Special envoy to Brest
Thunder from Brest!
Charles Caudrelier and his sea giant Edmond de Rothschild crossed the finish line of the Arkéa Ultim Challenge on Tuesday morning at 8:37 a.m., the first solo round-the-world race on giant trimarans.
Lit by a few rays of the sun piercing a magnificent orange sky as they approach Pointe Saint-Mathieu, as if blessed by the gods while Brittany has been drowned in rain in recent days, the sailor, who celebrated his fifty years on Monday , will have taken 50 days 19 hours 7 minutes and 42 seconds to return to the city of Finistère which he left on January 7 after having completed more than 22,500 miles (41,000 km) on the oceans passing through the 3 reference capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn).
Very comfortable leader of the ranking since entering the southern seas, Caudrelier even had the luxury of making a stopover last week in the Azores for three days.
A cautious break to let the storm Louis pass while his boat was tired with a very damaged starboard front arm.
A damage occurred four days after the start of the race that the sailor was careful not to reveal so as not to fuel the hopes of the competition.
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He managed his abysmal lead over the competition
Caudrelier, who was up to 3,500 miles ahead of his pursuers at Point Némo (the point of the ocean farthest from any land surface on the planet between Australia and Cape Horn) signed an extraordinary adventure. - standard on boats of which we did not know if they were able to complete their journey with their giant foils, fragile appendages of sea monsters 32 meters long and 23 wide.
Caudrelier will have completed his circumnavigation of the globe at an average speed of around 28 knots (51 km/h).
This is worse than the reference time of François Gabart, holder since 2017 of the Saint-Exupéry trophy (solo sailing around the world) in 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 30 seconds.
No matter, Caudrelier had not made this reference time an objective even on a new generation boat much faster than Gabart's Macif.
He will also set off to attack the planet next winter, to try to improve the Jules Verne trophy, still on Edmond de Rothschild, but this time with a crew.
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For this unprecedented first, there were six of them at the start, at the helm of more or less recent trimarans.
Considered one of the big favorites, the young Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue), 26 years old, gave up after eleven days of a fierce standoff with Charles Caudrelier.
A withdrawal which allowed the winner to soar in the rankings.
Currently 2nd and 3rd, Thomas Coville (Sodebo) and Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire), initially serious competitors for victory, were both victims of damage forcing them to make a stopover and let the speedy Maxi slip away. Edmond de Rothschild.
Navigators Éric Péron (Adagio) and Anthony Marchand (Actual), aboard the oldest Ultims in the fleet, were quickly left behind but courageously continued to sail up the South Atlantic towards the equator on Monday.
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Caudrelier has long been the only sailor to avoid technical stops before a break in the Azores.
Before that, a depression before passing Cape Horn had forced him to slow down before beginning a long and tiring journey up the North Atlantic with an arm cut by the on-board wind turbine.
“It’s weird, but I had the impression of becoming a machine, a robot connected to performance, a kind of killer who doesn’t let go of a nautical mile
,” he told AFP. of the goal.
This victory with a boat launched in 2017 propels Caudrelier as one of the greatest sailors in offshore racing after having the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021 and the Route du Rhum 2022, which he considered it his Grail.
It was before his last stroke of brilliance opening the winners of the Arkéa Ultim Challenge.
Forever the first.