They might have been involved in major grand prix offshore racers before, but getting Gitana 18 up onto her foils for the first time was a very big deal for the team.
This is a project that is pushing at the boundaries at the most extreme end of the sport and could well define the next generation of deep ocean foiling machines.
So when Gitana 18 lifted onto her foils, albeit just on port tack, heads turned.
Plus, PlanetSail's Matt Sheahan talks exclusively to Sebastien Sainson – one of the key players on the design team – about where the project is, what happens next and what the thinking was behind their very unusual interior.
The painstaking process of working up the new Gitana 18 Ultim trimaran to full functionality reached a major milestone this week with the 32-metre multihull completing taking flight for the first time – albeit only fitted with one foil.
Last week I made a ‘trains, planes, and automobiles’ round trip to attend an update presentation on Giovanni Soldini’s Ferrari Hypersail project at the spectacular all-new North Sails loft in Genoa, Italy.
