In search of the Jules Verne Trophy, the crew of the maxi-trimaran Sodebo set off on Friday evening for a round-the-world trip off the coast of Ouessant (Finistère), while SVR-Lazartigue was still waiting near the line. “Here we are!” Sodebo Ultim 3 crossed the starting line of the Jules Verne Trophy at 21:03:46 (French time), located between the Créac’h lighthouse (Ouessant) and Cape Lizard (south-west England). Thomas Coville.
To conquer the manned round the world record, held since 26 January 2017 by Idec Sport in 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes and 30 seconds, the maxi-trimaran will have to cross the finish line by Thursday 9 January at 8.34pm. 16″. The navigators Frédéric Denis, Léonard legrand, Pierre Leboucher, Guillaume Pirouelle, Benjamin Schwartz and Nicolas Troussel accompany Thomas Coville, who at the age of 56 sets off on his tenth voyage around the world.
“When we build a project like this, it’s to bring people like them together. The sine qua non for it to work is that we have fun,” said coville, already a two-time winner of the trophy as a teammate of Olivier de Kersauson in 1997 and Franck Cammas in 2010. Sodebo had been waiting for an ideal weather window for several weeks. Thomas Coville and his crew hope to arrive in 5 days at the equator and within the record time at the Cape of Good Hope, which is about twelve days.
“We can sail well and have a little luck”
Also on stand-by for weeks, the SVR-Lazartigue left the port of Concarneau on Friday around 2pm to go to the line, but the crew planned an “overnight” departure instead. “I’m really happy to be able to try it, we have a difficult window, but we have a good boat, a great crew, we just have to sail well and have a bit of luck,” explained skipper François Gabart shortly before setting sail.
The Charentais,holder of the solo round-the-world record (42 days 16 hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds),took on board Tom Laperche,Amélie Grassi,Antoine Gautier,Émilien Lavigne and Pascal Bidégorry to pass,perhaps,under the symbolic bar of 40 days. The SVR-Lazartigue and the sodebo Ultim 3 are expected to cross paths with the IMOCAs of the Vendée Globe, which departed from Sables-d’Olonne on November 10 and will approach the Cape of Good Hope on Friday.
Imagined in the 1980s, the Jules Verne Trophy was intended to reward the sailor who, imitating the hero Phileas Fogg, circumnavigated the globe in less than 80 days. Bruno Peyron was the first to win it in 1993 in 79 days.