The two skippers set sail this Saturday with a lead of nearly 23.2 nautical miles.
After a regatta-style week, the gaps have widened between the six maxi-catamarans entered in the Ultim Challenge, a solo round-the-world race led by a duo formed by Tom Laperche and Charles Caudrelier.
Saturday around 5:00 p.m., as they approached the Equator line, the skipper of SVR-Lazartigue was 23.2 nautical miles ahead of his rival on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. A little over 250 miles behind the two leaders, another duo was formed with Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire XI) and Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3).
“The elastic is stretching,” observes Frédéric Le Puisrec, member of the race management. The fleet now stretches over a thousand miles, with Anthony Marchand (Actual Ultim 3) moving further north, at the latitude of the Cape Verde Islands, when the first approach the Brazilian coast. Eric Péron still brings up the rear on Adagio, the oldest trimaran in the fleet.
Olivier de Kersauson’s old Geronimo is the only Ultim not to have foils, these appendages which allow you to “fly” above the water, and therefore evolves at average speeds much lower than those of the others. The six skippers left on January 7 for a journey of around forty days to cover 21,600 nautical miles around the globe, or 40,000 km, aboard these maxi-trimarans 32 m long and 23 wide.
Fleet rankings Saturday at 5:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. GMT):
1. SVR-Lazartigue (Tom Laperche) 21,346 nautical miles from the finish
2. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Charles Caudrelier) 23.2 miles from the first
3. Maxi Banque Populaire XI (Armel Le Cléac’h) at 264 miles
4. Sodebo Ultim 3 (Thomas Coville) at 278 miles
5. Actual Ultim 3 (Anthony Marchand) at 751.3 miles
6. Adagio (Eric Péron) at 1,019 miles
