ORC 57

In the heart of Brittany’s “Sailing Valley”, among the Ultims trimarans, there’s a boatbuilder offering different multihulls - against marketing and commercial tides, this one resists the ever-increasing trends. The shipyard, Marsaudon Composites, occupies three huge halls of the former submarine base in Lorient, in south Brittany. Out front, Damien Cailliau, the discreet big boss of the shipyard, needed no encouragement to write an adage along the lines of Colin Chapman, founder of the Lotus Formula 1 car racing team, who famously said: “Simplify, then add lightness”. While TS (Très Simple or “Very Simple” in English) swapped its acronym for the more salient and international “Ocean Rider Catamarans” (ORC), the recipe has certainly not changed. The new architectural team of the Marc Lombard Yacht Design Group (sculptors, among others, of fantastic ORMA trimarans in their heyday, such as Banque Populaire or Sopra Group), has taken on the shipyard’s DNA with relish, translated until now by their colleague Christophe Barreau on the successful 42 and 50-foot models.

The light plays with the elegance of the lines. As for the wake, it speaks volumes about the pote...