A match between two maxi-trimarans to try to beat the round-the-world sailing record

Forty days, twenty-three hours, thirty minutes: this is the record for sailing around the world, called the Jules-Verne Trophy and held since 2017 by Francis Joyon, to which two crews and their maxi-trimarans chose to compete. attack simultaneously, Friday November 29.

“Given the conditions, the trimaran SVR-Lazartigue will try to take a good window tonight on the line [de départ] from Ouessant »François Gabart’s team announced Friday morning, specifying that he would leave his home port of Concarneau (Finistère) at 2 p.m.

Almost at the same time, Thomas Coville’s team declared: “They’re going to try!” On stand-by since November 9, the seven crewmen of Sodebo-Ultim 3 getting ready to set off (…). They will leave their base in Lorient [Morbihan] this afternoon for a departure in the evening. »

Both crews had been waiting for an ideal weather window for several weeks. They should cross the starting line, off the coast of Ouessant (Finistère), a few tens of minutes apart in the evening.

They will meet the IMOCAs of the Vendée Globe

François Gabart, 41 years old, already holder of the solo round-the-world record (42 days 16 hours 40 minutes and 35 seconds), took Tom Laperche, Amélie Grassi, Antoine Gautier, Emilien Lavigne and Pascal Bidégorry aboard SVR-Lazartigue.

The navigators Frédéric Denis, Léonard Legrand, Pierre Leboucher, Guillaume Pirouelle, Benjamin Schwartz and Nicolas Troussel accompany Thomas Coville, 56 years old, on Sodebo-Ultim 3.

SVR-Lazartigue et Sodebo-Ultim 3 will undoubtedly encounter on their route the IMOCAs of the Vendée Globe, which left on November 10 from Sables-d’Olonne and are much slower than these Formula 1 of the seas. This Friday, the leader of the event, Charlie Dalin (Macif), passed the Cape of Good Hope in first position, at the tip of Africa, gateway to the formidable South Seas.

Imagined in the 1980s, the Jules-Verne Trophy was to reward the sailor who, imitating Phileas Fogg, would complete a world tour in less than eighty days. Bruno Peyron did it in 1993 in seventy-nine days.