All the sail racing news of the week: a new Ultim race in early October in Lorient, SailGP unveils the schedule of the season 4, Tom Laperche will be the substitute skipper of François Gabart for the Route du Rhum….
Yves Le Blevec is the Deputy Mayor of La Trinité-sur-Mer in charge of water sports and tourism, he is race director of the Mini en Mai which starts on May 17 and of course is also the skipper of Actual Ultim (which was runner up on the last Route du Rhum as Francois Gabart’s Macif 100) which has just been relaunched. And so clearly Yves Le Blevec is something of a busy man. Before his solo training started he took the time to talk to Tip & Shaft.
François Gabart opened up on the dispute between his team and the Ultim 32/23 class – in effect made up of Sodebo, Banque Populaire, Actual, and more recently Gitana Team – regarding the rules compliance of the trimaran SVR Lazartigue. Since then the parties have stuck to their guns. Tip & Shaft runs back over the chain of events which now finds a deadlock situation.
The French Olympic Sailing Week of Hyères-Toulon Provence Méditerranée starts on April 23. And so it is a good opportunity for Tip & Shaft to catch up with the President of the FFV, the French Sailing Federation, Jean-Luc Dénéchau and discuss the Paris 2024 Games, the America’s Cup, the general dynamism of offshore and ocean racing as well as the conflict between François Gabart and the Ultim 32/23 class.
All the sail racing news of the week: a new partner and a new Imoca for Paul Meilhat, Francis Joyon will defend his Ultim title on the next Route du Rhum, a conflict between François Gabart and the Class Ultim 32/23, the 2022 TF35 Trophy unveiled….
With just a few days to go before the arrival of the top three finishers in the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest, expected in Brest from Monday, Tip & Shaft analyses the week’s events, in particular Charles Caudrelier’s stopover in the Azores, in the company of sailors Loïck Peyron and Franck Cammas, and weather routing specialist Christian Dumard.
After 26 days of racing on the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest, difficult weather conditions in the Southern Ocean have forced Charles Caudrelier to slow down, Armel Le Cléac’h to take an atypical route, and Thomas Coville to stop over in Tasmania. To talk about these twists and turns, Tip & Shaft interviewed Nicolas Lunven, member of the Maxi Banque Populaire XI routing team, Francis Le Goff, race director of the last Transat Jacques Vabre, and Arthur Le Vaillant, former Ultim skipper now in the hands of Eric Péron under the colors of Adagio.
As the third week of the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest draws to a close, half the fleet is now in Cape Town or heading there, following major damage, while Charles Caudrelier set a new solo reference time at Cape Leeuwin on Thursday. To analyse these developments, Tip & Shaft spoke to meteorologist Christian Dumard, a member of Actual Ultim 3’s routing team, Christian Le Pape, former director of the Finistère ocean racing centre in Port-La-Forêt, and Renaud Bañuls, one of Sodebo Ultim 3’s designers.
The second week of the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest has been a busy one, with Armel Le Cléac’h’s stopover in Recife, damage to SVR Lazartigue and Charles Caudrelier, who has just passed Good Hope, almost setting a new 24-hour record. To analyse these events, Tip & Shaft interviewed Sébastien Josse, winner of the last Transat Jacques Vabre with Armel Le Cléac’h, meteorologist Jean-Yves Bernot, member of SVR-Lazartigue’s routing team, and Gildas Morvan, race director of the last Finistère Atlantique.
This Sunday 7 January, six sailors set off from Brest for the first edition of the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest, a solo Ultim round the world race. As before every major race, Tip & Shaft has brought together a panel of experts to talk about the line-up: Guillaume Rottée, the race director, Christian Dumard, Anthony Marchand’s router, Francis Le Goff, race director of the last Transat Jacques Vabre, Erwan Tabarly, coach at the Finistère ocean racing centre in Port-la-Forêt, sailor Pascal Bidégorry and the journalist Pierre-Marie Bourguinat.
Since Tuesday and the departure from Le Havre of the Imoca boats, the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie-Le Havre has resumed its ‘normal’ course, with matches in all four classes. Tip & Shaft takes a look at each of them (to be followed on our website), accompanied by Pierre-Marie Bourguinat, the editor covering the race for the organisation, the routers Jean-Yves Bernot and Marcel Van Triest for the Ultims, Martin Le Pape for the Imocas, Daniel Souben for the Ocean Fiftys and Bruno Jourdren for the Class40s.
Following the success of the SL 180, Plastimo launched its successor, the SLR 196 (for “Super Light Racing”), at the beginning of 2022, the result of 18 months of development. The brand’s top-of-the-range lifejacket has been rapidly and massively adopted by racers. “Most of the fleet in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2023 is equipped with it, in each of the classes: Imoca, Ultim, Ocean Fifty, Class40,” points out Frédéric Blaudeau, Plastimo’s marketing and communication director. “In addition, 80% of the crews in the Ocean Globe Race are equipped with the SLR 196 and Plastimo safety equipment.”
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