SVR-LAZARTIGUE | CATIA Customer

CATIA Customer

A boat built to fly!

“To design and build a boat like SVR-LAZARTIGUE, it takes around 150,000 hours of work, involving more than 150 external collaborations,” said Thomas Normand, CEO of MerConcept. “There’s a lot of collaborative work involved, synchronizing tasks, moving from the design phase to the construction phase.”



Collaborating on a virtual twin

SVR-LAZARTIGUE is the result of a mammoth engineering endeavor bringing together expertise from all around the world.

Before moving to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it was challenging keeping everyone up to date with progress and ensuring they were all working with the latest version. Now, MerConcept has a common data environment, where everyone can work together on the same 3D model – critical for orchestrating all participants and successfully bringing the boat from concept to reality.

MerConcept’s 3D model of SVR-LAZARTIGUE is a true virtual twin of the physical boat, available in the cloud. This virtual twin is a physically accurate 3D model of the trimaran and its systems viewed in the context of its environment at sea through simulation. It allows the team to virtually design SVR-LAZARTIGUE, complete with all system behaviors, and test it in limitless scenarios.

“The virtual twin also allows all relevant stakeholders to access the current model in real time and focus on the part or the system that interests them,” Gautier said. “Different teams can ‘speak the same language’ and know that what they’re working on is directly linked to what is actually going on in the workshop.”




Take a handful of the world’s most innovative sailing machines and race them in brutal winter conditions across the North Atlantic Sea and you have the Transat Jacques Vabre, one of the most elite and challenging yachting races on the planet. The largest class of boats to compete in the grueling 7,500 mile-ocean sprint are the 32-meter long Ultim trimarans, giants of the seas that reach incredible speeds to literally fly over the surface of the water.

In its debut race, newcomer SVR-LAZARTIGUE crossed the finish line in 16 days 9 hours 46 minutes and 11 seconds to take second place. When French sailing duo François Gabart and Tom Laperche set out on the double-handed transatlantic race from Le Havre to Martinique, their main goal was simply to reach the other side safely; a podium place surpassed all expectations.

Two and a half years in the making, SVR-LAZARTIGUE was developed and built by Gabart’s own company, MerConcept, the offshore racing specialist that was also responsible for the M100 Ultim trimaran – winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the English Transat, The Bridge, and holder of the round-the-world solo record in 2017 (manned by Gabart).

“MerConcept is about passion,” said François Gabart, founder of MerConcept and SVR-LAZARTIGUE skipper. “It’s a passion for the sea, the wind, and the waves – harnessing their power to go ever faster. It’s a passion for boats, which have made ocean racing my professional career. After 30 years of sailing, I still marvel at being able to roam the oceans at full speed.”

Innovative and competitive by nature, MerConcept’s success is built on its ability to combine deep industry knowledge and the latest technological capabilities to create unique and revolutionary designs. The company’s partnership with Dassault Systèmes plays a critical role in this, delivering the solution it needs to develop the boats from start to finish, and better understand and anticipate their behavior at sea.

“To successfully carry out a project like SVR-LAZARTIGUE, in addition to passion, you need to have knowledge and experience of the boat,” said Antoine Gautier, design office manager at MerConcept. “Our close collaboration with Dassault Systèmes began in 2011, when we built François Gabart’s first IMOCA-class yacht. We used CATIA to design the boat and all composites parts. We have since moved to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud and our level of expertise with the solution has significantly evolved.”

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