She was launched first of all boats designed for The Race yet they didn't use that advantage to tune, practise, iron out bugs... Why?
LOL...... Did not undergo sea trials, tune, iron out bugs.... They crossed fuckin oceans before the race.... Learnt how to sail and how had to push this new breed of cat. From this they leant that they needed to extend the bows. She had the best prep out of any of the boats in the Race....LOL. Some people should study up before dribling from the mouth.
New breed? Yes in a way but the French built pretty big multis in the mid 1980s, around 25 m in length. Formule TAG
was built in Canada to Nigel Irens' plans and was much later lengthened for Jules Verne and again for The Race. Commodore Explorer was also from the 1980s and designed by Gilles Ollier. Club Med and her sisters were based on that depth of kowledge.
25 m is less than Playstation's original 32 m and Playstation was lengthened by no less than 6 m - a change almost as big as the difference between her and the maxi cats of the 1980s.
Seahorse, May 2001, page 35: "Club Med is 3.1m shorter than Team Philips and 4.4 m less than Playstation. She is also the narrowest design, at 16.5m. Suspecting that his American competitors would be tempted by greater stability, Gilles Ollier encouraged them in their pursuiut of power by announcing--wrongly--a beam of 17.5m early on. In fact Ollier had already decided upon a narrower and more sensitive boat."
There are lines drawings of Team Philips, Playstation and Club Med in that article...
As for Formule TAG/ENZA/Team Legat/Whatever.. I have met the structural engineer of that old Irens cat and he thought the old lady should have been alowed to retire long ago. But the structure is still holding up after 20+ years of ocean crossing and several laps around this planet.
As for Playstaion crossing oceans and breaking records before The Race. Yes she did but she also sat in a harbour on the US east coast for months on end doing nothing. The first record--24h distance--was a huge disapointment to me. She was the latest and biggest in multihulls at the time. They set out specificallly the break the 24h record, fully crewed and carefully picking a suitable weather system north of New Zealand. Still they barely made it and the former record holder was Laurent Bourgnon on a 18m trimaran singlehandedly delivering the boat back to Europe.
These two things was what made me wonder if there was something fishy about the boat and/or the project.
Later they had that near 'fatal' incident early on in a transatlantic sail. It was clear that they were struggling to control the boat and the major surgey she underwent in the UK proved the point. They actually arived in Barcelona with what must be regarded and Playstation mk II.
/Martin
