Head-to-head Jules Verne attempts: two Ultim trimarans set off to try and break 40 days around the world

The 2 crews are each trying to interrupt the continuous, world wide document – the ‘no limits’ Jules Verne Trophy – which at present stands at 40 days, 23 hours, half-hour and 30 seconds.

Thomas Coville’s Sodebo Ultim 3 was first to begin, crossing the digital begin line off Brest in western France, at 2103 final night time, Friday 29 November. The ‘line’ is between Ouessant and the Lizard, UK.

The crew set off at almost 30 knots, although this morning had been some 100 miles behind the equal tempo set by present document holder IDEC Sport.

So as to break the document, Sodebo might want to return to cross the road by January 9, 2025 at 2034hrs.

Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartigue then set off this morning, Saturday 30 November, at 08.51 (native time). They might want to return by the morning of January 10 to be able to break the document.

Report-breaking routing

Each groups set off independently, however their climate routing groups have recognized the identical climate window which is at present forecasting the boats to succeed in the Equator in round 5 days.

So as to be in with a shout of beating the document, they’ll then must be on the Cape of Good Hope inside a dozen days of beginning. Each groups progressively went from ‘Code Orange’ standby mode, to ‘Code Inexperienced’ earlier than beginning simply 12 hours aside.

Sodebo Ultim 3 Skipper Thomas Coville units off on a Jules Verne Trophy bid from Lorient on 29 November, 2024. Photograph: Vincent Curutchet / Staff Sodebo

Thomas Coville, skipper of Sodebo, defined: “The transition from orange to inexperienced is usually fairly brutal, it’s a must to change mode and mentality.

“Personally, what helps me to change is once I dress in my sea gear, once I placed on my boots, it permits me to enter one other world, that of a sailor.”

Thomas Coville (far left), Benjamin Schwartz (centre) and the Sodebo Ultim 3 crew. Photograph: Vincent Curutchet / Staff Sodebo

Crew member and navigator Benjamin Schwartz defined the group’s begin technique: “We’ll set off close-hauled/reaching to search for a primary entrance within the south of a despair, with a tack deliberate for Saturday afternoon, then dive south in a wind that can choose up, so downwind.

“The target is to go across the Azores excessive from the east and slip underneath it for a closing gybe, most likely Monday morning, which can take us straight in direction of the equator in about 5 days, so slightly forward of the document time.”

However he cautions: “The window is kind of quick, insofar because the Azores Excessive tends to emit a ridge  (an extension)  which closes the path to Portugal, so we should handle to slide into a reasonably slender hall in time.”

Jules Verne Trophy crews

Sodebo is crusing with a crew of seven: Thomas Coville, Frédéric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Léonard Legrand, Guillaume Pirouelle, Benjamin Schwartz and Nicolas Troussel.

Skipper Francois Gabart, third from left, and the SVR-Lazartigue crew setting off on their method to the Jules Verne Trophy begin line in Brest on Saturday, 30 November 2024. Photograph: Clement Gerbaud/SVR-Lazartigue

SVR-Lazartigue is crusing with six: Francois Gabart, Tom Laperche, Pascal Bidégorry, Amélie Grassi, Antoine Gautier, and Émilien Lavigne.

For the Jules Verne Trophy the groups could use on shore routers, and every could have a group monitoring the climate, place of ice, and potential routing methods. Sodebo’s is headed up by Philippe Legros and Simon Fisher, whereas SVR-Lazartigue’s router is Jean-Yves Bernot.

Report holders rematch

The present time was set by Francis Joyon on IDEC Sport in 2017, when his six-man crew accomplished a continuous circumnavigation – within the non-foiling trimaran – at a blistering common pace of 26.8 knots.

Each skippers have claimed the solo continuous world wide document, Coville setting a document time in December 2016 of 49d 3h 7m 38s.

Gabart set the present benchmark of 42d 16h 40m 35s the next 12 months – remarkably simply two days slower than the crewed document they’re each trying to beat, together with an astonishing 24hr document of 851 miles solo.

The latest of the Ultims, SVR-Lazartigue is probably essentially the most superior design. Photograph: Guillaume Gatefait

Going face to face

In 2016, IDEC Sport and Spindrift 2 set off inside hours of one another, within the first ‘head-to-head’ Jules Verne try. Each groups made it spherical, however neither broke the document.

The final time two boats set off collectively was in 2020, when Gitana 17 and Sodebo began inside hours of one another in late November.

Each retired from their try early: Gitana turning again after three days after colliding with a ‘UFO’ (unidentified floating object), whereas Sodebo had an important begin to their bid – extending to over 200 miles forward of IDEC Sport’s place, and frequently posting days with 30-35-knot averages.

However by mid-December they too needed to retire, after colliding with an underwater object and damaging the starboard rudder.

The foiling Ultims are notoriously weak to collisions, however in February 2024 Charles Caudrelier received the primary ever single-handed world wide race within the large trimarans, after his Gitana 17 made the circumnavigation with out stopping for a technical restore (he did cease within the Azores to keep away from ‘impassable’ situations within the Bay of Biscay, with a forecast of 7-10m waves and 50 knot winds). That passage proved it may be achieved.

Help crew bid farewell to the Sodebo Ultim 3 crew. Photograph: Vincent Curutchet / Staff Sodebo

Find out how to observe the Jules Verne Trophy

You possibly can observe the Sodebo try at their very own tracker dashboard, which in addition to boat pace, wind information and many others additionally consists of the choice to message the crew and even see who’s on watch.

SVR-Lazartigue additionally has it’s personal tracker – which additionally reveals relative place to IDEC Sport (100 miles forward after two hours of racing), wind information and many others.

In the event that they make it that far, the 2 crews are additionally prone to overtake the Vendée Globe fleet within the southern oceans.