Arkea Ultim Challenge: "Banque Populaire" at the pit stop, the competition is racing away

Little by little, the Banque Populaire team is gradually coming out with the technical problems, because the list is longer than expected. Initially it was only said that the gennaker was damaged, yesterday it was added that the pulpit was probably destroyed, and today there was suddenly talk that a foil could no longer be moved up and down properly and that the system had hydraulic problems.

Team Director Ronan Lucas said today about the stop:

"Together with Armel, we decided to make a stop because we damaged the large gennaker and especially the pulpit towards the end of the storm. It is unthinkable to tackle the Southern Ocean without it, it is an elementary safety feature for manoeuvres on the foredeck. On the way to Recife, Armel also noticed a problem with the system that raises and lowers the foil and makes it unusable. This makes the stop all the more important, even if it means a 24-hour time penalty. We are all a little disappointed by this mishap, especially as we had no problems at all during the Transat Jacques Vabre."

This means that Le Cléac'h cannot set sail again until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning at the earliest, as the regulations stipulate at least 24 hours for a stop. As the competition is sailing almost 800 miles in ideal conditions, the stop hurts twice as much. His deficit is likely to grow to over 1,100 nautical miles by tomorrow morning, and with a bit of bad luck he will fall behind Anthony Marchand's "Actual Ultim 3" in 5th place. After his very slow Doldrums passage, the latter is picking up speed again and is now travelling at over 20 knots. The only consolation for the Frenchman is that it looks as if the wind conditions will be favourable again after his re-start. He will then either have to push hard on the throttle, which is not ideal for an Ultim in single-handed mode, or hope that the boats in front of him will sail into lighter winds. But as the team rightly says: "The race is still long."

Arkea Ultim Challenge: "Gitana" catches up

Travelling at 30 knots: eerie encounter with a fishing boat

Thomas Coville had a somewhat eerie encounter this morning off the Brazilian coast, which the Ultims approached to within 50 miles. He passed a slowly approaching fishing boat at almost 30 knots:

"Fortunately, I had it on my radar, which warned me in good time. But it was travelling without an active AIS. That's often the case here off the coast of Brazil. It's a bit scary as a skipper. Sailing so close to land is not nice, that's the unpleasant side of sailing single-handed on an Ultim. You can't see the course and direction so well without AIS, you can't call the boat directly on the radio, so you have to stay on your toes."

He will be very happy if he can sail away from the land in about 24 hours, like the two Ultims sailing in front of him, in an arc towards the south-east. "SVR Lazartigue" and "Gitana Edmond de Rothschild" are already around 300 nautical miles from the coast. Eric Péron, bringing up the rear, has not yet crossed the equator with his non-foiler tri "Adagio" and still has around two to three days to go.

Video- Thomas Coville reports from the ship:

This might also interest you:

• The Ocean Race: Launched one year ago today - What remains of the 14th edition
• Arkea Ultim Challenge: Two duels in the southern hemisphere, six gourmets and a pit stop
• Opinion: Have ocean professionals never learnt to take off?