Without doubt one of the highlights of the opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris was the striking sight of a masked woman riding a robotic horse along the River Seine to deliver the Olympic flag. The iconic silver horse appeared to "gallop", powered by an almost invisible, partially submerged trimaran.
We are thrilled to announce MM Process, the naval architects behind the horse, will be appearing at the Superyacht Design Festival 2025 to talk about their groundbreaking design.
The Paris Olympics Ceremony 2024 - controversially held outside of the stadium - was always going to pull out all the stops. But despite the sprinkles of Hollywood pizazz and appearances from Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, the one performance everyone remembers was the silver horse appearing to "gallop", like magic, along the Seine.
The stunning silver leaf horse was designed by French design agency Atelier BLAM, but the really clever bit was how it worked - for hidden underneath the horse was a 14 metre-long, semi-submerged electric trimaran designed by the innovative Breton naval architects, MMProcess.
MMProcess consists of husband and wife team Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer and Morgane Suquart, who spent a year designing an innovative flotation system. Tests were carried out in the greatest secrecy in the middle of the night and the pair weren't allowed to talk about the project.
“We’ve worked with Atelier BLAM studio before, but when they came to us, they didn’t tell us that it was a horse at first,” said Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer. All they asked was if it was possible to move a huge mass of metal over the water and do it invisibly. At first we decided to make an underwater glider which could move under the water, but it was too late to make it, and too expensive, so in the end we proposed the trimaran and built it in four months to be ready for the first test in July.”
Ciret-Le Cosquer explains that the studio didn’t want the trimaran to show more than 10 centimetres from the surface of the water. “This is why we built a semi-submerged trimaran. We placed two floats to ensure lateral stability at the rear of the main hull so as not to be seen by the cameras; the goal was to have a very fluid movement which cushioned that of the horse and maximises the scenic effect."
The boat, powered by 16 electric batteries concealed in the central hull, could reach 45 kilometres an hour. “We were really happy - when we first put her on the water, she went really quickly and smoothly under the water with no waves and no trim…just like an electric car.”
However, designing the boat with an ultra-low deck was challenging, especially when it came to ensuring the boat was stable, admits Ciret-Le Cosquer. “When you catch waves, you don't have a lot of reserve buoyancy in the hull, so our calculations needed to be spot on. It was so counterproductive to what you usually do when designing a boat – for example, in France, it's illegal to make a boat with such a low deck as that!”
MMProcess specialises in designing and building hydrofoils, with a particular focus on racing boats and have a workshop by the water so they can turn projects around quickly and refine their designs. The Olympic project used conventional hydrofoil technology in an unconventional way. “We firstly designed a trimaran with arms above the water, which is also a specialty of ours - our ACTIVE WING PLATFORME© is present on several ocean-going trimarans. But this was too visible, so instead we decided to go for a completely revolutionary structure, to connect the floats and the central hull with zero-lift foil arms," explains Ciret-Le Cosquer.
Once they had the prototype, they had to test it in total secrecy, both out at sea and in total darkness of the Seine. “We sea-trialed it for over 100 miles and put it through thorough engine and stability tests to make sure,” said Ciret-Le Cosquer. “We also tested it the night before the show (with a black bag over the horse so no one could see it) as we wanted to make sure it had the right lighting and could be seen when the cameras were on it.”
Once the boat was finally ready, the organisers needed to find someone who would sail it. “The boat is quite responsive at high speeds, but it is quite long and heavy and requires a lot of anticipation when manoeuvering,”said Ciret-Le Cosquer. After a discussion, the organisers asked if Morgane could man the helm.
The pair took the unexpected challenge in their stride. “We were really stressed during all the tests, because we didn't have a lot of time to change things on the boat, but during the ceremony, we weren’t stressed at all. I spoke to Morgane via microphone the whole time and could see her progress on the TV screens, and it was great to see people on both sides of the Seine being so enthusiastic about the boat.”
Because they were sworn to secrecy, they didn’t even tell their families. “We just told them: ‘Watch the opening ceremony on TV tonight!’"
"It was really great to create a boat linking art and technology at this point. The emotion it evoked moved us during the ceremony and showed to what extent boats can and must evoke emotions."
The Superyacht Design Festival is a two-day event which brings leaders of the superyacht industry and guests from the luxury community together for a thought-provoking and entertaining event that celebrates the world of design. It will return to the alpine town of Kitzbühel, Austria, on 2-4 February. Tickets are on sale now.
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