News Around the World �
Sometime Seahorse staffer Miranda Merron and partner Halvard Mabire cross the finish line of the last RORC Transatlantic Race on their new Class40 Campagne De France. The boat was co-designed by Bernard Nivelt and Mabire – who also undertook much of the build himself. Expect to see new Class40s adopt a similarly simple and light approach to the deck and equipment. With tight rules on construction materials the race now is to chase down the grammes while ensuring very hard-pushed ocean racers remain reliable
32m trimaran for 2018 to be competitive for the new solo Ultim race around the world that will start off Brest in 2019. After finishing The Transat Bakerly in New York last June, Thomas’s partners con- firmed that a new boat was an option… subject to him breaking the solo round-the-world record (a little pressure for Thomas). He said, ‘We were conscious that François Gabart did better than us in the Transatlantic Race and that the one-year-old Macifwas already better than our boat. We all understood that it was necessary to do something if we are to be able to race the existing Macifand the two other new Ultims already under construction: Banque Populaire [Armel Le Cléac’h] and Gitana[Sébastien Josse].’ The new Sodebowill measure 32m, the maximum allowed under the Ultim rule. The fastest singlehanded sailor around the planet explains: ‘We decided to consult Vincent Lauriot-Prévost for part of the new boat but we will work also with other designers. ‘Our idea is to have more of a design team rather than to buy bundles of drawings from only one office. There will be people involved like Martin Fisher (currently at Groupama Team France) and Renaud Bañuls. She will inevitably be quite different from a boat “bought” from a single naval architect. I find it very interesting to work like that today.’
The construction of the new boat is related to the sale of the existing boat – for sale for five million euros. The price of a new boat is double this. There are already four skippers interested in buying the current Sodebo, of which two are ‘foreigners’. During a recent meeting in Brittany guest star Thomas Coville shared with me that the Collectif Ultim wished to find an agreement with the Volvo Ocean Race so that this famous crewed race would move into the 100ft Ultim for its next edition. ‘We absolutely need to open up the Ultim class to full crews, otherwise foreign sailors will never come to play solo with us.’
Within the Collectif Ultim, directed jointly by the skippers and the sponsors, the mood is positive. The class rule has been fixed until
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2019 with Thomas confirming one very important detail: that while automatic control of the foils is still prohibited, an automatic crash system to protect the integrity of the foils in the event of a collision is now to be encouraged.
Not completely finished (yet)
At time of writing Eric Bellion, ninth and first ‘rookie’ onboardComme un Seul Homme(ex-DCNS, designed by Groupe Finot a long time ago), was arriving in Les Sables after 100 days at sea, which means already nearly a month behind the winner Armel Le Cléac’h. There were still nine boats completing the solo round-the-world race (11 boats retired so far, a better than average rate for a Vendée Globe). Last on the water was Sébastien Destremeau who was sail- ing off the northern coast of Brazil. Which means he could reach the finishing line in two weeks’ time: a hell of a time behind Armel, but only a few days more than the winners of the two first editions of the race (109 days for Lamazou and 110 for Gautier). Meanwhile, at about 700nm from the finish line, Conrad Colman’s mast crashed down in 35-40kt of wind and big, confused seas when he was 270nm northwest of Lisbon. Colman was dealing with a large, active Atlantic low-pressure system, his last big hurdle before his final passage across the Bay of Biscay to Les Sables d’Olonne where he was expected to finish in 10th place a few days later. The New Zealand skipper cut away his mast and sails, but managed to hang onto the boom, determined to build a jury rig and reach Les Sables without assistance. In Port Olona Conrad has now been renamed ‘Captain Courage’, not giving up so close to the end. Louis Burton, forced to retire four years ago after colliding with a fishing boat, was of course very pleased to achieve his trip in such a good time of just under 88 days… despite spending two days, more than normal, crossing back through the Doldrums. ‘I was thinking of the finish before the Doldrums, which was a mistake. I thought it was going to end earlier. Psychologically that was hard.’
ARTHUR DANIEL
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