honors might be impossible for that race, but perhaps the Middle Sea race record is in our sights.

Then maybe the last thing we have in the longterm plan is to perhaps try for the Route of Discovery record which is Spain over to the Bahamas in the fall. But that is obviously a pretty far out there and we’ll kind of see what happens with it.

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Argo, a MOD 70 trimaran, is one of two multihulls with record-setting potential - 52nd Newport Bermuda Race

The MOD70, a rebirth of the class

• 22 October 2022

On Saturday more than  120 boats  will set off from Valletta in Malta for the 2022 edition of the  Middle Sea Race , a 606-mile classic that circumnavigates Sicily. Within this fleet will be no fewer than five former  MOD70 s, surely signalling a renewed interest in these 70-foot trimarans launched back in 2011. Tip & Shaft looks closer.

The original ambition of the MOD70 one-design series of multihulls was to “ build a unique boat which would be the reference for the next ten years (2010-2020) ”. And while the beginnings were promising,  the series subsequently collapsed due to the lack of sponsors and then participants. But now, more than ten years after the launch of the first boat, Race for Water, five of the seven original boats which were designed by VPLP will be at the start of this Middle Sea Race.

Two competed here a year ago:  Maserati  (Giovanni Soldini) – ex  Gitana XV –  and  Mana  – the ex Spindrift – which has been owned since 2020 by the Italian Riccardo Pavoncelli. But Mana is set to change hands, as  Alexia Barrier will take over the boat . She says,  “ I am going to announce a first sponsor during the start of the Route du Rhum and then formalize the acquisition of the boat which will serve as a  training platform for two years before moving to an Ultim  in 2025 as part of my Jules Verne Trophy project ( see our article ). ”

Three other MOD70s will compete in this Mediterranean classic in their new colours, as  they have all changed hands over the past year . The former Foncia, which later became Phaedo 3 and then Beau Geste, has been bought by the Dutchman Frank Slootman, boss of Snowflake, a major player in computer data management.

Three boats now under the French flag

The other two are owned under the French flag like Barrier’s boat will be:  Erik Maris , already a player on the GC32 circuit has bought the old PowerPlay (the last MOD built originally under the name of Paprec Recyclage), renamed  Zoulou ;  Eric Defert , with the financial support of  Thibaut George , founder and managing director of Drekan Groupe, which has supported him since 2010, took over the former  Race for Water  which now carries the name of  Axciss  (whose Drekan is one of the subsidiaries).

“After racing in Multi50 (now Ocean Fifty), we didn’t find ourselves fitting into the format of the Pro Sailing Tour, which is very marketing driven.  The MOD seemed to us to be a good compromise , with a boat that is financially accessible, that really lasts and does not lose value. It is a project which does not require a big team and a program that allows us to remain autonomous and free in our choices”,  explains George. The boat, which belonged to Marco Simeoni, the man who originally launched the Multi One Design circuit, was bought back for  900,000 euros . Now Eric Defert is aiming for an operating budget of  “between 800,000 and 1.2 million euros depending on the racing programme” . more than 500,000 having already been found to date.

From his perspective in the MOD70, Erik Maris saw “ the opportunity to do something different, complementing the GC32, racing on a fast multihull, and especially  with boats very closely matched to each other. ”  The owner-skipper sails with his GC32 crew – Thierry Fouchier, Thomas Le Breton, Bruno Mourniac and Tim Lapauw – who are joined for the Middle Sea Race by Sidney Gavignet, Ned Collier-Wakefield (former skipper of the boat under the name of  Concise ) and Loïck Peyron! Erik Maris adds  “Given the existing fleet, I knew there was potential to find three or four at each event,  but this more than I expected . From my hotel window, I see five MOD70s and that is quite amazing.”

Not all boats are the same

The Italian  Giovanni Soldini  has been skippering Maserati since 2016 (to an annual budget of around 1.5 million euros according to him). The Italian adds:  “It’s great to see new teams joining us,  I hope that we will see all the MODs in the Caribbean next winter  ideally with Argo and Orion. It is very rare on this kind of owner circuit to have boats that are all the same, or almost.”  It is unlikely we will see   Orion  (formerly Veolia Environnement) there as she has hardly ever left California since her acquisition in 2014 by American billionaire Tom Siebel, but  Argo , with another American on the helm, Jason Carroll, will certainly be there.

That would make six boats out of the seven built, but, contrary to the initial concept, they are  no longer one-design, some having evolved over time . That is the case with  Maserati , whose foils have been modified to give it more power and has T foils on the rudders. Snowflake has gone even further with a rig extended by two meters and the addition of a extra bowsprit. Next year,  it will be the turn of Zoulou and Argo to be optimized , as confirmed by Vincent Lauriot Prévost, co-founder of VPLP:  “We proposed to the owners to pool certain optimizations in order to remain in a reasonably similar, balanced class and reduce costs a little. Erik Maris and Jason Carroll accepted, I think the other teams will watch how it goes before deciding. We are going to try to give a little more power to the appendages and more stability in flight, with  slightly boosted foils and T-shaped rudders. ”

Isn’t there a risk now of greater disparities between the boats which do not all run under the same rating within the Mocra rule?  “On the contrary, I find it very interesting that everyone continues to develop things on their own,”  replies Soldini.  “We do have a rating system but what matters is who crosses the line first. If we look at the results of last year  all the races were very close with each time there was a different winner . For example, we won the Rorc Transatlantic Race just 20 minutes ahead of PowerPlay, which was a “pure MOD”. And today, if I had to choose a boat for the Middle Sea Race, given the light airs, I wouldn’t take ours because we’re going to pay dearly for our larger wetted surfaces.”

A tie up with the IMA

The desire of all the owners is to  meet as often as possible on the same races : in 2023, most will participate in the RORC Transatlantic Race, the Caribbean 600, the Fastnet and the Middle Sea Race. Some will go on the Transpac, Eric Defert and Alexia Barrier are also interested in Lorient-Bermuda-Lorient, open to Ultims and also to MOD7Os. The owners have also approached the  International Maxi Association , which could open the doors to other races.

This is confirmed by IMA Secretary General, Andrew McIrvine:  “ The MOD70s all now come under private ownership and that fits our model , owner-driver with professional crews. In the IMA it is not about the boat but about the owner. And we aim to offer them some cohesion and a class association but they need to decide whether they want to pay a subscription. We are making them an offer. Easy events for them to go to would be the Mediterranean offshore events and the inshores in St Tropez and Porto Cervo and perhaps something in Palma.”

Soldini adds:  “It is certainly very interesting to get into this to try  to unlock the few races that do not want us, such as Sydney-Hobart . We will see what they offer us”.  When asked if he would have imagined such a future for this class of boat, Vincent Lauriot Prévost concludes:  “Well the boats were not really designed to develop like this as it was supposed to be a strict one-design class with the intention of doing a professional circuit, but now we feel a common desire among the owners to get together and sail together.  In a way it is a rebirth for the class .” 

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MOD 70: New life for thoroughbred trimarans

• 21 March 2023

Thirteen years after their launch, the  MOD 70 s  continue to plough the seas and the number of dedicated racing events is increasing, much to the delight of their passionate and demanding owners. VPLP Design, the architect of these one designs, is collaborating with several vessels in the fleet to  enhance their performance without betraying the philosophy  of these sturdy and competitive multihulls. Vincent Lauriot Prévost and Quentin Lucet explain.

The distillation of four generations of ORMA trimarans (from  Pierre 1er  to  Groupama 2 ), the MOD 70s were designed to be competitive for at least ten years at the pinnacle of racing. The first boats in the series went into the water in 2010. While the one-design circuit that accompanied their launch was abandoned after two years, a victim of circumstance, these trimarans built by CDK Technologies have  never stopped sailing . Vincent Lauriot Prévost, cofounder of VPLP Design, says: “Apart from operating accidents, none of the boats ever had a problem with its structure. Back when we were designing them, we identified a dozen recurrent failures on the ORMAs and we took those lessons into account.   The goal was to build  multihulls that you could sail without any qualms  or frequent refits.”

After 2013  the fleet scattered to the four corners of the globe, undertaking activities as varied as public relations and record-breaking, while some such as  Gitana XV  (now  Maserati ) became platforms for testing offshore multihull foiling.

Since 2020, six of the seven MOD 70s have been meeting in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean (only  Orion , formerly  Veolia Environnement , remains in San Francisco) to race various classics, such as the RORC Transatlantic Race, the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Middle Sea Race.   “The atmosphere is fantastic because  they are owners, not established teams, who are racing for fun , beholden to nobody, and with enough latitude to organize themselves as they wish. And they’re often backed up with big names, such as Loïck Peyron, Brian Thompson and Paul Larsen”, says Vincent Lauriot Prévost.

“We don’t want to risk deteriorating the vessel’s reliability” 

And as if proof were needed that the series has retained its material coherence after all these years, the races often see tight finishes and a healthy rotation on the podium. “ The most recent RORC Caribbean 600 culminated in an 11 second gap between  Zoulou  and  Maserati ” ,  says Quentin Lucet, partner naval architect. “The differences in development get washed out in the sailing conditions.”

Some of the owners want to update their vessels, such as Jason Caroll ( Argo , formerly  Musandam Oman Sail ) and Erik Maris ( Zoulou , formerly  Paprec Recyclage ), and have sought VPLP Design’s help. “Over the last ten years,” says Quentin Lucet, “we have made enormous progress in terms of foiling, notably through our work on the Ultim class and the IMOCAs. So  we’ve been working on a new set of appendages  for the MOD 70s, the idea being to converge on a common solution without betraying the original philosophy.   The goal is indeed to  sail flatter, faster and in greater safety , and certainly not about flying three feet over the waves.   We’ve imposed on ourselves the limit of not reworking the structure because  we don’t want to risk deteriorating the vessels’ reliability . The owners appreciate the problem-free aspect of the boats, even after all the nautical miles they have accumulated in their wake.” The crew behind  Argo  have commissioned new foils from  Avel Robotics in Lorient  (France) and  T-foil rudders from C3 Technologies  in La Rochelle (France).

That the MOD 70s were recognized in 2023 by the IMA (International Maxi Association), which is becoming more open-minded about multihulls, means these one-design trimarans could be about to extend their competitive reach.  Entry to gruelling events, such as the Sydney Hobart , would be the icing on the cake. “It’s not at all unreasonable,” says Vincent Lauriot Prévost. “During the initial development of the MOD 70s, a race around the world via the canals was mooted, with a leg from Hawaii to Australia, which would have been three weeks of pretty stimulating sailing.   We built them tough! ”

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MOD 70 hydrofoils

Ultra-modern, lighter = better, craftsmanship, mod70 hydrofoils - design.

We produce the Mod70 hydrofoils for the trimarans in this fast, offshore sailing class. Teams Argo Racing and Beau Geste Racing already sail with uptip L-foils designed by Martin Fischer. In cooperation with Andrew MacPherson (Macca) two sets of foils have already been developed and shipped.

We build your new foiling boat!

Material & technology.

Basic material: the foils are made of carbon pre-preg. The Mod70 hydrofoil models are milled from the 3D-file and Autoclave-resistant carbon tooling is made. With our unique ‘one-shot’ production process, we manufacture all our continuous fiber foils under vacuum cured in our Autoclave.

The production method specially developed for this purpose creates a hydrofoil that cures in one go, without glue joints and including internal stiffening ribs. The result is a super-strong hydrofoil that is as light as possible.

The pre-cutting process of laminates is done by our automated pre-preg cutting machine of the brand Zünd . This process ensures excellent product quality and constant product weight.

For the Mod70 hydrofoils, the board up and down facilities in the foils are also fitted.

CHARACTERISTICS MOD70 HYDROFOILS

Length: 3.40 m Foil-tip-length: 1.35 m Width: 0.56 m

The above specifications refer to the daggerboard foils.

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