Image: The new Sun Fast 30 conceived for youth offshore racing will be featured in the Race Village at the finish of the Rolex Fastnet Race in Cherbourg
In 2021, the Royal Ocean Racing Club in collaboration with the UNCL Pole Course du YCF and the Storm Trysail Club started the project to create an affordable offshore race boat designed to attract youth sailors. The Sun Fast 30 is now in production with Hull #1 to be on display this month at the Rolex Fastnet Race Village in Cherbourg.
The one-design Sun Fast 30, which will also be raced under IRC, is conceived for youth offshore sailing, a fun and accessible boat intended to excite the young generation and train tomorrow’s champions. The environmental concern lies at the heart of its philosophy since the beginning. With Beneteau Group’s involvement, the selected duo VPLP/MULTIPLAST relies on the innovation and industrial agility of the world leader in boating. The boat is versatile enough to respond to the requirements of clubs willing to replace their aging fleet for one-design racing enthusiasts as well as for IRC sailors.
The Sun Fast 30 is set to open a new page of offshore racing by offering a vibrant and powerful monohull, economical, simple - without foils or ballasts - geared towards competition over several days with a crew of 4 to 5 people, double or even single-handed, with certification eligible for transatlantic races.
A new Class with an ambitious race programme
The racing division of the YCF has established, together with Multiplast, the rules for the new C30 Class Association with a race programme soon to be announced. Several Sun Fast 30s have already enrolled for the second edition of the Cap-Martinique Transatlantic Race which will start on April 14, 2024, from La Trinité sur Mer. In 2024, the Sunfast 30 Class are expected to be racing in the RORC Season’s Points Championship, as well as other high-profile events in Europe such as Spi Oest and the Armen Race. Scheduled for the end of summer 2024 will be a project like the original “Tour de France à la Voile” is being planned. At the initiative of a private investor who has ordered around twenty boats, collective fleets of Sun Fast 30s, will be available for charter located in Portsmouth UK, and in France at Lorient and Marseille.
A big step-up for sustainability
The Sun Fast 30 construction benefits from a new technology taking over three years of research and development to perfect. The implementation of the first liquid thermoplastic resin, Arkema's Elium®, which can be reheated at the end of the boat's lifecycle to eliminate the fibers and recover the polymer, leads the boating industry into a new era.
The boat is distributed by Jeanneau impressive network, while construction is ongoing at the very modern Bénéteau Racing yard in Cheviré (Nantes) made famous by the production of the Figaro 3. The Sun Fast 30 will be produced at the rate of one boat per week from September 2023. Technically, the molds are the same as those needed to manufacture a polyester laminate, with equivalent structural properties and weight specifications. But the infusion moldings process had to be rethought with the introduction of a new component. It also relies on the Group’s industrial agility to ensure strict cost control. To date, 43 units have already been sold.