The designer of maxi-catamarans for records
Gilles Ollier founded Multiplast in Vannes in 1981. Its uniqueness: combining a design office and workshop on the same site, like a race stable. From the 1980s, he designed nearly all French maxi-catamarans that hold major oceanic records — Atlantic crossing, 24-hour distance, Jules Verne Trophy.
The official design team is the Gilles Ollier Design Team (GODT), composed of Gilles Ollier, Yann Penfornis, and Frank Martin. It was awarded the Royal Institution of Naval Architects medal in 2006 — the first French laureate since the prize’s creation in 1978.
Signature style: carbon maxi-cats for record attempts
Ollier works with carbon/Nomex sandwich platforms, simplified hull shapes, and carbon wing masts. The challenge: support 30+ tonnes of structure over 33 to 37 meters while absorbing the loads of a sub-50-day crossing. Since Jet Services V (1987), no maxi-cat designed by GODT has sunk or lost its mast during a crewed record attempt — a rare reliability hallmark for this size.
Today
Gilles Ollier left Multiplast in 2009. The GODT design team no longer exists as an independent entity. Multiplast continues to build race multihulls and composite structures within the Carboman Group (2013), led by Yann Penfornis — one of the three original architects of the Design Team. The Ollier-designed maxi-cats still in service (notably Vitalia II) remain a benchmark for composite refit yards.
