RAFALE I
2013-2016
Catamaran Class-C
Made up of engineering students from the École de technologie supérieure de Montréal, it was in September 2013 that the Catamaran Class-C ÉTS project was launched with the aim of designing, building and sailing a state-of-the-art sailboat. The objective is ambitious: to participate as the first student team at the prestigious Little Cup of America.
The team successfully rose to the challenge, taking part in the 27th Little Cup, in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 2015. Rafale's performance amazed many and attracted cameras from all over the world! Rafale ÉTS earned sixth place in the championship, the Spirit of the Hydros Foundation award, as well as the title of Sailor of the Year 2015 from the Fédération de Voile du Québec
GOAL
Our ambition was to compete with experienced teams. We were the only students in the circuit, the other teams being professional and sometimes having a budget of several million dollars. The hard work delivered by the members of the project allowed us to present a competitive boat to the Little Cup 2015 . We were not only the first Quebec team to participate, but also the first university team to present such a project.
Rafale Class-C is an impressive, innovative catamaran, mounted on hydrofoils and equipped with a rigid wing. The boat was built with a minimal budget and entirely on a volunteer basis, which greatly sets our team apart from others. Marc Farmer and Trevor Parekh, the navigation team, managed to lift the team to sixth place in Geneva. We were also named Sailor of the Year by the 2015 Sailing Federation and won the "Spirit of the Hydros Foundation" award.
CLASS-C
The C-Class has been around since the 1960s. It is one of the most innovative nautical categories. The boats are catamarans measuring 25 feet in length and 14 feet wide. They have the reputation of being among the fastest boats on closed circuits (“Inshore”). Thanks to the very succinct and permissive regulations, they are also at the origin of many innovations in the field of sailing, in particular the wing masts and the rigid sails which have been the symbols of the class for a very long time. Since 2011, they have also been behind the development of hydrofoils for multihulls.