Thomas Coville and Franck Cammas promise us a show!
In a few hours, two maxi-trimarans - these new generation giants of the seas capable of flying over water - could well get away with it and bring us to an exceptional record race.
Their goal, to steal the Jules Verne trophy, the crewed round-the-world record, from Francis Joyon (Idec), who, in 2017, had taken 40 days and 23 hours to circle the globe.
While Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier and the Gitana team had passed Monday in "code yellow", the last step before a start that they had scheduled Tuesday at the end of the day, they changed their minds due to an "uncertain" atmospheric situation in the southern hemisphere (which they hope to reach in 4 days and 12 hours).
It was then that Thomas Coville and his teammates from Sodebo, who had been carrying out final adjustments to their maxi-trimaran in recent days, decided to activate the "green code" directly on Tuesday noon and to stand on the line. departure off Ouessant.
A trophy imagined in the 80s
Departure is scheduled for Tuesday from 8 p.m.
A surprise scenario since the countdown for Sodebo was rather expected at the end of October, the Maxi trimaran having to be taken out of the water to repair one of the foils.
“A good window, on which we have been working since last Saturday, presents itself;
it would be a shame to miss it, confirms Jean-Luc Nélias, one of the routers of the Sodebo team.
You don't always find good niches in the Bay of Biscay at this time of year.
“A window that Gitana refused, who believes that the one that could open Thursday evening would be much more favorable.
The Jules Verne trophy was designed in the 1980s, in reference to Jules Verne's tour of the world in eighty days, by sailors Yves Le Cornec, Florence Arthaud and Eugène Riguidel.
The principle is to cut the starting line connecting the Créac'h lighthouse on the island of Ouessant and the lighthouse of the Lizard cape and to go around the world leaving the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn, approximately 40,000 km to cover.
This is the first time that the new generation Maxi has launched an assault on the trophy.