Prototypes sailboats Vaton

sailboat prototypes

Charles Heidseick III, an IOR monohull created in 1981 for Alan Gabbay, left its mark in racing history by being the most high-performance Class I IOR of its generation. Almost winning the 1981-82 Whitbread crewed round-the-world race was an early, important success for the fledgling Vaton design office. It was the beginning of a line of thoroughbred maxi racing yachts that included notably Coriolan IV and Milène which was the first IOR maxi built in composite materials.

Charles Heidseick III

IOR Class 1

L’Oréal

Maxi monocoque

Adrien

Maxi monohull

Coriolan

Maxi IOR

PACA

Trifoiler

Milène

Maxi IOR

Charles

Heidseick IV

Trifoiler

The searches made in pond of hull and the numeric modelling 3D brought the Vaton Design office to conceive hulls for America’s Cup, the biggest competition of sail in the world.

Trifoil 100

Trifoiler

Click here for an extract (non-exhaustive) of the successes of the highest-performing units from the Vaton design office.

Vaton Design - 19, quai de Rive Neuve - 13007 Marseille - phone: 33 (0)4 91 54 13 17 - fax: 33 (0)4 96 11 20 17 - e-mail: gilles.vaton.bgv@wanadoo.fr

The first prototypes were naturally IOR monohulls built in light-alloy, a material perfectly exploited by the Vaton design office. They would be successful worldwide and were followed by original units in aluminium, like Chimère – a 40-foot IOR - and the 45-foot IMS Bella Donna. More recently the maxi monohull ADRIEN (26m – 85ft) broke the world record for round-the-world solo non-stop against wind and currents (E to W). This magnificent prototype designed for the impossible seas of the big South will have no difficulty to beat then the record around the British Islands and the Crossing of Channel (solo monohull). It has just been taken back by Maud Fontenoy who after his rowing successes is going to attack herself the worldtour records under the colors of L'Oréal.

The multihulls are approached with great originality, like the conception of the maxi foiler Charles Heidseick IV (26m trimaran) - unfortunately prevented from being competition-tested due to the quick imposition of limitations on multihull dimensions. Analogous designing was used for the trimaran foiler PACA (23m – 75.7ft) that in its time performed at 33 – 35 knots. The same concept is still in application with the pure-speed tri-foiler project specifically aimed at capturing the world speed record for sailboats.