On 3 December, after months of intensive work and mounting anticipation, Gitana unveiled the new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. With its radically innovative architecture, ground-breaking appendages and a silhouette that is both striking and refined, the latest addition to the legendary Gitana lineage immediately set a new benchmark in the programme’s ongoing quest for performance.
Since that first reveal, sailors, competitors and close observers of the offshore racing world have been waiting for the next milestone: the launch of the 32-metre trimaran and her departure from the yard.
To enable as many multihull enthusiasts as possible to witness Gitana 18 as she makes her first passage to the pontoons of her home port, the team with the five arrows has chosen a weekend date. The public is invited to Lorient La Base on Saturday 14 February, subject to favourable weather conditions. Further details, including timings, will be announced shortly.
Gitana 18: advancing a new generation of ocean-racing trimarans
Like her predecessor, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild has been designed to push the boundaries of offshore performance. The ambition is clear: to move from hybrid flight to fully foiling sailing, and to lead the emergence of a new generation of even faster, more powerful ocean-racing trimarans.
Achieving this required venturing into unexplored territory — rethinking fundamental design principles, developing new concepts and validating them through extensive testing.
For this project, the Gitana team, its in-house design office and the Verdier design team committed to an exceptionally bold creative process. The result is a trimaran unlike any other: a highly adaptable platform, capable of adjusting, deploying or retracting an unprecedented number of moving components to suit different sailing modes and conditions.
A radical new appendage package. The appendages alone mark a major step change. They are the product of months of design work, modelling and on-water simulation, culminating in entirely new geometries, systems and adjustment possibilities.
Retractable Y-shaped foils, adjustable in three dimensions. Inspired by the foiling monohulls of the America’s Cup, these foils feature wings spanning more than five metres. They are designed to deliver significant lift, increased power and extensive fine-tuning, enabling optimised flight across all points of sail and in a wide range of conditions.
Revolutionary rudders, whose U-shaped geometry has been specifically developed to resist cavitation at high speeds.
A central hull daggerboard with a large-span lifting plane, represents a complete departure from anything previously designed on trimarans of this size and type.
The rig also breaks new ground. For the first time at this scale, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild features dynamically adjustable spreaders, allowing the mast to be bent under load in order to modulate mainsail power while sailing.
Structural integration has been taken a step further, with the cockpit and coachroof forming an integral part of the central hull, delivering maximum stiffness — a design philosophy and execution that are unmistakably Gitana.
Based on thousands of simulator runs, the numbers are compelling: a projected speed gain of 10 to 15%. The next phase now begins — learning to sail, refine and ultimately master this extraordinary flying machine in real-world offshore conditions.
Innovation and boldness have always been at the heart of the Gitana story, and at the core of the philosophy of its owners — today embodied by Ariane de Rothschild and her daughters. The new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is the 28th yacht in the Gitana saga, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2026.