News Around the World
Frank Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, Ultime winners in the Transat Jacques Vabre, are used to hogging the limelight having gone unbeaten in the class since winning the 2019 Fastnet from François Gabart on Macif 1. As you’d expect it took time to achieve good reliability with their flying 100-footer Maxi Edmond de Rothschild… but not nearly as long as many anticipated for what is still the world’s most complicated ocean racer. The speed of this three-year-old Verdier design improves with each outing and the TJV gave few indications of a big jump in performance from the latest – albeit very new – Ultimes Banque Pop XI and Gabart’s own SVR-Lazartigue
FRANCE The words of the winners! Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier have won the Transat Jacques Vabre Ultime class title aboard MaxiEdmond de Rothschild. Going into the event as favourites, they led the race all the way through. The French duo took 16d 1h 49m 16s to cover the 7,500 theoretical miles of the Ultime course from Le Havre at an average speed of 20.51kt. In reality they covered 9,262.13 miles at 24.01kt! Franck Cammas said: ‘We didn’t make many mistakes, the boat
behaved well. We’ve been racing hard for 17 days and we’ve arrived in Martinique with a boat that’s in 100 per cent perfect condition and ready to go again. ‘In relation to the new competition we didn’t know what it would
be like but our confidence has grown day by day. At the finish we had a bit of stress, with a complicated weather situation. We fell into a windless zone and the boats behind us were able to gain 200nm in 12 hours so we started to get a bit scared! In the end they had the same problem as us but much later.’ Charles Caudrelier: ‘We’re arriving in good shape. We were scared
once because we had an engine failure which meant we had no power… We thought about stopping in Cape Verde, but in the end we managed to fix it. We weren’t at 100 per cent of the boat’s potential all the time, but not far off. ‘We have to congratulate our weather routers ashore [allowed
for the multihulls] because it wasn’t always easy for them. It’s the first time I’ve seen Franck spending so little time at the chart table worrying about their choices!’ François Gabart and Tom Laperche crossed the finish line to take
second in the Ultime class aboard SVR-Lazartigue eight hours behind the winner. It was the first transatlantic race for the latest VPLP design.
SVR-Lazartigue, which after original sponsor Macif pulled out was eventually finished at Gabart’s own manufacturing facility, covered the 7,900 theoretical miles from Le Havre at an average speed of 20.09kt, but she actually covered 9,333.08 miles at 23.7kt. Gabart said in Martinique: ‘It feels like a victory. A few months ago we didn’t even know we would be racing. This morning was crazy, I was crying at the helm it was so beautiful. ‘There is a great winner upfront, but I’m very happy with our boat,
it has huge potential for improvement. This may be the last race that Maxi Edmond de Rothschild wins… I hope! They’re a step above us today, but it’s reasonable to think that we can go after them in the next few races.’ About 55 minutes later came the third-placed Ultime, Banque
Populaire XI. Onboard were French ocean racing veterans Armel Le Cléac’h and Kevin Escoffier. The blue and white maxi-trimaran, launched only seven months ago, managed to match the pace of her rivals throughout the course and finished less than nine hours behind the winner. The pair had covered 9,225.53 miles at an aver age of 23.38kt – similar to François Gabart ahead. Armel Le Cléac’h: ‘We were a little frustrated to have been over-
taken by François and Tom for second. But in the end it was a very positive race for us. We are very happy with the boat but our friends on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild were untouchable. We still have a lot to learn about this boat and how to improve it.’
Imoca LinkedOut has at last taken victory in the Imoca class! Co-skippers Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière claimed their first race win aboard this 2020-generation foiler thanks to a superbly sailed race which they led for three-quarters of the course. The Imoca course
SEAHORSE 25
JEAN-LOUIS CARLI/ALEA
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