While the thirty-nine competitors of the 47th Solitaire Bompard–Le Figaro are slugging it out for the title, the teams at VPLP Design are busy designing the next generation: Figaro Beneteau 3. With the contract secured in late March, Vincent Lauriot-Prevost is clearly delighted: “It’s an important project for us because it’s a one-design that all the leading skippers – those of today and those of tomorrow – are going to be sailing.”

So what can we expect from the Figaro 3 when it takes to the water in 2019?

The person to answer that question is Daniele Capua, the project’s leader at VPLP design: “She’s going to be a hybrid boat, one that can behave like a classic and ride foils like her big sisters the IMOCAs. She’s going to be simple and light, efficient on every point of sail, and capable of opening the throttle on a reach thanks to her foils. In a nutshell, that’s where we’re going with the design of the Figaro 3.”

Projected dimensions: 9.75 m long, 3.4 m beam, 2.5 m draught.