Eight skippers, including Francis Joyon, François Gabart and Armel Le Cléac’h, will compete on gigantic trimarans, jewels of technology which will take a week to complete the transatlantic between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre.
The squalls that follow one another in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) do not dampen the enthusiasm of the public. After a year with hardly any rain or wind, boot and oilskin merchants are rubbing their hands. Before the postponement to Wednesday 2:15 p.m., nearly 2 million visitors were expected by the organizers of the 12th edition of the Route du Rhum. At the edge of the crowded pools, the atmosphere is friendly. But the closer the departure approaches, the more the tension can be read on the faces of the sailors. We can understand them. If the first hours look tough but manageable, it’s then that things will get tougher. A large “cartridge” is being dug on the near Atlantic.
The stainless Thomas Coville, with eight round the world races, rides his bike to join his boat Sodebo Ultim 3. Without further stress, he admits: “It should be violent, and there will be no escape to the south…” The prospect of having to face 50 knots of wind (92 km/h) head-on and waves more than 8 meters high is enough to make even the most hardened and capable of turning pale. Watching them pull wisely on their huge mooring lines, one hardly dares to imagine these monsters flying in bad weather. SVR Lazartigue by François Gabart stands in front of the pack of 55 Class40 monohulls. His trimaran, second in the last Transat Jacques-Vabre, is a bit like the ugly duckling. It is said that his 32-meter boat, billed at 15 million euros, was revolutionary. With its futuristic look, its cockpits copied from those of fighter planes, Formula 1 type steering wheels full of buttons, it is not welcome.
Favorite label for Charles Caudrelier
Some of his opponents accuse François Gabart of having circumvented the regulations on a complex story of the height of the bridge, not allowing to have the necessary visibility according to the theoretically compulsory rule of watch at sea twenty-four hours a day. . The affair escalated, before the courts ruled in favor of Gabart, authorizing him to compete in the event. And during the traditional official photo of the eight skippers in Ultimate, the smiles were slightly strained and the handshakes agreed. In this small world of intelligent and well-mannered sailors, where fair play and solidarity are essential, imbroglio is a bad thing. Some even find it indecent that these “spoiled children” are not damned to settle their family dispute.
One thing is certain, the name “Ultimate” is not stolen. The measurements of these boats are dizzying: 32 meters long by 23 wide, up to 700 m² of sail, more than a kilometer of ropes, and monstrous efforts to be made, like the 65 tons of compression at the foot of the 37-metre mast… To reach the start, these monsters had to slip through the Naye lock. On each side of the floats, one could have slipped a sheet of cigarette paper. Surveying the pontoons is to discover the foils of nearly 500 kilos, real scythe blades carefully folded and protected in covers. Kinds of arms allowing the boat to almost fly on the water. These high-tech jewels, which required some 170,000 hours of brainpower and construction, are lined with fiber optics, sensors, and designed to fly at incredible speeds – between 35 and 50 knots (65 to 92 km / h) . To think that in 1978, the recently deceased Canadian Mike Birch had won the first edition in twenty-three days… Forty years later, Francis Joyon only needed seven days and fourteen hours.
If it were necessary this year to stick the label of favorite on a ship, it is of course on the blue and white trimaran Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, eight years old, led by the solid Charles Caudrelier. The man has already won almost everything, but he has never crossed the Atlantic alone. Sodebo Ultimate 3 (Thomas Coville), People’s Bank XI (Armel Le Cléac’h) or even IDEC Sport (Francis Joyon) defending champion, are much more than outsiders. All are helmed by sailors who have been circling the planet alone for ages, the type to cross the Atlantic the way one goes shopping at the local convenience store.
“Intense physical preparation”
The fear of these sailors is above all to break, even if the boats have never been so reliable. Yves Le Blevec, who bought François Gabart’s old boat with which he had circumnavigated the globe in forty-two days, is aware of the privilege of sailing on such toys, but knows that he will have a hard time. “Like all my comrades, I will spend many hours turning the cranks. You don’t have to be exhausted because a change of tack is a very committed half-hour of work. In order to be sharpened, I carried out an intense physical preparation, which is not in my usual culture. I am of a generation [Yves Le Blevec a 57 ans, ndlr] where the gym is not necessarily my cup of tea. During my holidays this summer, I crossed France by bike from Brittany to Lake Geneva.
The experienced Breton sleeps as soon as possible in small instalments, in a sort of cocoon, alternating bucket seat or bench seat right next to it. “Paradoxically, I fall asleep more easily with the sheets in my hand. [un cordage permettant de «choquer», donc larguer les voiles en cas de danger, ndlr], because even if the boat is full of alarms and automatic systems, it is very easy to be overtaken by the machine, with the risk of capsizing.» Faced with the warning of heavy weather that is looming, the Breton ports have been asked to welcome boats wishing to take shelter once the departure has been given.
In the Imoca class, opportunity wins
The magic of the Route du rhum and the resounding success of the last Vendée Globe are no strangers to this: the Imoca class of 60-foot (18.29 m) monohulls has never counted so many competitors (37). From Antoine Cornic on Human, the oldest boat (17 years old), to defending champion Paul Meilhat, at the helm of Biotherm, launched just two months ago. In addition to the latter, there are six new boats, machines worth between 5 and 8 million euros when leaving the shipyard. But the second-hand market is doing wonderfully, and very few ships vegetate in a hangar. Most of these boats already know the route, like Freelance.com, led by the adventurer Guirec Soudée, and which is none other than Roland Jourdain’s old boat, designed fifteen years ago, and which won the event in 2010. On these hulls that sailors recognize as unlivable, Charlie Dalin (Apivia), undefeated this year, but who is competing in his first “Rum”, is favored by bookmakers.