After a call for tenders, the job of designing the third generation of Figaro Beneteau boats was entrusted to VPLP, whose winning bid focused on creating “a gateway to ocean racing”. Figaro 3 adheres faithfully to the VPLP motto of lightness and power.
Her designers gave her a powerful, chined hull with a buoyant bow to compensate for the lack of ballast tanks, unlike the Figaros 1 and 2. And that was already a minor revolution! A concentrate of innovations, the Figaro 3 by VPLP features foils which exit the sides at deck level, while the lifting surface extends below the hull.
At a speed of 14 knots, the foil generates a lift of 500 kg and increases performance by 15%. Despite the addition of the foils, the Figaro 3 weighs in at 100 kg to 150 kg lighter. Production is based in the Cheviré plant of Groupe Beneteau’s Racing Division (formerly Jeanneau Techniques Avancées).
Figaro regulars have a lot of changes to get used to: fixed bowsprit, asymmetric spinnaker, gennaker… After a period of adaptation, the skippers rapidly got the hang of this powerful but sensitive boat which is more physically demanding than previous generations. In 2021 the Figaro Beneteau 3 successfully passed the transatlantic test because all of the eighteen boats taking the line of the Transat en double Concarneau–Saint-Barthélemy arrived safely in the West Indies.
