Arkea Ultim challenge : the race around the world, in solo !

They dreamed it when the Ultim class was created in 2017, they worked hard to make them both full foilers and reliable enough, the 6 Ultims of the last Jacques Vabre finished the race without major damage. Now they will face this crazy challenge : to race around the world in solo without stop, the equivalent of the Vendée Globe for Ultims.

Start Sunday o7 January (tomorrow) at 13:30 French hour, a live you tube video will be available.

For more info, this site ( in French unfortunately, why not an English version ?) :
ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest https://www.arkeaultimchallengebrest.com/fr

 

….the English version :
ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest https://www.arkeaultimchallengebrest.com/en/actualite?page=1

 

Thank you for posting the reminder.It will be fascinating to see how the race develops.

 

You can also play along on Virtual Regatta. Currently 30,000+ registered. Probably over 50K by race start. Estimated elapsed times for solo boats probably a bit over 40 days.

 

Skippers posted some videos, I liked this one of Sodebo , no words, just the boat in high speed foiling mode, that says more that any bla-bla-bla :


The leader Edmond de Rothschild is doing successive days of 800 to 850 nm, 33 to 35 Knots in average, as business as usual.

 

Amel fouled and lost his J0 sail and lost his tack hardware and trashed his pulpit. He had to stop in Brazil for a bit for an assisted repair. SRV collided with UFO at 35 knots. Major damage to main foil and lots of water ingress and is limping towards South African port. Prospects of continuing don't look good. I read somewhere it takes about a year to build one of those foils.

 

Banque Pop heading wrong way at 8 knots. No news on why yet. It looks to me that there is only 3 boats left making forward progress. Actual suffered major collision to an ama board and is limping to a port. Sodebo is currently sailing NNE at a beam reach, not sure why.

 

The newest race report says that Thomas Colville was repairing a foil lowering system and the tracker now shows him making progress at 28 knots,so it seems to have worked.

 

Pit stop at Hobart is planned for Sodebo for various issues , and Banque Pop is expected to go through the bass strait to avoid the worst of the sea state.