NEWS
Five years! It's been five years since I took over from Samuel and Marie Marsaudon at the head of Marsaudon Composites. Five intense and exciting years!
I wanted to thank you all, whether you are boat owners, future owners, whether you are interested in our boats, friends or just curious, thank you for your support, your presence, for our very enriching and fruitful exchanges, thank you for your dreams you knew how to share with us.
These were also five years of development and transformation of the shipyard, with, for and by you.
Indeed, in 5 years :
We launched the ORC brand, Ocean Rider Catamarans, more international, more in line with our boats and your projects, replacing the name TS.
We successfully deployed the ORC50,
We restyled the ORC42, our range’s first born,
We launched our flagship, the ORC57, this time with Marc Lombard Yacht Design Group’s collaboration,
We increased the level of finish and design of the entire range (and it's not over yet!).
Since the launch of the range in 2014, there has been 44 ORC units delivered, including 33 over the last 5 years.
Most ORCs are sailing between Europe and the Gulf of Mexico, while some are in the Pacific, reeling in thousands of miles each year, in fast offshore cruising, with a great pleasure of navigation and taste for adventure while sailing.
These 5 years also saw some victorious participations in numerous amateur regattas and no less than 6 participations in the Rhum Multi class of the famous Route du Rhum, between 2018 and 2022, including a magnificent victory over the wire for Loïc Escoffier on the ORC50 LODIGROUP in the latest edition of the race.
We have also continued during these five years to offer our expertise in the realization of beautiful and solid composite structures, built in infusion for other shipyards, including JFA, A2V, one-offs.
In order to support and succeed in all this, we had to improve our organization, our process, invest in our industrial tool, beyond the production moulds, consolidate our employer brand, create a learning company capable of integrating and training profiles motivated by our project and our vision, whatever their background.
Marsaudon Composites has almost doubled in size in 5 years, with 95 companions involved in the adventure who create the shipyard and its products every day, with an ever stronger anchorage in the very heart of the French Sailing Valley, in Lorient (France).
There are also many projects for the years to come, always in line with our DNA, in the continuity of what Sam and Marie started : excellence in the manufacture of large composite structures, boats designed for sailing, offering sensations, infused in the ecosystem of ocean racing, from which we draw the essence for the benefit of ocean cruising.
As for the ORC ecosystem, we are working on consolidating the range. We will tell you more about this soon. We also have a major project underway to improve our services around the boats and their use, in support of your adventures and needs. I am sure that you will quickly see the effects of this and that you will appreciate even more the world we offer you.
I look forward to talking to you in person, when you come to Lorient, or at a boat show.
I look forward to seeing you at the International Multihull boat show, in La Grande Motte, where we will be participating this year with an ORC57 and an ORC50.
Damien Cailliau – CEO
Catamarans can get crashed too, when pushed very hard
We're pleased to produce fast, thrilling, seaworthy cruising catamarans with the ORC. And it is of utmost importance for us that you can operate them with trust and confidence. However, the 3 accidents that occurred with ORC50s in the last few months may have caused some concern to you or your family and friends. Even though those accidents were harmless, and the yachts and its rigging remained unite, two of them having been tracked, successfully recovered and brought back to sailing condition very quickly.
Indeed, the skippers involved have the reputation to be very experienced, and a quick glance could lead you to believe that the ORC50 is a yacht that can be unstable.
However, and quite objectively, a regular ORC50, not over-boosted for racing or simply for the sake of « having the fastest one in the bay », and sailed with minimum good seamanship is at least as safe as any other performance multihull.
Indeed, a rigorous analysis of the conditions of these accidents demonstrates, as in many cases, that it is a combination of circumstances and conditions in which the skipper has put his boat that have lead to these accidents. In all cases, the sailing circumstances presented a significantly increased risk of accident, compared to any regular cruising use, as fast as it might be. Some you would absolutely seek to avoid, as depicted in the hereunder chart.
First of all the vast majority of these yachts were boosted, with a sail area well beyond the ORC50 standards for which it has been designed, leading to a way less stable yacht. Yet those standards are already very performant, in all conditions and point of sail, as Malolo, the ORC50 n°17, has again shown by brilliantly winning with almost 3 days in advance the ARC 2023.
Then, for a good part of them the weather conditions were extremely unstable, with notably grins at well over 15knt above the average wind. The experience of these skippers and the very healthy behavior of the ORC50 might have, we have analyzed, led to an excess of confidence, which means that they did not apply the very simple risk reduction measures that common sense dictates: adapt your sail plan to the worst wind conditions likely to be encountered. If not keep a constant eye on the sea to see what is happening. If you can't do it, have a hand on the sheets at all times, to react when you feel the boat starts lifting a hull. If not, at least have an automatic sheet release system in place and operational.
So what experience can we draw from those accidents ? First of all that there is no need to boost the yacht as designed by the architect : she is extremely powerful and well balanced in all conditions as it is. Then your safety and that of your crew relies before all on your good seamanship, or even just your common sense. Just like your safety and that of your passengers when you are driving your car. At sea, it is the weather and what is comming up ahead of you that guides your behavior on board. On our side, beyond the design rules imposed by the CE standard we thoroughly apply, we are constantly working on improving ORCs safety, to prevent accidents in the best possible way and to limit their consequences on the crew and the yacht. However, whatever we do, as safe we make the ORC, keep in mind that the yacht can't look at the road for you, can’t turn the wheel for you, can’t shift gear for you, can’t step on the brake for you ...
Example of Interior design
Best wishes for 2021
ORC 57 : From Project to Reality
From Project to Reality :
The moulds for the ORC 57 have arrived !
Stay posted for the construction of numero uno...
Happy holiday season
TS are now ORC!
Sea Trials TS5 n° 03
Sea Trials TS5 n° 03
TS42 n°10
Launching of TS42 #10 by Marsaudon Composites