News Around the World
So finally Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas on their Verdier flying foiler Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have some competition. After 4,000nm of racing in the Atlantic Challenge, Armel Le Cléac’h and his latest 18-month-old Banque Populaire XI – one of two recent Ultims designed by VPLP – finished just 26 minutes behind their long-dominant rival. Gitana was the first ‘fully committed’ foiler in the Ultim class when launched in 2017 and now has the benefit of four years’ development, so not unreasonably Le Cléac’h is confident he has plenty in the tank. Throw in François Gabart’s controversial VPLP design SVR and the bar in the greatest ocean race class ever is going up fast. The greatest ever? ‘We were racing side by side at 45kt’, a wide-eyed Cammas later explained…
FRANCE Light round the cans, anyone? In the absence of SVR-Lazartigue, the maxi trimaran of François Gabart whose homologation by the Ultim Class should take place (or not) on 21 July following a decision by the Court of Justice of Paris (read our article in Seahorseon this subject), four other Ultims set sail from Concarneau in Brittany in July for the Finistère Atlantique Challenge, a 3,152nm triangle rounding the Canary and Azores islands before sailing back to the starting line. After 6d 5h 28m 38s at sea the flying Verdier design Gitana,
skippered by Charles Caudrelier and the team of Franck Cammas, Morgan Lagravière, David Boileau, Erwan Israël and Yann Riou, were first across the finish line to take the victory... but this time only 26 minutes ahead of their closest rival. This latest win had a rather special flavour for the sailors of
Gitana Team embroiled in an incredibly intense duel with the crew of the new Banque Populaire XI led by Armel Le Cléac’h. This is the fourth consecutive big win for the Gitana crew and the sixth for the Caudrelier-Cammas pairing. But the Ultim game is getting harder. Charles declared: ‘I’m relieved. It was a very intense and stressful
race… We never knew who was going to be in front at the end. We gained the upper hand at the crucial time, but right to the wire they were constantly trying different things and were very aggressive. There was precious little in it at the end. It’s a great victory! It was a very fine course and an epic battle with Armel and Team Banque Populaire.’ Actually, the best ever competition within the Ultim Class. The
gap between the two leading boats was 38 seconds at the Canaries, 51 minutes at the Azores and 26 minutes in Concarneau (BP has been the leader for a few moments). Really a giant match race! Charles continued: ‘We really pushed the boat quite hard at
20 SEAHORSE
certain points, because they were pushing us... This is the first time in two, three years that we’ve had a competitor that’s caused us so many problems. We also posted some significant new maximum speeds, especially upwind. Those moments, when we were able to find the right adjustments to go faster than Banque Populaire, then it is quite magical. Especially topping 27-30kt upwind! ‘Five years ago no one would have imagined that we could go
that fast offshore. I had the chance to know, and at the time we found it fabulous to hit 21kt close hauled. Now if we don’t reach 28kt we’re frustrated. Our benchmarks have completely changed. As soon as we opened the taps we were immediately doing at least 40kt. And that too we couldn’t have considered a few years ago… ‘Speed was still a key factor in the end, together with the ability
to keep the boat making headway in conditions that often changed quickly, through some big seas and on, I would say, every point of sail. We pulled off some great moves, we made a few blunders too, but we sailed well. The teamwork was great, the boat was in tip- top condition, she was really quick and we’ve managed to step up our game even more…’ The blue arrow averaged 21.09kt on the direct course and
27.65kt over the ground (4,132nm sailed). Charles continued: ‘Our rather complex boat has been developed well. And just in time because these new boats are reaching maturity much sooner as we all learn more about them. ‘Designed four years after Gitana, they all have enormous poten-
tial. We expected this, but Banque Populaire was particularly impres- sive since it’s not a boat they know very well. They are already very fast, which promises some good fights to come…’ Franck Cammas added: ‘We raced as if it was a Figaro compe- tition, playing around with little tactical moves, putting in a lot of
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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