Since 1876, the name Gitana has appeared regularly in yachting’s most rarefied circles, attached to boats that challenged convention. The lineage is inseparable from the Rothschild family and began with The Gitana, a steel steamboat commissioned by Baroness Julie de Rothschild at a time when sails still ruled the seas. Today, the newest member of that storied fleet, the Gitana 18, carries the tradition of innovation further than ever.

Years before the trimaran touched water in February, Baroness Ariane de Rothschild resolved to extend her family’s sailing legacy with a vessel that would test the outer limits of offshore multihull sailing. The result is a 105-foot foiling yacht designed to fly—quite literally—across open ocean.

Its predecessor, the Gitana 17, launched in 2017 as a hybrid that blended conventional trimaran sailing with foiling, lifting clear off the ocean surface before settling back down on its hulls and rising again. Having won 10 grueling races, that boat proved foiling could survive offshore conditions, not only flat water or short-course racing like the America’s Cup or SailGP. Still, it was viewed as just a partial solution by the Baroness, who had been deeply involved in its development.

The new project demanded both ambition and scale, requiring 200 people in total, 50,000 hours of study, and 200,000 man-hours to build it. The effort reflects the ethos of the Gitana Team, founded by the Baroness and her husband, the late Benjamin de Rothschild, shortly after they were married in 2000. Benjamin—an accomplished sailor like his father, Edmond, after whom the yacht, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, is officially named—knew that multihulls offered the greatest promise for offshore racing and acquired more than a dozen before his death in 2021. Gitana 18, however, is on another level. “We have moved from racing only to research,” says the Baroness, noting Gitana 18 required a team of engineers. Proving the radical new tech still means “taking a bet on this flying boat.”

Penned by Gitana’s in-house design office with Guillaume Verdier and built by CDK Technologies in Brittany, the trimaran was unveiled in December, with Robb Report in attendance. Its wide, skeletal profile is defined by Y-shaped foils—each carrying wings more than 16 feet wide—devised to maximize lift while minimizing drag. U-shaped rudders and a central T-foil work in concert to stabilize the platform under extreme loads.

According to skipper Charles Caudrelier, these systems could allow Gitana 18 to hover above waves approaching 10 feet with minimal hull contact, while sustaining average speeds of 40 knots. He believes the boat, offering greater stability, could surpass Gitana 17’s top speed of 51 knots. The first chance to test that theory comes in April, when the yacht makes its racing debut in a five-day Mediterranean offshore event from France to Greece.

Aesthetics have not been overlooked either. Gitana 18’s striking livery was created by French artists Florian and Michaël Quistrebert in collaboration with the Palais de Tokyo. Spanning more than 21,500 square feet, its graphics draw on symbolism tied to the family’s five branches and feature stylized images of mermaids—representing Ariane’s four daughters—emblazoned on the massive sails.

At the unveiling, the Baroness underscored that honoring the team’s legacy requires more than reverence. It demands, she said, “disrupting today and seeing how far you can improve technology.” The racing, she added, “is proof of concept,” even if the return on that investment takes months, or even years, as engineers refine untested components for the harsh realities of open-ocean sailing. When the balance is finally achieved, Gitana 18 may redefine not only what the boat can do offshore but how far the sport itself is willing to go.