A second Outremer by VPLP Design
After the launch of Outremer 5X nearly ten years ago, Grand Large Yachting, the group that owns the Outremer brand, is once again placing its trust in VPLP to design the new 55 footer it unveiled at the last Dusseldorf Boat Show.
VPLP gets its own simulator
In the ultra-competitive world of naval architecture for racing boats, the simulator is fast becoming an essential if not strategic tool. “Dynamic simulation for calculating stresses is playing an ever-increasing role in design. Simulators are now par for the course, and without one, you can’t really work on offshore racing projects,” says Xavier Guisnel of VPLP’s engineering department. “Even velocity prediction programs are now of secondary importance compared to a simulator.”
VPLP launches its shipping department
At the beginning of the year, VPLP Design opened a new department dedicated to shipping. The culmination of several years’ work, it’s a major development in the history of the firm and builds on its success in racing, cruising and yachting. The new department gives concrete expression to VPLP’s burgeoning presence in the shipping sector which began last October when ArianeGroup chose the firm to design the Canopée, a RORO vessel tasked with carrying sections of the Ariane 6 rocket from Europe out to French Guiana.
Project Charal, a unique experience for VPLP Design
La collaboration entre VPLP design et l’équipe Charal de Jérémie Beyou, dans le cadre de la préparation du Vendée Globe 2020-2021, est une expérience unique pour notre agence d’architecture navale.
VPLP Design team wishes you a Happy New Year 2020
VPLP designs its first maritime transport ship using Oceanwings®
The naval architecture firm has reached a new milestone with the development of a 121-metre-long RORO vessel for transporting components of the Ariane 6 rocket from Europe to French Guiana. Equipped with four Oceanwings®, the vessel is designed to have the least impact possible on the environment.
The Figaro 3: first season review… A triumph!
The Figaro Beneteau 3 concluded its first season of racing on Saturday 14 September at La Trinité Sur Mer with the final leg of the Round Brittany Race. It had been a heavy schedule comprising the five events of the France Elite offshore racing championship, and marked by an outstanding Solitaire du Figaro. Vincent Lauriot-Prévost reviews the first year of the firm’s one-design foiler.
Hugo Boss: an exciting and radical new IMOCA
For VPLP Design the new Hugo Boss is more than just the second 2020 generation IMOCA to be designed by the firm after Charal, it is a project milestone. Officially unveiled on Thursday 19 September in London, skipper Alex Thomson’s new sailing machine is designed to achieve one single goal: win the next solo round-the-world race (the Englishman was runner-up in the 2016–17 Vendée Globe).
Gunboat 68, a concentrate of VPLP know-how
“ll okay from Condor,” read the email sent in early April to all the teams which had contributed to the design and construction of the Condor, a Gunboat 68 launched a few weeks earlier in La Grande Motte. The skipper of the boat (owned by a New Yorker) was sending news from the middle of the Atlantic – “The food is good and the crew are happy!” – which included two key figures: true wind 16 knots, boat’s speed 19 knots…
Oceanwings for Energy Observer
Oceanwings is now entering a new phase. Born of the experience gained during the America’s Cup, the automated furlable and reefable wingsail has been in development at VPLP Design for several years. After having tested the prototype on Roland Jourdain’s Gwalaz (built by Tricat) in the spring of 2017, and after concluding an industrial partnership with the CNIM group in 2018, the Oceanwings project is now entering the pre-manufacturing stage with two wings fitted to Energy Observer, the world’s first hydrogen-powered ship.
