Larry Ellison’s “USA 17” turned out to be a complete dog when facing the mighty Kiwis with their Guillaume Verdier-designed Aeotearoa, and it’s naught but coincidence that his newest flying boat – The Rothschild family’s Gitana maxi-trimaran – also has ’17’ in her name. The boat looks like an absolute beast, and with highly adjustable (flapped) horizontal foils on both L-boards and rudders, it’s a safe bet that the new Verdier will quite literally fly from port to port as she breaks records. The durability of this new breed of boat is a different story; will these things hold together on a solo round-the-world race? Stay tuned for another year or two to find out..Thanks to our French spy for the exclusive mast-stepping shot; there’s a PR gallery from the team over here.
