A new website showcasing VPLP’s diversity: vplp.fr
VPLP Design’s new website, available in French and English, went live on 22 September. This completely revised version, produced in collaboration with Tip & Shaft, the copywriting studio which also puts together VPLP’s quarterly newsletter, was absolutely necessary. “Today, VPLP Design comprises three distinct business divisions,” says Simon Watin, the firm’s chairman. “Until recently, racing and cruising were developing together. We then decided to enter a new market, the maritime industry, and it appeared to us that the website should reflect these different divisions.”
New tools for structural design analysis at VPLP Design
PW50, the latest Ocean Fifty renamed today as Ciela Village, afforded VPLP Design the opportunity to test its new structural design tools using the finite element method. This is a key investment, enabling the firm to be more imaginative and incisive in the preliminary design stage. Nicolas Baral, head of structures, and engineering coordinator Xavier Guisnel talk us through the benefits.
Maxi Banque Populaire XI :
Comprehensive revision of the structural design
Launched on 27 April after a two-year build at CDK Technologies, the Maxi Banque Populaire XI impresses with carefully crafted aerodynamics and significantly larger foils. Based on Banque Populaire IX, Armel Le Cléac’h’s latest Ultim rises more easily but is also heavier… Xavier Guilbaud, naval architect in charge of the project at VPLP Design, walks us through this paradox.
Simon Watin: “Working on projects which are worthwhile and meaningful”
Simon Watin, 35, is one of the four engineers and architects who will assume the collegial management of VPLP Design when the co-founders Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost decide to step back from full-time duties. He will take on the role of chairman at the end of the handover process, which will continue for a few more months yet.
8,000 Nautical miles aboard Hugo Boss: a unique sailing experience
t’s not often that a VPLP architect gets the chance to sail an IMOCA designed by the firm over a great distance. But that’s just what Antoine Lauriot Prévost did when he seized the opportunity to crew HUGO BOSS on her 8,000-mile return trip from Cape Town to Gosport, following her withdrawal from the Vendée Globe.
VPLP Design unveils its first Class40
The agency known – among other things – for its Ultim, Imoca and Multi50 boats, has joined forces with the Multiplast shipyard to launch its first Class40 prototype. Two boats have already been ordered and will be lining up at the start of the next Transat Jacques Vabre, while a third can still be built […]
Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost hand over the helm of VPLP Design
As from today, the two naval architects have chosen to put the future governance of the agency, founded in February 1983. In the hands of a new executive committee, made up of Simon Watin (President), Mathias Maurios, Quentin Lucet and Xavier Guisnel.
VPLP Design team wishes you a Happy New Year 2021
Jean-François, a life-changing meeting
Jean-François de Prémorel, a mainstay of the Jeanneau boatyard and a major figure in French sailing, passed away on 14 July 2020 at the age of 64. His meeting with Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost was a decisive event for VPLP. The firm’s founders pay their respects.
From one Vendée Globe to another: a brand new world
The Vendée Globe is always a special moment for VPLP Design, especially since the firm’s designs, in collaboration with Guillaume Verdier, won the last two solo round-the-world races. In the run-up to the tenth edition of the race, starting 8 November, Quentin Lucet and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost discuss the changes and innovations in the design of IMOCAs which have occurred in the last four years – a very long time in the relentless pace of this legendary race.
