Forget supermodels and Royals. Beat that for a boat launch.

This is Jumbo, or maybe Dumbo, launching French naval architect and sailor Tanguy de Lamotte’s new Class 40 in Thailand. De Lamotte has been working with Simon Rogers. They’ve gone for the maximum beam allowable under the class rule and there’s a huge cockpit, as you can see below.

The pinnacle for this hot new pro-am class this year is the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre in November. De Lamotte will be racing with Britain’s Nick Bubb. There’s a big entry list of 30 boats, and it includes such top names as Giovanni Soldini and – can you believe it – a team-up between veteran multihull sailors Florence Arthaud and Luc Poupon.

This is a class to watch and if you’ve always hankered after doing some of the epic ocean races yourself, this is really the only eligible one that’s affordable to amateur mortals.

You can mug up at www.class40.com