Gitana 18 completes first foiling sessions off Belle-Île

Off Belle-Île, Gitana 18 finally left the water on one foil, turning a long build into a visible test of balance, control and confidence. For the 32-meter Maxi Edmond de Rothschild trimaran, the first flying sessions were less a finish line than the first hard proof that the boat’s new shape can already be made to work at sea.

The milestone came on May 25, in light air of about 10 to 13 knots, after the yacht was launched at Lorient La Base on Saturday, February 14. Gitana Team said the boat had been in build for more than two years, and that launch marked the end of one cycle and the start of life on the water for the latest boat in the family’s 150-year saga. Gitana 18 is the 28th yacht in the lineage and the direct successor to Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, the boat better known as Gitana 17.

What makes the first flight matter is how much had to happen before it could happen at all. At this stage, only the starboard foil had been installed, with the port foil still to come. That makes the outing an intermediate step, not a full-speed sea trial in final trim. Even so, getting the boat airborne in those conditions is a significant engineering checkpoint, because it shows the hull, appendage and control package can already support foiling loads without the symmetry of the finished boat.

The foil itself is the story inside the story. Gitana 18’s system is described as a revolutionary Y-shaped pendulum appendage inspired by America’s Cup monohulls, with a total span of more than 10 meters. That is an unmistakable signal of where offshore multihulls are heading now: deeper into the high-control, high-speed world once associated mainly with Cup boats, but adapted for ocean racing and the long-distance punishment that comes with it.

For Charles Caudrelier, the timing gives the test program immediate sporting weight. He won the 2022 Route du Rhum in the Ultim class aboard Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds, and he is expected to defend that title later this year. Every calm, repeatable session between now and then matters, because the cleanest signs of progress are easy to read: stable takeoff, tidy foil control, crew confidence and a boat that comes back to the dock with useful data instead of drama.

Gitana 18’s first flight off Belle-Île did not look like a completed machine. It looked like something better for this stage: a trimaran beginning to show, in public and under sail, that the leap from launch to controlled flight is real.