The "youth therapy" of Veolia Environnement

Improvements came little by little until its enormous potential was revealed with victories in the Calais Round Britain Race 2005 and above all the 2006Route du Rhum.

But to confirm these good performances and confront a whole generation of new boats, this veteran of the IMOCA class needed a real upgrade.
No sooner had it got over its recent success and the mono-hull was straight back to the shipyard where the entire Kaïros team was waiting for it.
To carry out this overall, Bilou brought in Juan Kouyoumdjian, architect of the winner of the last Volvo Ocean Race.
He looked to trim down the excess weight to optimise the boat’s speed.

The hull was completely sanded down to the carbon gaining 50kg and the balance of the boat was modified.
The rudder and fin were changed, a new mast fitted and appendages were redesigned. To further increase speed, the area of sail was also increased.

After six months work, Roland was champing at the bit to try out his new toy: "we've made a superb boat, even if there's always something that can be improved. There was already a good basis, it was quite quick and it has been made as light as possible. A lot of work has been done this year and a smaller facelift is planned next year, we've got a bit behind schedule so I'm getting impatient".

He can then start preparing for the major event waiting for him this season: The Transat Jacques Vabre.