News Around the World
Vendée Globe winner and the fastest man around the planet singlehanded, François Gabart gave VPLP a totally free hand to create something entirely new for his Ultim SVR Lazartigue; they took him at his word. It’s early days for Gabart’s boat, a new foiling Ultim takes longer to hit its potential even than a modern Imoca due to the many extra layers of complexity – also by poking further into the unknown. However, Gabart showed great pace in the Rhum, finishing only three hours behind winner Charles Caudrelier on Gitana – Guillaume Verdier’s original foiler having the benefit of five years’ development. Note the two steering wheels… very Charlie Barr
FRANCE A delayed departure For the first time in the history of the Route du Rhum the start of the 12th edition has been delayed. This decision was the conse- quence of an extreme weather pattern for the first few days at sea. In the days before the scheduled start the most reliable weather
models converged to announce the arrival of a huge depression in the North Atlantic, associated with a series of very intense fronts. If conditions for the planned Sunday start off Saint-Malo appeared to be acceptable, within 24 hours the situation would deteriorate violently before the 138-strong fleet had exited the English Channel leaving no option to avoid the worst of the weather. Upstream of the cold front winds of 30-40kt from S/SW were
initially forecast, with the wind expected to increase sharply with regular gusts to 55kt. To this was added a very strong swell (6-7m) coming from the North Atlantic, the consequence of a tropical depression (one stage before the hurricane) called Martin, born at the beginning of the week off the east coast of the States. The combination of the two wave patterns would form a huge
sea. ‘We are talking waves on average 7m high,’ explains François Gabart, skipper of the Ultim SVR Lazartigue. ‘But since it’s an average, by Monday we will regularly see waves of 10, 11 even 12m. That is the equivalent of three floors up: big, big waves!’ If the start had taken place on Sunday quite a number of the 138
competitors had planned to take shelter in the ports of Côtes- d’Armor and Finistère. According to Jean-Paul Chapalain, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Morlaix, in charge of the Port of Roscoff, nearly 50 applications for parking in the harbour had arrived at the Port of Bloscon office, most Class40s and two Imocas. ‘We had started working on this with our team, particularly by moving around the fishing boats,’ said Chapalain. ‘But even so
20 SEAHORSE
there wouldn’t have been spaces for everybody in the main harbour. And the rest of the fleet could not have reached the other harbours of Pointe Finistère, from Aber Wrac’h to Brest or Camaret. So the safety of the race was certainly not assured.’ Xavier Macaire, skipper of Class40 favouriteGroupe SNEF, said
he was relieved by the decision to postpone the start until Wednes- day – like the vast majority of competitors: ‘Relief is really the word to describe how I feel. It was very tense here. ‘I was ready to go if I had to. But it is a reasonable and intelligent
decision not to send sailors into such a situation with the strong likelihood that the rescue services would soon be called upon. We are here to have a nice race –and for that we must not take reckless risks. ‘When you cross an ocean you know you can have long storms.
We are prepared but leaving then, suffering a very deep one the day after departure, was very dangerous. And from my first look at the weather files for a departure on Wednesday, it’s going to be a lot more interesting than just hanging on and trying to survive.’
King Jean thinks for himself ‘Before the start of the last Vendée Globe people said that the first foilers would sail around in 70 days,’ said Jean Le Cam. ‘It finally took 80d 4h to reach the line… A difference of 10 days! Four years earlier Armel Le Cléac’h did it in 74 days. In four years we lost six days… ‘Of course we can talk about less favourable weather from one
VG to another. Still, in the same boat, my non-foiling Farr design Hubert built in 2006 [and winner of the 2008/9 VG, skippered by Michel Desjoyeaux], I sailed around in 80d 4h in the 2016 race, which means only nine hours less than in the last VG. And in the last race my boat was carrying some serious structural damage for a long part of the trip.’
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