The Multi One Championship brings together the adventure of ocean races with the tension and drama of inshore races. Performance, speed and endurance are the winning combination in yacht races. Held within easy view of the public, the races of the Multi One Championship combine sport, spectacle and suspense, within the heart of the leading economic capitals.

In the beginning, an encounter and an initial commitment:

In 2008, the director of a company based in Switzerland’s Vaud region, Marco Simeoni, had just created the holding company Veltigroup and was just looking for an appropriate means of communicating when he got to know Swiss skipper, Stève Ravussin. From this encounter came the fitting-out of an evolutionary catamaran at the heart of a Swiss championship. An endorsement followed and a Decision35 began to sport the colours of Veltigroup!

The revival of the oceanic multihull: 

The 1980s represented the advent of the multihull with a number of fabulous projects, though all too often they were overambitious. From that point, all the protagonists were keen to redefine a framework with strict dimensions: it was the birth of the 60 foot multihulls; a class measurement which would then form a unity within a class known as ORMA (Ocean Racing Multihulls association), which was governed according to an open class measurement.
After 15 years of adventures offshore and following the Route du Rhum 2006, the ORMA class ended up undergoing massive change: changes of status, an evolution in the Board of Directors, the nomination of a new President, Patrick Chapuis, and an Executive chairman, Franck David.
It was at the start of the Vendée Globe 2008 that Stève Ravussin and Franck David, who has accompanied the former in his various sailing projects since 1999, presented the Multi One Design project to Marco Simeoni. Its ethos centred on completely identical oceanic multihulls.

The concept of everyone racing on an equal footing on the ocean planet appealed to the Swiss company director. Indeed the latter didn’t think twice about investing in and working on the idea, initially refining the overall concept by bringing an international and eco-friendly dimension to it! Marco Simeoni signed an order for five MOD70s, which was the starting point for “The Multi One Design Story…”.

Besides the sporting aspect, which the enthusiastic entrepreneur fully believes in, this committed man also saw in this class a means to promote an environmental notion which is dear to him. Marco thus added a prerequisite to the realisation of this project: the preservation of water.

The concomitant creation of Multi One Design Ltd. and the Multi One Attitude Foundation:

The Multi One Design company, based in Lausanne, saw the light of day in 2009 and with it a class of one-design oceanic trimarans: the MOD70s.

Parallel to this the Multi One Attitude Foundation was created, which is a charitable organisation that aims to inform, share and act on the problems associated with water and the preservation of the oceans. The latter is to use the MOD70 Race for Water as an ambassador.

Launch in 2009 of the development and construction of the MOD70 series, designed by the VPLP design office 

The aim is to build a boat which will be the reference for the next ten years (2010-2020); a one-design 70 foot trimaran which satisfies very precise specifications related to modernism, performance, safety and longevity.
The development of what will be the future MOD70 is taking place with the collaboration of the VPLP design firm VPLP (Vincent Lauriot-Prévost / Marc Van Peteghem).
A restricted intake of 12 craft was set at the very beginning of the project, with a maximum of four craft per nation so as to favour the internationalisation of the class.

With the MOD70 resolutely geared towards oceanic navigation, each craft will embark innovative communication systems for ‘live’ tracking of the races and the maximum amount of information, which will be available for all elements of the multimedia spectrum.

At the end of 2011, seven teams are involved:

Very soon, some renowned skippers became involved in the class. The pioneers were Michel Desjoyeaux and his boat owner Foncia, who from January 2010 announced their return to the multihull and their participation in the Multi One Championship. Since then other teams have declared their interest:
21 January 2010: Michel Desjoyeaux / Foncia
21 May 2010: Sébastien Josse / Groupe Edmond de Rothschild
29 October 2010: Roland Jourdain / Véolia Environnement
17 August 2011: Sidney Gavignet / Oman Sail
27 September 2011: Yann Guichard / Spindrift racing
25 October 2011: Jean-Pierre Dick / Paprec-Virbac
End of 2011, seven teams representing 3 nationalities have committed to the MOD70 circuit and the quota of French participants has been reached!
The Multi One Championship will really take shape in 2012 with the first two events: the KRYS OCEAN RACE, the start of which will be given on 7 July from New York and the European Tour which will set off from Kiel on 2 September.

From 1972 to today, a review of 30 years of multihulls:

1972 ALAIN COLAS MANUREVA (Pen Duick IV) OSTAR
1978 MIKE BIRCH OLYMPUS PHOTOS ROUTE DU RHUM
1979 ERIC TABARLY PAUL RICARD NORTH ATLANTIC RECORD
1982 MARC PAJOT ELF AQUITAINE ROUTE DU RHUM
1985 Birth of the FORMULA 40S
1990 FLORENCE ARTHAUD PIERRE 1ST ROUTE DU RHUM
1993 BRUNO PEYRON (crewed) JULES VERNE TROPHY
1994 LAURENT BOURGNON PRIMAGAZ ROUTE DU RHUM
1995 Birth of the ORMA class (60 feet trimarans)
1996 LOÏCK PEYRON FUJI OSTAR
2001 FRANCK CAMMAS STEVE RAVUSSIN GROUPAMA TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE
2002 MICHEL DESJOYEAUX GEANT ROUTE DU RHUM
2005 PASCAL BIDEGORRY BANQUE POPULAIRE TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE
2005 ELLEN MACARTHUR CASTORAMA SOLO WORLD RECORD
2006 LIONEL LEMONCHOIS GITANA ROUTE DU RHUM
2007 FRANCIS JOYON IDEC SOLO WORLD RECORD
2009 Birth of the MOD70 class
2011 Launch of the first four MOD70s
2012 KRYS OCEAN RACE, launch of the Multi One Championship