After Franck Cammas won his fourth ORMA championship last summer aboard his 60-foot trimaran, Groupama 2, he decided his next goal would be to win the Jules Verne Trophy by making the fastest nonstop circumnavigation ever. At 105 feet, Cammas’s new yacht certainly isn’t the largest multihull to make the attempt, but it has been designed to outperform its larger brethren on perhaps the most important part of the course—the moderate weather conditions of the south and north Atlantic.

According to designer Lauriot Prevost, while a larger multi is potentially faster, the loads are very high, making powerful demands on the crew; as a result, the yachts sail at only 60 to 70 percent of their potential most of the time. He addressed this problem by first establishing a workable displacement, around 40,000 pounds, and then creating the length, beam, and sail area around it. Now under construction at Multiplast in France, the yacht will be launched this spring. After a summer of shakedown cruises, it will go on standby for the Jules Verne dash around the world.

Van Peteghem Prevost, 11 Boulevard Bourdon, 75004 Paris, France; tel. 011-33-1-42-77-24-00; www.vplp.fr