The brain: autopilot
Yoann Richomme: “The skipper's brain is assisted by additional brains which manage very specific elements, they are not as complete as the human brain. The autopilot manages 150 different parameters, but we define the criteria. I steer myself in and out of the port, that's all. Or for pleasure, like on the azimuth challenge, for fun, the pleasure of flying for 1 hour 30 minutes, but it consumes so much energy that it is not feasible on a Vendée.
Even in unstable conditions, it's the autopilot who steers, but I very often stay with him, remote control in hand. We are constantly changing settings. »
Arms and legs: foils, rudders and keel
Antoine Koch : “For me, the foils would be the legs and the rudders the arms, which help with balance. The hull and the foils give the power… The keel would be a third leg. The boats plan quite a bit on the keel in the semi-flight of the Imoca, it is not a heavy keel which pulls downwards but an appendage which pushes upwards. »
Eyes: AIS and Oscars
A.K. : “The eyes of the boat could be the surveillance instruments around the boat: the AIS [radar anticollision, NDLR]and Oscar, the UFO detection system [objets flottants ou mammifères] installed at the masthead. »
Y.R : “They say that Oscar has artificial intelligence, it's a bit exaggerated I think, in any case it's an image recognition AI. »
The cardiovascular system: the rigging
A.K. : “The rigging [mât, bôme, voiles]would be the heart-lung assembly, because it is this which is at the origin of the energy. »
Y.R. : “I see the batteries as the heart, the electricity on board as food and its assimilation by the body. We couldn't move these boats by force of hands [même si l’énergie humaine est la seule utiliser pour régler les voiles, les foils]. »
The nervous system: electronics
Y.R. : “It’s a sprawling network that constantly monitors the health of the boat. There are two elements. An optical fiber network which measures the forces on the foils, rudders and the front structure of the hull. Another network measures them on nine points of connected cables, notably on the rigging.
The mast is the one we watch the most, because it is one design [identique sur tous les bateaux] but it is not made for large foils since it was designed in 2016 with the arrival of small Imoca foils. New masts will arrive soon. When the boat suffers too much, these sensors trigger alarms on board. We exceed the limits quite often, but for the mast, we avoid. »
The skin, the ears: the air at the masthead
A.K. : “The skin, the ears, would be the aerials installed in a pole at the masthead: the weather vane and the electronic anemometer. They supply data to the autopilot and the skipper. Statistically, it is the element that breaks the most during a race. »
The skeleton: the partitions
Y.R : “The partitions, smooth [élément de structure longitudinale] and sills structural element having the shape of a beam and oriented horizontally, a kind of column which is not seen from the outside but which is prominent inside. »
The rib cage, the trunk: the shell
Y.R. : “The boat takes a beating, especially the front of the hull, when, at full speed, it hits and sometimes stops in the waves. Like a boxer taking hits to the ribcage and ribs. »
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