KOESIO, the first Ocean Fifty with a steering wheel!

Press release - While major modifications were made to the Ocean Fifty Koesio this winter - fitting aerodynamic tarpaulins, installing a new mast and removing a few superfluous kilos - a major development was carried out in parallel: the installation of a new autopilot combined with an augmented electronic steering wheel system. Tested and validated for the first time in a race during Act 1 of the Ocean Fifty Series last month in Saint-Malo by Erwan Le Roux, this device, developed by MerConcept teams in collaboration with Mobius France and Madintec on the SVR-Lazartigue trimaran and Sky City Foiler catamaran, offers unprecedented steering subtleties. These subtleties open up a formidable path and development potential for future racing boats, of course, but also for pleasure craft.

Erwan Le Roux and his partner Koesio, the number one provider of digital services to small and medium-sized businesses and local authorities, have joined forces with MerConcept to install a reliable, competitive autopilot and an enhanced electronic steering wheel system. These are the same systems developed for the SVR-Lazartigue trimaran in 2023. " The genesis of the project was to save weight to avoid transmitting the entire helm system to the outside when we made the choice to bring the helm to cockpit level by moving it, de facto, away from the rudders. The impact on the structure was considerable, but the biggest advantage of this system is that you can place the helm station wherever you like , " explains Clément Thivin, engineer in the design office of the ocean racing team founded by François Gabart. " For the Ocean Fifty Koesio, we haven't changed the basic idea. We've really stayed with the same philosophy, although a few minor adaptations have been made to improve reliability and comply with class rules ", explains the technician. For example, the parts originally designed for the Ultim were replaced by anodized aluminum, while the carbon cases were designed in a different material. " The main challenge was more electronic than mechanical, " says Clément Thivin, who worked hand in hand with the Mobius France and Madintec teams.

‍

Working together

" Everyone gave their best. MerConcept focused on the mechanical aspects, while Paul-Louis Defrétière's company presented its new-generation autopilot actuator, Mobius L300-700, and we contributed our software and electronics expertise," confirms Matthieu Robert, President of Madintec, a company which in just a few years has established itself as a key player in the autopilot market for ocean racing. " Our company has been working with Erwan Le Roux for many years. He knows our products and our solutions for navigation and piloting control units. Like us, he believes in this augmented electronic steering wheel system. It's a system that brings a number of advantages to sailors, and one that we're aiming to deploy on pleasure boats in the future," says the man from La Rochelle who, on the strength of his success since 2012 and the expertise he has acquired on new-generation hydrofoil flying boats, is now capable of steering a boat with the utmost precision. As well or even better than a sailor himself in certain conditions. "In terms of software, we know how to understand a boat's environment and model it. Skippers can bring a plus in terms of piloting, but they find themselves on big boats where they have less feeling at the helm than on smaller boats. A helm, moreover, that is not always well positioned. What Madintec provides, thanks in particular to the work of Benoît Piquemal and Mathilde Tréhin, is precisely the feeling of having in the steering wheel the sensations one can have on a small boat: that of steering live thanks to haptic feedback, a technology already found on aircraft for example ".

‍

Multiplied sensations

For the sailor, this means precise indications of the boat's behavior, whether it's hard or soft, thanks in particular to the very short latency between the movement of the steering wheel and the actual rudder travel time provided by a new-generation autopilot actuator, the Mobius L300-700. Conceived by an engineer with a passion for sailing, then designed and assembled in France, the latter boasts features much appreciated by François Gabart and Tom Laperche aboard SVR-Lazartigue, and now also by Erwan Le Roux on Koesio. " Until now, customers had the choice between a fast but not very strong electric actuator and a strong but very slow and energy-hungry hydraulic actuator. We have developed an electric actuator that is two and a half times faster than the reference electric solution and twice as strong as the most common hydraulic actuator on the market, all in a mass envelope between the two solutions", reveals Paul-Louis Defrétière.

‍

The future of modern sailing

" Thanks to this system, the helmsman no longer feels any friction, the actuator does its own thing. It's clearly a new chapter opening up for ocean racing boats and, more broadly, for all new boats ", assures the Mobius France boss, who is then joined by Erwan Le Roux, literally blown away by the system now installed aboard his trimaran, and for the first time aboard an Ocean Fifty. " I'm blown away by the steering precision achieved with this augmented electronic steering wheel system. The faster the boat goes, the more this is true. But you have to relearn how to steer, and that requires concentration. The sensations are very different and, above all, extremely refined, exactly as if you were steering with a joystick or remote control, wired or otherwise. The position at the helm is totally new, since you're steering in the direction of travel, but it's very interesting because it's very comfortable ", says the two-time Route du Rhum winner, who also sees the potential of this new tool, which is already very high in terms of performance. " I see a promising future for all boats, both racing and pleasure craft. For fast cruising boats, this system would be a real plus, just as it is on our machine. In my opinion, it will facilitate access to our discipline and open up absolutely enormous prospects ", attests the skipper of Koesio.

‍

‍