Sailing at speeds up to 50 knots across the wildest parts of the world’s oceans while managing thousands of square foot of sail area – and doing this all on foils – is what six elite multihull sailors attempted after departing Brest in France on January 6. Amazingly, only one didn’t make it and one finished without its foils, but the leading boats made it, with a little help from their friends in Dunedin, Tasmania and a few other ports used for emergency pit stops. Winner, Charles Caudrelier, on the lavishly-funded Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, completed the race in a mere 50 days (on February 27) with second-placed Sodebo, skippered by the most experienced solo multihull circumnavigator in modern history, 55-year-old Thomas Coville who was completing his ninth circle of the planet, just two days behind.
Brittany’s coasts have always been a breeding ground for seamen and the port city of Brest is a place I’ve enjoyed gazing at the busts of sailing pioneers like La Perouse, who departed here in May 1785 with his all-Breton crew to explore the New World, including Australia.
Brest’s vast port is home to most of the French navy, along with Toulon on the Mediterranean, so it easily accommodated six Ultim ‘monsters of the deep’ in the lead up to January’s Arkea Ultim Challenge 2024. The French have long since left most other nations behind in this high-octane world where incredible technology, mega budgets and immense sailing skills – not to mention sheer daring – are required to race the Ultim 32m/23m class.
At speeds of 40-50 knots the decks are mostly in near-gale conditions, so the Ultim sailor rarely ventures there, instead living and (manually) operating sail controls via high-power hydraulic winches and rams. The latest designs for the box rule Ultim Class mean boats are built to their maximum length but designs vary within it. For instance, SVZ Lazartigue uses pods for the steerer while others, like the one I boarded during its launch, Sodebo, has the cabin in front of the mast to close the boom slot onto the deck.
Despite being the newest and theoretically the fastest – as attested by its blistering pace in the Atlantic – the unfortunate SVZ Lazartigue and young skipper Tom Laperche hit a UFO (unidentified floating object) and retired at Cape Town. Despite complex weather routing and myriad inputs from large shore teams, little can be done to avoid hitting debris.
Onboard life
These vessels feel very otherworldly and vast, as I found out when boarding an Ultim: the size of about four tennis courts, Sodebo was the first dedicated foiling Ultim, with vast carbon appendages I had to climb over while on the amas. Clambering around Sodebo after its launch, I found myself marvelling at how one (average-sized) bloke like Thomas Coville could do it. “Reefing only takes me a few minutes – when it goes well,” said Thomas, with a wry smile as we looked over the huge rotating carbon mast. It’s build was a collaborative effort that included VPLP Design, Martin Fischer and Renauld Banuls, engineers from Oracle Racing, the Luna Rossa America’s Cup team and Ben Ainslie Racing. The primary yard for the build was Multiplast in Brittany which did the central hull, floats and cockpit, while CDK constructed the fore beam; the aft beam was by Persico in Italy. The 35m tall Lorima rig will apply 65 tons of compression to the mast foot alone, carrying nearly 700m2 of sails downwind.
I found Sodebo skipper Thomas Coville an affable bloke to spend time with and the 55-year-old was the most experienced skipper in the monster trimaran fleet. Thomas has many accolades, including fastest solo man around the world in 2016 (49 days), winning a Volvo Race, and competing in the America’s Cup. Years ago he told me the ultimate test was the race he has now completed, along with the Jules Verne record. A weary Coville sustained damage to his sails, foils and foredeck in the Indian Ocean, which prompted him to put in at Hobart, Tasmania. His sails were so large the town hall in Hobart was used to repair them – that’s what I call hospitality!
Technology
Some key technologies are used to elevate these Ultims. Given these boats sprout foils in several places – daggerboards, centreboards and even rudders – UFO (unidentified floating objects) are their main worry. To help avoid them, infrared cameras are linked to black boxes that alert the skipper. On deck, loadcells on key running and fixed rigging elements provide constant data (with alarms) to avoid overloading and this data is relayed via satellite to race shore teams on duty 24/7. In addition, anti-capsize systems are used to release sheets, but given the vessels’ vast beams, capsize risk is low, as is the risk of pitchpoling, because rockstar designers like Guilliume Verdier have placed masts well back and specified voluminous amas.
However, none of the latest generation Ultims had been raced before across the southern Indian and Pacific Oceans, so after a sprint start by Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and SVZ Lazartigue (and after the latter’s demise) the pace slackened. By then the leading skipper, Charles Caudrelier on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, had locked into a winning weather pattern, as second placed Coville wryly acknowledged: “I’d like to ask Charles if he knew that if he had not gone so fast in the first three days, he would have had all these beautiful weather sequences going for him. His course is what made me dream the most about the whole Round the World!”
The ability to foil is conditional with these boats. For instance, in seas of three metres or more foiling flight partially transforms into a more hybrid mode called skimming. In this mode, the older generations of trimarans can still compete, so the only non-foiler in the fleet – Ultim Adagio skippered by Eric Peron – was hoping for those conditions. Unfortunately, his rivals were weather routed so well that they foiled most of the way around, leaving Peron far behind. They achieved this by finding the optimum foiling wind speed, typically 25 knots, for best performance – Sodebo averaged 23 knots. In addition, the newer boats could foil at much lower wind speeds, typically 14 knots, because of improved foils and lighter carbon hulls/amas.
Boats and skippers
Starting his ninth round the world passage, the 55-year-old Thomas Coville knew what lay ahead and expected to finish on the podium with his Sodebo Ultim 3. But he admitted just before the start it had been hard, as this was the first race since both his parents passed away in quick succession, so on reflection at the finish, he confessed: “Maybe I had it too much on my mind, because I missed it [location of best Atlantic weather pattern at the start], I was surprised by a shift, it cost me a lot of miles. In front, they (Tom Laperche and Charles Caudrelier) managed to pass at the right time and escape with a hundred miles of lead.”
Another Sodebo was in the fleet, the oldest boat competing, the 2014 non-foiling version, renamed Adagio Ultim. It was skippered by 42-year-old Brest based Eric Péron, who said he “chartered it to explore his personal limits and challenge his sense of adventure”. The experienced monohull skipper sailed a steady race, saying that passing Cape Horn on February 21 was just reward for his efforts: “I fought hard to get used to the boat, get the budget together to be able to line up, and then to keep hard at it in the Atlantic, while sailing this race at a speed that was 20% slower than the others.” Péron had to stop in Cape Town but had a dream passage across the Pacific on the leading edge of a front which he rode almost all the way across from Tasmania to Cape Horn.
Photo: Chris Cameron.
New Zealand pit-stop
Anthony Marchand on Actual Ultim limped into Dunedin on one foil on February 11, staying 28 hours while his team made technical repairs on his remaining starboard foil. Jérémy Place, the director of the Actual team who was onsite recalls: “We were really well-received in Dunedin. The Coastguard guided us well and they were very attentive when the boat arrived. Also, the people at the small yard who assisted us were incredible.” Actual Ultim is a well-proven boat on which, when it was MACIF 100, Francois Gabart set the record in 2017. His record still stands. The 38-year-old Marchand has raced many monohull classes, including eight La Solitaire du Figaros, and more recently, The Ocean Race’s Southern Ocean legs on Biotherm.
The newest boat in the fleet had the youngest skipper, 24-year-old Tom Laperche. Born into an ocean-racing family, he’d already co-skippered an Ultim with mentor Vendée Globe winning François Gabart, so Laperche had enough Ultim experience, which showed when he set the early pace on the most radical, lightest boat in the fleet. He brought unflappable youthful coolness and a steely focus, but was perhaps over-zealous or just plain unlucky, retiring with damage at Cape Town.
Experience shows
Another experienced competitor and bookies’ favourite was the 46-year-old Armel Le Cléac’h on Banque Populaire XI. Le Cléac’h is the most successful solo circumnavigator, having raced three times since 2008 on successive Vendée Globe races. He finished second twice and won in 2016. He also won The Transat Jacques Vabre transatlantic with Seb Josse. His Arklea Challenge saw him finish four days behind the second placed Sodebo after two pit-stops prompted by leaks and rudder damage.
He also rerouted through Bass Strait between Tasmania and Australia where the tracker showed him doing speeds of 39 knots, then again by going north of New Zealand to avoid
a depression.
Initially, he’d struggled with light winds and a very circuitous route round the west of the South Atlantic anticyclone, so was 1,500 miles behind Coville when he finally passed the Cape of Good Hope but was eventually able to overtake Coville.
Then, sustaining hull damage on the homeward Atlantic leg, he slowed before finally reaching Brest and telling media: “Mentally, it’s hard because I really had 56 days like that. There has always been the goal of finishing, which was the number-one objective for the team and with this boat. But let’s say it has been an experience. And it’s been tiring….
I’m pretty much at the end of my tether… Since Saturday [when he sustained damage], it’s been really hard to sail with a hole in the boat.”
Worthy winner
Maxi Edmond de Rothschild’s skipper Charles Caudrelier knew his 2017 Ultim thoroughly, and had proven it by making it the most successful of the Ultims. This Verdier design was the most powerful all-rounder in the fleet and Caudrelier is a committed winner after his double-handed circumnavigating success. He had a vast team of support crew, including three weather routers who guided him expertly. They routed him mostly on the rhumb line, including to the edge of the Southern Ocean on his way to Cape Horn. Towards the end, he sheltered in the Azores, before the final sprint to cross the finish line in Brest on February 27, where thousands lined the quays to welcome him.
Media heard his tired words after the 22,640 nautical-mile course: “When Tom Laperche abandoned the race I was relieved in some sense because the pressure was reduced. And you have to remember at the start of the race we did not really know if the boats were capable of finishing the race. I am happy to be able to say that I completed the course – and I could have done it without stopping. I am very proud of that.”
Racers
Maxi Edmond de Rothschild – Charles Caudrelier
Maxi Banque Populaire XI – Armel Le Cléac’h
SVR Lazartigue – Tom Laperche
Sodebo Ultim 3 – Thomas Coville
Actual Ultim 3 – Anthony Marchand
Ultim Adagio – Eric Peron
Race Tracker: http://www.gitana-team.com/fr/
Feature Written By Kevin Green
