A new building as a clear declaration of war
Not much has yet been revealed to the public about what is probably the most powerful ocean-going yacht ever designed for the Imoca class. And although she is due to take to the water in June, she still looks like a shell at the end of March.
By the way: In a further articles we look at the new control of the and explain how manual control and AI could become new success factors.
Her black carbon hull, laminated in the underwater area from approximately one centimetre of highly compacted and tempered prepreg, has been open for months. It only came out of the mould in January, after weeks of precision work to insert bulkheads, ring frames and stringers.
The stiffeners are so closely spaced, the stringers just a hand's breadth apart, that you can't help wondering how a full-grown guy like Boris Herrmann is ever going to stow heavy sails or bags of provisions and tools from windward to leeward and from fore to aft.
As the cockpit behind the mast foot began to take shape at the beginning of March, it became clear what had previously only been revealed by the design drawings and one-to-one scale plywood models: The new boat will no longer have headroom like the "Malizia 3". Anyone working on winches or grinders has to stand slightly bent over. The aft cabin offers only a quarter of the volume of its predecessor. Instead of three berths on each side, there will only be two when the boat is sailed with a crew.
The asceticism is the programme: "Malizia 4" is to be a winning boat, more versatile and faster than all others in the class. "We want to win The Ocean Race with her," says Boris, who has previously found it difficult to make such ambitious commitments. He is aiming for a podium finish in the Vendée Globe 2028/29. It would be the crowning glory of a career that has already been outstanding, although it has lacked the really big successes.
These are now to follow. Hence the new building. Hence the departure from the principles that characterised "Malizia 3". Hence the change of designer.
Why Team Malizia relies on Antoine Koch
His name is now Antoine Koch and he is rightly considered a child prodigy because he has dedicated himself entirely to working on Imocas. What's more, he is also an accomplished ocean sailor who occasionally co-skippers his own boats and therefore knows what's important.
When Boris asked the members of his technical team after the Ocean Race 2023 who they favoured as the architect for the next "Malizia", he wrote four candidates on a board. In the end, everyone put their cross behind Antoine's name.
To win him over for his project, Boris had to forge an unprecedented alliance. "Antoine is very loyal and had already worked with Thomas Ruyant and Yoann Richomme for Vendée 2024. He still feels connected to them." The Hamburg native, who is held in the highest esteem in the French deep-sea scene, developed the model for a co-production of three sister ships, all built from the same hull mould: In addition to "Malizia 4", the Imocas from Thomas Ruyant Racing and Banque are also being built according to Antoine Koch's plans.
It was Boris who brought this triumvirate together. "It was very intense and quite a balancing act at first," he says. Even now, it still requires concessions. The construction phase is subject to strict secrecy until May, because Thomas Ruyant in particular does not want to reveal any of the sometimes highly innovative design details in advance.
Slimmer fuselage, less volume, more flight component
What is obvious, however, is that the hull is significantly narrower than that of "Malizia 3", the freeboard is lower and the foredeck is less voluminous. If he had to describe old and new in one word, Boris would call "Malizia 4" "the slim, the top", while her predecessor would be called "the whale". There is no clearer way to put it in a nutshell.
The design is now more characterised by aerodynamic aspects than before. "We have tried to develop a more versatile boat," explains Antoine Koch. "It should be fast, especially in flat seas and medium wind speeds, in order to stay ahead of a front and gain a decisive lead." To ensure this, it has to get on the foils early and fly more consistently.
According to the speed forecast data, "Malizia 4" will take off from around 12 knots of wind, three or four knots earlier than "Malizia 3". The hull shape is optimised for this, as the designer explains. He speaks of a "two-stage cross-section". "We have also provided concave areas in some places to create a very narrow hull (in the underwater hull)." This should quickly reduce drag as soon as the foils generate lift, without having to accept any loss of righting moment.
It is reminiscent of the AC75 designs in the previous and current America's Cup. And you don't have to be a prophet to deduce other analogies, although the classes and their purpose could hardly be more different. While the Cuppers sail in narrowly defined conditions and on short courses, the Imocas have to make it around the world and survive heavy weather.
Foils, balance and the search for stable flight
In principle, however, their development follows the trends in Grand Prix sport: because the increase in speed when foiling is so great, the aim is to maximise the proportion of flight. This in turn determines the design and handling of the boats. It therefore also influences trim, steering and foil design.
The hydrofoils themselves have become increasingly efficient over three generations. For the 2016 Vendée Globe, they were just a kind of assistance system for more buoyancy and thus righting momentum. By 2020, occasional attempts at flight had been made. The 2024 generation expanded the spectrum; boats such as "Charal 2" and "Paprec Arkéa" came completely out of the water under ideal conditions, while most other newbuilds - including "Malizia 3" - usually still dragged their leeward hull edge aft through the water.
Now it's all about being stable over long distances in "full flight mode". Because the area, outreach and adjustability of the foils are limited by class rules, the balance of the boats and their buoyancy is becoming increasingly important. It is the nuances that make the difference.
"For most observers, the foils will look the same as before," says Boris Herrmann. However, they actually vary in their angle to the centreline. In the upper section, they are "slightly aft", as his co-skipper Will Harris explains in an interview with YACHT. This should help to lift the boat early. "The further the foils emerge from the water, the more the attack surface moves forwards to ensure a more stable flying position." Antoine Koch also factored in their dynamic deformation under load, as well as the angle of attack of the keel fin and the shape of the bomb. "When we foil, this is the largest area in the water," says Harris, who is responsible for the performance area and the sail plan for the current project.
Is a V-rudder the next big step?
If you take the America's Cup as a benchmark, the boats would have to be foiled upside down in future instead of stern-first. This reduces wind resistance, which is already considerable at speeds of 25 to 30 knots. And it minimises the pressure equalisation between the windward and leeward side, which ensures less turbulence and more propulsion.
This would actually require a trim tab on the rudder. However, this is prohibited at Imocas in order to keep the complexity and costs of new builds under control and not penalise older boats too much. There are therefore many indications that a system that only the "Charal 2", designed by Sam Manuard, has so far had a following: two relatively closely positioned, low-reaching rudders in a V arrangement, which function like a kind of inverted tailplane in aircraft construction.
The rudders, which are at an angle of around 30 degrees to each other, generate more and more lift at the stern as the boat travels, which automatically decreases the further the hull rises. This stabilises the flight phase enormously and brought the boat victory at the Transat Café l'Or last autumn. Whether "Malizia 4" will also have such a self-regulating arrangement is something the team is keeping to itself, like so many other things.
However, a video about the construction phase reveals that a V-rudder is, or at least was, under discussion. Under the title "Born to Race", Malizia follows the construction of the new building. In episode 2, from minute 1:20, Antoine Koch is briefly seen sitting in front of a computer screen showing a stern view with comparatively narrow and very long rudder blades. In combination with an angle adjustment via actuators, which is permitted, this could be one of the keys to even more performance.
Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
