David de Prémorel – Finot-Conq: “Ocean racing influences the way we design cruise ships”.

In its almost 50-year history, the naval architecture firm Finot-Conq has become a privileged witness to the evolution of ocean racing and its potential applications in other markets. Interview with David de Prémorel, CEO since 2020.

— Can you tell us about the naval architecture firm Finot-Conq?

Finot-Conq was founded in 1969, under the name Groupe Finot, in Paris. It was founded by Jean-Marie Finot. Pascal Conq joined the group in 1985. Then they both began designing Open racing boats. At the time, the dominant rule was the IOR (International offshore rule). Open boats were born through the Mini class. The rules were very open, with length and beam mandatory. In 1989, the first Open 60 from the group was launched for Alain Gautier. In 2000, Pascal Conq opened a branch in Brittany. In 2009, Finot-Conq was born. I took over the reins of the office in 2020.

— What’s your relationship with the Vendée Globe?

We’ve won the Vendée Globe four times. In 1989, Alain Gautier was in the lead with Generali, but broke a spreader and finished 6th. In 1992, he won with Bagages Supérior. In 1996, Christophe Auguin won on Geodis. In 2000, Michel Desjoyeaux won on PRB. The boat then did the double  with Vincent Riou at the helm. For the Vendée Globe 2024, we designed Paprec Arkea (Yoann Richomme), Vulnerable For People (Thomas Ruyant), in association with Antoine Koch and GSea Design. Two IMOCA boats we designed for the Vendée Globe 2008 are also present. The first, Lazare (Tanguy Le Turquais), is the former DCNS, Comme un seul homme and Groupe Apicil. Between 2017 and 2020, we carried out a lot of work changing the roof, daggerboards and modified the ballast tanks. The second is Singchain Team Haikou (Xu Jingkun), the former Brit Air, which we designed in 2008 for Armel Le Cléac’h, with whom he finished second in the 2008 Vendée Globe.

— What reasons prompted Pascal Conq to open a branch in Brittany?

There were two main reasons. The first was simple: Pascal is from Brittany and wanted to return to his native region. Secondly, for the ocean racing business, we wanted to be closer to our customers. We’re very close to the whole ecosystem, and we love living there. The racing teams are there, alongside certain shipyards, subcontractors, customers and colleagues. As for the shipyards, we’re totally agnostic and work with everyone. The last two ships were built by CDK and Multiplast, for example. Some of our production customers are also present, like Pogo Structures. Beneteau is not far away.

— How do the racing ships designed by the office benefit your cruising business?

They influence the way we design cruise ships. At the office, we’re all passionate about the idea of sailing fast. It leaves more time for the stopover. It’s also an element of safety. Being fast enough allows you to better manage your positioning in relation to your weather system, for example. Secondly, when you’re cruising, it’s quite rare for everyone to know how to navigate. In the end, the way you use a cruising boat is very similar to the way you sail a short-handed racing yacht, solo or double-handed. So we design our cruising boats for short-handed use, integrating notions of ergonomics, power of fittings and so on. Finally, in both cases, we try to make pretty boats.

— What technologies developed for ocean racing have you applied to the cruising market?

We were the first to generalize the use of double rudders. In our opinion, the best way to control wide boats is to have them. The way we’ve developed hull shapes for balanced vessels that don’t pull on the autopilot has always been with us, and it’s reflected in the cruising vessels we design, which are very light at the helm and very controllable. Putting shroud chainplates completely outside the ship, to increase the size of the spreaders and reduce the weight of the rigs, quickly found its way into our cruising boats. Making the entire boat in prepreg carbon can be found on some of our cruising boats. We were among the first to make composite keel fins to carry a heavy bulb, in order to lower the center of gravity of the ballast and therefore of the boat. The boat is lighter while carrying the same sail area. This is also true of the fast cruising boats we design.

— What do you see as the main recent and future developments in boat design in general?

For racing, the development of large foils and the use of foils in boats are absolutely obvious. Designing a foil involves considering many parameters. During the Vendée Globe 2020, we realized that foils could reach very high speeds. It became very important to be able to go fast in the sea, because they are not fully flying boats. For all the architects, the passage through the waves has become an important development point for the boats of the 2024 generation. We’ve all approached this question in different ways, resulting in different ships. For cruising, we’ll be focusing more on environmental issues, on reducing the impact of a yacht’s life cycle. Several things are obvious. There’s the switch to more virtuous, possibly recyclable materials. There’s also the fact of improving the lifespan of boats, because the first way of reducing the impact of a boat, or more generally of any object whatsoever, is to increase its lifespan so as not to have to replace it.