By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 31 minutes ago, Updated now
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Charles Caudrelier (Edmond de Rothschild) is ahead of Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue) by 0.7 miles at the 5:00 p.m. check-in.
No damage to report! After facing the first storm of their trip around the world, the leaders of the Ultim Challenge continued their journey towards the southwest on Thursday, in search of milder weather and trade winds.
Gusts recorded at 50 knots (92 km/h), very rough seas and rumbling thunder… All “at night, in torrential rain, it wasn’t very comfortable», conceded Thursday Armel Le Cléac’h at the helm of Maxi Banque Populaire XI.
Third in the standings approaching Cape Verde at 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT), the 46-year-old skipper, winner of the Vendée Globe in 2017, suffered the full force of the first depression of the race between trimarans, which lasted a good fortnight of hours.
«Physically, it was very athletic. We got past this big, slightly stressful trap, and we continue the road towards better conditions (…) a priori I haven’t broken anything», he congratulated himself.
After losing a few dozen nautical miles on the lead between Tuesday and Wednesday while trying to avoid a cetacean zone, the sailor was now looking for the trade winds to catch up, like the Sodebo Ultim 3.
In front of them and engaged further west, the SVR Lazartigue helmed by Tom Laperche was still fighting side-to-side with Charles Caudrelier’s Maxi Edmond de Rothschild at the end of the day.
But the gap widened on Thursday between the leading quartet and the bottom two in the fleet.
Actual was around 160 nautical miles (300 km) from the first at 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT) on Thursday when Eric Péron’s Ultim Adagio, the oldest trimaran in the fleet, was still in the middle of a storm off the Canary Islands at 380 miles.
«Behind this front, we will have to choose between the plague and cholera. Going further west is risky because the sea is very rough with 5 to 6 meters of waves and there is a gap between the depression and the start of the trade winds.», Analyzed Péron during his session.
The six skippers set off on a journey of around forty days to cover 21,600 nautical miles around the globe, or 40,000 km.
Fleet rankings Thursday at 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT):
1. SVR-Lazartigue (Tom Laperche) 22,406 nautical miles from the finish
2. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Charles Caudrelier) 0.7 miles from the first
3. Maxi Banque Populaire XI (Armel Le Cléac’h) at 36.1 miles
4. Sodebo Ultim 3 (Thomas Coville) at 157.5 miles
5. Actual Ultim 3 (Anthony Marchand) at 110.3 miles
6. Adagio (Eric Péron) at 383.3 miles
