Damn...even hanging from a crane, it looks fast!

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/fringe/2007/images/IDEC2.jpg

A 100' single handed monster. I think we're reaching the limits of boat one person can manage.

is the keyboard getting too big?

Please, tell me this is a Photo Shop joke! It's too much to comprehend that this thing may actually exist.

It is the French, they build these things for sure, no doubt about that. They have done it plenty of times in the past.

Wouter

This is Francis Joyon's new ride. He set the single handed around the world record on a 75 foot trimaran but was shortly thereafter beaten by Ellen McArthur by a matter of a day or so. Ellen had a very custom built trimaran (around 65 or 70 feet or so I seem to remember) that was built specifically for her solo round the world voyage.

After setting the West to East trans Atlantic record in his 75' trimaran and on the way home, Joyon took a nap and overslept while his autopilot malfunctioned and put him onto the rocks destroying his boat. For the last couple of years, he's been building this monster with the goal of getting the round the world record back.

http://www.trimaran-idec.com/

The photo came from the SA front page. There is a write-up about the boat on the front page also. Definately not a photo-shop job.

Maybe. But a proa with the same sail area would be longer, lighter, cheaper and (probably) faster. Worth checking the smaller version at Sailing Anarchy Design Contest.

But would it be safer in the Southern Ocean?

With a sealed mast the proa will not turtle and is expected to self right. Meanwhile the pod stays high and dry. But this is something I definitely wouldn't want to test.

True - Hats off. How come the French pretty much own the monopoly on large multihull sailing? Where are the other "large" sailing nations when it comes to this?

Boat Speed Australia have built/are building 105' monster for Thomas Coville..

Boat Speed

Sailing Anarchy

haha fancy that, only launched recently too...

It's been a long time since the first aluminum trimaran of this same general form sailed into the Ala Wai Harbor, Hawaii unannounced: Pen Duick IV, 1969. He arrived a day ahead of the first Transpac boat, Windward Passage.
38 years- WOW!

And now? you're just showing your age. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />