Flo, formerly Pierre 1er, is the iconic 60ft trimaran which Florence Arthaud sailed to win the Route du Rhum, now returned to its golden glory and racing again. There are many iconic raceboats, but few capture the feeling of an era as much as the 60ft trimaran in which Florence Arthaud won the Route du Rhum. She beat Philippe Poupon, winner of the previous edition, by eight hours to become the first woman to win a major offshore race, inspiring a new generation of young women to follow in her footsteps.
It was a remarkable turnaround for someone who, only four years before her first Route du Rhum, had been gravely injured in a car accident that left her in coma and hospitalised for six months. The pace of change in yacht design in the s was as breathtakingly fast as it is today. The ORMA 60 trimarans that quickly came to dominate the scene from the mids were huge vessels by comparison, built of the most hi-tech materials available, while their creators pressed hard against the boundaries of design and engineering knowledge.
These boats had an unprecedented power to weight ratio that, despite their enormous inherent stability, led to a number of capsizes. This came to a head in the stormy Route du Rhum in which five boats capsized and only three of the strong fleet finished. As a result sponsors rapidly quit the class, which collapsed within three seasons.
Nevertheless, Pierre 1er went on to have an illustrious year history of racing and record breaking. American billionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett, who renamed the boat Lakota , became her second owner in He picked up 5th place in the Route du Rhum, despite a lack of experience at the time, before taking line honours in the Transpac the following year. In a seven-year period he broke 12 world records with the boat, including Round Britain and Ireland and around the Isle of Wight.
Poupon reduced the size of the staysail for heavy weather work and added a furler. Huge asymmetrics are flown from the bowsprit. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot. Her next owner was Atlant Ocean Racing in Sweden, with the boat again breaking records under several different names. The boat picked up line honours in the Cape to Rio race, before heading east under the ownership of an experienced French multihull sailor from who was based in Hong Kong and kept the boat in Subic Bay in the Philippines, using her primarily for fast cruising and ocean voyages.
