News Around the World
Clockwise from above: Armel Le Cléac’h, former Jules Verne record holder now in Brest spectating Olivier de Kersauson, Anthony Marchand – passed the helm of Actual 3 by previous skipper (and Deputy Mayor of La Trinité) Yves le Blévec – plus Thomas Coville setting hearts a-flutter as usual. There was an unusually ‘wholesome’ atmosphere in Brest in the days before the start of the Arkéa Challenge. The start of any long solo ocean race is typically a scene of joy tempered with an unspoken seriousness, with everyone aware of the great personal risks that all of the skippers run. In Brest we saw six fully professional skippers sailing giant yachts meticulously prepared by large and equally professional shore teams and, coincidental or not, any darker undercurrents were well concealed. Whether the Vendée Globe or one of the growing number of amateur round-the-world races, it is the poorly resourced, likely tailenders who cause organisers the most concern. Ultim budgets vary dramatically, but the poorly resourced need not apply
sailing around the world again. And now I have the chance to do it on an Ultim. Why would I not be happy?! ‘But as usual now I just want to leave. Knowing I can round the
Cape of Good Hope in 12 days’ time and Cape Horn 18 days later changes the vision I had about a “world tour”. On an Imoca it took a month to reach the Cape of Good Hope and nearly twice that to round Cape Horn. The game is rather different.’ Franck Cammas, who has a huge experience of ocean racing on
giant trimarans, gave his prediction to our colleague Olivier Bourbon: ‘If we look only at experience on these boats Thomas Coville is ahead of them all. He knows the course and these boats like no one else. It’s a race made for him. ‘If we look at the boat/skipper combination I would say that Armel
Le Cléac’h ticks a lot of boxes. He is very good in the management of a boat, as he proved in the Vendée Globe. Charles Caudrelier [with whom Franck shared the helm of Gitana 17 for two years] is still the one who has the most confidence in the performance of his boat, and her reliability. He tends to push hard. But he will have to be a little wiser than in a Route du Rhum. ‘These three sailors have many assets, but not the same assets.
The big surprise can come from Tom Laperche with the enthusiasm of youth. He will not have a fixed state of mind, he will be a competitor to watch. I just cross my fingers that he can keep his boat OK. ‘So we can talk about four favourites: which is already quite some-
thing out of six competitors. ‘Anthony Marchand has an Ultim [the ex-Macif on which François
Gabart set his remarkable 42-day solo RWR record] that has been well developed in terms of performance, thanks to her new bigger foils. And her skipper has good experience in the Southern Ocean (on a monohull). ‘Eric Péron has fewer cards to play with, even though anything
can happen in such a race. It’s already a great feat for him to be at the start.’
22 SEAHORSE
In the wake of Francis Joyon Just seven skippers have managed to sail singlehanded around the world on a multihull: Alain Colas, Olivier de Kersauson, Philippe Monnet, Ellen MacArthur, Francis Joyon, Thomas Coville and François Gabart. They each achieved this feat in ‘record mode’ which is very different from a race. As Franck Cammas said, you cannot compare a race and a record attempt where you choose the day of your start. And the weather conditions on 7 January were not good for a record attempt, said the French champion. But in 2017 we remember that when Francis Joyon and his crew
left Brest for their third and last attempt the window was not ideal either. Nevertheless, Idec Sport (Franck Cammas’ former Groupama 3) broke the Jules Verne record (Brest-Brest) – held by the giant Banque Populaire V– with a time of just under 41 days at an average speed of 22.84kt, almost five days faster than the 40m trimaran then skippered by Loïck Peyron. Coming out of the South Atlantic, Joyon’s old non-flying machine
achieved an incredible week at the insane average of 850 miles per day with a record 24-hour run of 894 miles, an average of 37.25kt!!! Joyon and his crew took 4d 9h to reach Australia from South Africa
and at that point Idec was one day behind BP V’s track. At the Kerguelen Isles she was equal to BP V. Just five days later the red and white weapon passed south of New Zealand two days in front and a week later she rounded Cape Horn four days ahead. Idec Sport took 15 days to sail around the Antarctic… This unique
performance that made the hunters dream of the famous Jules Verne Trophy was due to a happy combination of weather circumstances and the ability of a carefully picked small crew of six to drive the ‘bolide’ at very high speed. Francis remembers: ‘We had given everything we had for days,
often in very little visibility because to stay in our nice front we had to race all the way around Antarctica. It meant moving east at an average speed of 34-35kt leaving no respite for the crew.’
VINCENT CURUTCHET/ALEA
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/ALEA
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/ALEA
ALEXIS COURCOUX
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