ULTIM's are go......

[John_Silver]

The ULTIM's are off, tomorrow, 11.30 GMT, from Brest, on a solo lap around the world .... Should be a good watch! On the tracker and with live coverage from the Arkea ULTIM Challenge homepage.

 

[Martin_J]

I was just trying to find a link to the live video of the start prior to tomorrow.. It wasn't obvious on the home page.

Seems to say live in 61 minutes..

Start of ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest

 

[LePacha]

Website is here: ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest

24H to reach Spain... 12 days apparently to reach the Cap Horn... 30 to go to the Cap of Good Hope... this is just crazy... Wonder how many of them will make it with their boat in good condition...

 

[dunedin]

Incredibly close racing at the front of the fleet - flying at 30knots and seemed to be in sight for much of the last day or so, with less than a mile difference in leaderboard terms

 

[John_Silver]

Banque Pop in Recife for repairs. Foil hydraulics and collateral damage from, what sounds like, a blown tack line.

 

[dunedin]

Banque Pop in Recife for repairs. Foil hydraulics and collateral damage from, what sounds like, a blown tack line.

These things are pushing the boundaries of what is humanly and technically possible extremely hard. If any make it round the world flying up on foils at up to 45 knots sailing solo, it will be an incredible achievement. Some problems are inevitable when “boldly going” to this extreme level.

 

[dunedin]

They are doing amazing speeds in the open ocean - Sodebo Ultim just posted 746.4nm in just 24 hours. AVERAGING just over 31 knots, even when the pilot is asleep! Incredible.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

They are doing amazing speeds in the open ocean - Sodebo Ultim just posted 746.4nm in just 24 hours. AVERAGING just over 31 knots, even when the pilot is asleep! Incredible.

The noise at those kind of speeds is huge. And the motion, you must have to strap yourself in. Back in the mists of history, Pete Goss sailed an 8m open cat across the atlantic solo, and said hekd never left the deck. He used to sleep slumped over the winches so that the discomfort woke him every 20 mins. The systems on these ultims have to be way safer whilst asleep, but even so, getting any sleep must be an achievement.

 

[dunedin]

Sadly SVR Lazartique, which had been the leader or close second from the start, has hit something with a foil and caused serious damage. This seems to be the biggest risk with fast boats. May be out of the race.
Meanwhile Edmond du Rothschild is hurtling on - currently showing a 24 hour run of an incredible 825.6nm, a sustained average of an amazing 34.4 knts.
Of course with such fast and on the edge racers, it will be a race of attrition, and the last place boat could end up being the (very fast) tortoise at the end.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Sadly SVR Lazartique, which had been the leader or close second from the start, has hit something with a foil and caused serious damage. This seems to be the biggest risk with fast boats. May be out of the race.
Meanwhile Edmond du Rothschild is hurtling on - currently showing a 24 hour run of an incredible 825.6nm, a sustained average of an amazing 34.4 knts.
Of course with such fast and on the edge racers, it will be a race of attrition, and the last place boat could end up being the (very fast) tortoise at the end.

UFO (unidentified floating object) impact has long been a problem for any fast boat, numerous mono accidents are attributed to it as well as multis. Sudden keel loss, it's possibly a UFO. I think IIRC that ENZA New Zealand had a collision with what was probably a container, back in the early Jules Verne Trophy days. I hit a railway sleeper or similar baulk of timber in my Strider cat, reaching at about 12 kn, and broke a dagger board in 1993

 

[John_Silver]

The noise at those kind of speeds is huge. And the motion, you must have to strap yourself in. Back in the mists of history, Pete Goss sailed an 8m open cat across the atlantic solo, and said hekd never left the deck. He used to sleep slumped over the winches so that the discomfort woke him every 20 mins. The systems on these ultims have to be way safer whilst asleep, but even so, getting any sleep must be an achievement.

Some good insights, from Armel Le Cleac'h before the race start, into life aboard an ULTIM......

 

[dunedin]

More incredible records - across the entire Indian Ocean from South Africa to Tasmania at an incredible AVERAGE speed of 30.7 knots! New Indian Ocean solo record for leader Charles Caudrelier in the Arkéa Ultim Challenge - Brest

 

[dunedin]

Ultims are …. On pause! With their huge speed they can generally route around weather systems (that slower boats tend to get splatted with), this clearly doesn’t work at the narrow gateway that is between Cape Horn and the southern ice limits. with forecasts of 70 knots and huge seas, the leader has pressed pause to await a better window The weather calls stoppage time on Charles Caudrelier and the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild

Amazingly, he reports that when nearing “Nemo Point” (the spot in the world furthest from any land) his AIS alert went off. With a VHF horizon range, it was due to passing a boat sailing the Ocean Globe Race which he passed close by. That yacht will have been going slowly such that this specific Cape Horn storm shouldn't be an issue, but hope the OGR and Global Solo Challenge guys get a safe rounding when their times come.

 

[dunedin]

In spite of pausing for 2 days, it looks like it will still be a very tricky weather pattern to get round Cape Horn for Edmond de Rotheschild. Taking a 100ft foiling trimaran round with a large unreefable wing mast in strong winds, plus the waves left over from a major storm (probably at a different angle to the underlying swell), that needs some skill and guts.

 

[Birdseye]

The tracker still shows him doing 30kn so presumably the waiting is now over

 

[dunedin]

The tracker still shows him doing 30kn so presumably the waiting is now over

Yes waited for roughly 2 days, then started accellerating back onto course

 

[John_Silver]

Expecting to round the Horn tomorrow.....In 6m of swell......

Good scrap going on between Sodebo and Banque Pop, a bit further back. They should round circa the 10th

 

[dunedin]

Looks like Edmond de Rotheschild just rounded Cape Horn a short while ago.
Getting crowded there, with the Ocean Globe Race leader Pen Duick rounding a little before and the second boat around now?

Meanwhile Bank Populaire has just posted a 24 hour run of 818.4nm - an average speed of 34.1 knots over 24 hours (solo).

 

[John_Silver]

 

[John_Silver]