Ultim : les dernières infos Tip & Shaft

After the 2022 season which ended with third place in the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe in the Ultim class, Thomas Coville has been back on the water during this first week of the year. The crew of Sodebo Ultim 3 is now ready to take on the Route of Discovery record between Cadiz and San Salvador (Bahamas). The record of 6 days 14 hours and 29 minutes has been held since 2013 by Spindrift 2. Tip & Shaft spoke with Coville.

After an impressive 2022 season on the Figaro Beneteau circuit which was marked by four victories from four solo races, including winning the pinnacle Solitaire du Figaro and the title of French Elite offshore racing champion, Tom Laperche is preparing to compete on The Ocean Race with the crew of Holcim PRB before he then continues the 2023 season on François Gabart’s Ultim SVR Lazartigue. That is quite the programme for a 25-year-old sailor who talks to Tip & Shaft.

Four Ultims set off on Saturday from Lorient for the 24H Ultim, a solo race of around 500 miles, which is designed to serve as a dress rehearsal at just over a month before the start of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe. Among these starters will be Banque Populaire XI, whose skipper Armel Le Cléac’h took time out to answer questions from Tip & Shaft.

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.