News Around the World
FRANCE The biggest boats for the biggest race Despite the freshness of the thermometer the six Ultim trimarans engaged in the round-the-world solo Arkéa Ultime Challenge benefited from ideal conditions in the opening days, moderate NE wind and nice sunshine after leaving the coast of Brittany on 7 January. Twenty-five years after the first edition of the Vendée Globe the
oceans are hosting a new race on sailing boats that fly: giant tri- marans hurtling along above the water thanks to the lift from their huge foils, the elevators on the rudders and (easily overlooked) the critical ‘manta ray’ at the bottom of the central daggerboard. Despite being mostly invisible this is actually the foil that the solo skippers rely most on to fine-trim their flight. The incredible speeds reached by these machines that one dares
no longer call boats generate enormous mechanical loads in every area, making them exceptionally vulnerable to impacts in the ocean – whether with floating debris or, more likely, with a large mammal idling at the surface. These revolutionary Maxis have made great progress in reliability
since the 2018 Route du Rhum in which many retired, the high rate of attrition leading to the postponement of the solo round-the-world race. However, there were still technical problems in the 2022 Rhum, which if extrapolated to the length of a round-the-world race has led the organisers to allow technical stops during the Arkéa Challenge to help deliver the maximum number of finishers from just six starters. If making one of these voluntary stops the Ultim must remain
stopped at least 24 hours in order to discourage strategic ‘pitstops’ along the course, for example up the Brazilian coast, or to a lesser extent south of New Zealand or at Ushuia at Cape Horn. The timing of a technical stop depends on the severity of the
damage and where it occurs. All teams will think twice before deciding on a stop because an Ultim easily travels 700nm in 24 hours – a distance to which the diversion must be added to and from the nearest coast for external assistance. Still, with this extra opportunity to repair boats then surely there is a chance the six will reach Brest? The real question is in what state!? Will the winner be the less
fragile boat that makes it unscathed (an unlikely hypothesis) through this 40-45 day ride, or a faster boat that suffered damage but then is back to maximum speed after a technical stopover? Part of the answer lies in the pace that the skippers impose upon
20 SEAHORSE
themselves more than in the speed differences between the six flying machines. In this regard it is interesting to review how each of the skippers (who benefit from weather routeing) attacks the course. A fascinating puzzle. At the official introduction of the skippers before the race start,
not unexpectedly perhaps, the biggest cheers were for Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire XI) and Thomas Coville (Sodebo). Le Cléac’h is now one of France’s national sporting heroes with
a widely appreciated winning record to which he recently added the Transat Jacques Vabre to his three Vendée Globe podiums (one win) and three victories in La Solitaire du Figaro. Eight-time (sic) round- the-world challenger Coville has a special affinity for the city of Brest, from where all his record attempts have begun and finished. Young skipper Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue) has a more
chequered story to tell. ‘Our race began a few months ago and the team achieved an incredible result just by reaching the startline in time; most people now know we suffered severe structural damage on the return from the TJV and the rebuild has involved thousands of hours’ work in a very compressed timeframe. This work was only completed a few days ago!’ Another youngster, Anthony Marchand (Actual), from the Bay of
Saint-Brieuc, only started sailing in 1995 at the age of 10. He then joined his local club, where he remains a member, and spent five years in the Optimist before moving up through the dinghy classes. Always dreaming about offshore racing, Anthony tried the Mini 6.50, then worked for the Sodebo and Brossard Orma trimaran teams. In 2009 he won the singlehanded Challenge Région Bretagne and took over the ‘Macif Scholarship’ boat from… François Gabart. He then raced on the very competitive Figaro circuit from 2010 to 2020. Marchand took a break from the Figaro in 2015 to race onboard
Mapfre in the Volvo Race as a helmsman and trimmer. In 2019 he raced the Transat Jacques Vabre with Giancarlo Pedote on the Imoca Prysmian Group. Then in 2021 Yves Le Blévec chose Anthony to become his
co-skipper aboard Actual Ultim 3 in the TJV, in which they finished fourth. The following year he became a replacement skipper for the Route du Rhum and in January 2023 he officially became the skipper of the trimaran. A nice career path based on hard work and deter- mination to grasp every opportunity offered. At the skipper conference in Brest Anthony said: ‘These are
VINCENT CURUTCHET/ALEA
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