Ultim Challenge: Around the world solo in 40 days with monster trimarans
"Later I will be proud to say that I was part of this development when flying boats started to sail across the Atlantic in five to six days and around the world in under 40!" This is how Thomas Coville, "Sodebo" skipper and one of the race participants, summed it up when he described what the Ultim Challenge means to him. And it will indeed be a race of superlatives, a turning point:
Never before in the history of sailing have such large boats competed in a single-handed non-stop race around the world.
So far, only four sailors have managed to circumnavigate the globe in such a large multihull monster, and only in record attempts: Francis Joyon, Ellen MacArthur, Thomas Coville and François Gabart. The Vendée Globe, on the other hand, is almost a popular sporting event.
And from 2017, the year in which Gabart broke his existing record of 42 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes, a new era began: that of the fully foiling monster tris. Then "Edmond de Rothschild" was completed, a design by Guillaume Verdier and the Gitana team. It was the first to fly stably horizontally over the sea at an altitude of several metres. This was followed over the next four years by further new constructions by the Banque Populaire, Sodebo and SVR Lazartigue teams.
40 million euros for a boat
As it is not only a Herculean task to build such a boat, but also to finance it, the number of teams remained manageable. François Gabart's SVR Lazartigue team recently estimated the budget for the construction and four-year operation of such an Ultim at over 40 million euros.
In the newly founded Ultim class, which comprises boats up to 32 metres long and 23 metres wide, this was the starting signal for the new generation of boats that had previously only ever been lonely record chasers. Now, after the Atlantic races, there will be a race around the world. The start and finish is off Brest, more precisely the island of Ouessant, because if one of the skippers manages to beat Gabart's 2017 record during the race, the result will be ratified as a record. In contrast to the Vendée, however, there are some rules that are different.
The skippers are allowed to be routed ashore by the team, as they considered the risk of getting caught in storms with the huge boats too dangerous, and technical repair stops are permitted, but must last at least 24 hours.
Records should tumble with the new Ultims
However, nobody seriously believes that there is still a chance of victory after that. In this time, the competition would easily gain 600 to 700 miles in good conditions. Charles Caudrelier sailed 880 nautical miles in 24 hours on the return passage of his Tris "Edmond de Rothschild" from the Caribbean after the 2021 Transat. It is likely that the existing record of 908.2 nautical miles set by "Banque Populaire" (2009) will fall in the race. This is because the record holder was not a foiler. The enormous technical development of the boats is demonstrated by the figures that the design office VPLP compared for the race. The engineers compared the polar data of Francis Joyon's "Idec Sport", the record holder for the fastest crewed circumnavigation of the world (40 days, 23 hours), with that of "Edmond de Rothschild". The result: in foil mode, the new ship is 35 per cent faster.
Rapid technical development of Ultims
And the technical arms race between the teams continued right up to the start of the race. Three boats already have their second set of foils, while the Gitana team's have even been reworked four times in between. François Gabart, skipper of "SVR Lazartigue", vividly explained just how big the technical challenge is: "There are six foils on the boats whose angle of attack can be adjusted. It takes years to find the best combinations for all conditions!"
At the same time, an aspect that was unusual for offshore sailing began to attract a lot of attention: aerodynamics. A boat that sails at top speeds of around 45 and average speeds of around 35 knots often has gale force on deck due to the sum of real and apparent wind. And so the backs of the beams are clad aerodynamically with foils, furlers and rudders are concealed under covers, and main booms are connected to the deck with flexible panelling.
The tris now often sail at three times the wind speed. From 15 to 16 knots of true wind, the 15-tonne, 105-foot-long colossi lift themselves out of the water.
An Ultim is like a fighter jet for the crew
But what is life like on board? During the last Route du Rhum, YACHT had the opportunity to visit two of the flying projectiles, Thomas Coville's "Sodebo Ultim" and "SVR Lazartigue", skippered at the time by François Gabart. The tour initially leaves visitors in awe. Brute size meets elegant beauty, and the "SVR Lazartigue" in particular appears almost fragile. Boarding the monster, you feel like a dwarf in the land of giants. Foils that rise four metres above deck level. Hydraulic cylinders as thick as your thigh. Masts that two people can't grasp. Winches that look more like oil drums. Trampolines the size of tennis courts.
"SVR Lazartigue" also looks like a fighter jet: instead of a classic cockpit, there are two glass domes. And there are actually car steering wheels, reminiscent of a Formula 1 racer. The boat is a flush decker, so the boom can end just above the hull. The trim and navigation centre are located underneath, hidden deep in the belly of the centre hull. This is better aerodynamically.
Cockpits like on the Huston mission
It gets really futuristic when you stand in the closed cockpit. Batteries of screens with columns of numbers for dozens of pieces of data: Angle of attack of foils, loads on stays, inclination of the masts that can be tilted to windward. Autopilot, wind displays, plotter, speed are all on top. In between, a plethora of hydraulic rotary switches: Foil rake, outhaul tensioner, forestay pressure - there are up to 20 hydraulic cylinders in use on the boats. All of them are operated using muscle power via a grinder. This makes it impressively clear what a mammoth task the skipper has to master. His futuristic bucket seat stands alone in the centre of it all.
The race will now show which of them is best able to tame their monster. They will also need a bit of luck. Given the high speeds of the boats, collisions with even small pieces of flotsam became the main problem. Four record attempts had to be cancelled as a result. None of them got further than the Kerguelen Islands. Thomas Coville foresaw this when he added to his assessment of the historic event of the race around the world: "Of course, the beginning of this era can be a bit chaotic." It will be interesting to see how much.
