Above: what did I do?! Yves Le Blévec (in glasses), who as well as ocean racing has a very active parallel political career in the La Trinité region, last year passed the helm of his Ultim Actual 3 to his former first mate Anthony Marchand (left). As his protegé says his farewells before the start of the Arkéa Challenge, Le Blévec looks like he may be having second thoughts… Actual is the former Macif of François Gabart on which Gabart set the current singlehanded round-the-world record, which at 42 days is less than two days more than the crewed Jules Verne mark held since 2017 by Francis Joyon on Idec. Actual is a proven reliable boat that benefits from much larger new foils – plus the engineering changes needed to deal with them. With six singlehanded round-the-world record attempts under his belt, the last being successful, Sodebo skipper Thomas Coville (opposite) really has ‘been down this road before…’
of a foil wing or foil flap may be modified. With three wings a team could have one wing being modified while continuing to sail with the other two wings. Between their launch date and the start of racing in late August
there is surprisingly little time. That critical ratio of sailing days to maintenance days will impact both yacht development and race training time. Some teams have already proved to be better at that than others. Some a lot better. Let’s take a look at what Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli have been
doing, working from their base in Cagliari. They have an AC40 that they have kept in one-design configuration.
They know how to race it – their junior helms of Ruggero Tita and Marco Gradoni made it to the final of the Jeddah Preliminary Regatta, and sailed well against the Kiwis until an unfortunate nosedive ended their race. While Tita and Gradoni were racing in Jeddah, the senior helms Checco Bruni and Jimmy Spithill continued the testing programme with the LEQ12 in Cagliari. The shared recon reports indicate that their LEQ12 test boat
provides them with a good platform for testing design ideas and also for honing foiling boathandling skills. The Italians have been working a lot on timing to raise and lower the boards, holding off as long as possible before dropping the new board in a tack. The crisp boathandling is part of their recent shift to a race preparation focus, with less time apparently being spent on test and development. In January they used the one-design AC40 for race training, doing timed runs and manoeuvres around real and virtual marks. The
LEQ12 also did some intense days of race training, initially against a virtual boat and then against the AC40. In the LEQ12 they experimented with various angles of pitch and windward heel, learning more about how to get the most out of the boat. Luna Rossa seem to have a good mix of development testing,
sailing training and, more and more, race training. They are likely to be seriously in the mix come September.
CupExperience.com
HOW DO THEY DO IT? – Patrice Carpentier ‘Ultim: a very sophisticated and physical sailing machine’ How do these 32m-long and 23m-wide Ultims race around the world driven by just one man? We put the question to Yves Le Blévec who has entrusted the helm of his Actual to his former no2 Anthony Marchand. Actual is the old Macif, designed in 2015 by VPLP, on which François Gabart distinguished himself in all the ocean races he sailed and in 2017 smashed the singlehanded record around the world. While Actual is embarking on the Arkéa Challenge Yves enlightened us on the way to operate this wonderful machine. ‘What is new with these boats that sail completely out of the water
is that using the appendages you can now properly manage the longitudinal and lateral trim of the boat, which on an Archimedean boat is almost impossible – even with foils and water ballast. ‘On a flying Ultim there is nothing in the water except parts of the appendages. We rely on four appendages: the leeward foil, the
SEAHORSE 15
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/ALEA
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