François Gabart and his trimaran SVR-Lazartigue officially entered stand-by this Monday, and will set off as soon as the weather is favorable for the Jules Verne Trophy, the record for a non-stop crewed round the world race.
While the Vendée Globe started eight days ago, the 39 skippers still competing on their Imoca should soon be overtaken by a multihull going much faster than them, François Gabart's SVR-Lazartigue. The 41-year-old skipper, who also won the 2012-13 Vendée Globe, is preparing to embark on an attempt at a crewed, non-stop round-the-world record, in order to dispossess Francis Joyon of the Jules Verne Trophy.
In 2017, the sailor and his five friends, on Idec Sport, completed the circumnavigation of the world in 40 days and 23 hours.
Since then, five crews (led by Yann Guichard twice, the Franck Cammas/Charles Caudrelier tandem twice, and Thomas Coville) have tried their luck, but failed. Since Monday, François Gabart and his teammates Tom Laperche, Pascal Bidégorry, Amélie Grassi, Emilien Lavigne and Antoine Gautier have been on stand-by, and will therefore take the start as soon as the weather is favorable.
Coville also on standby
“The spirit of the Jules Verne is to make the most beautiful tour of the world possible, to make a beautiful navigation around the planet, necessarily with speed since it is a record,” says François Gabart, in remarks collected by Sails and Sailboats. It remains a technical and human challenge to fly around the planet. It's exciting. I am really very happy to be going on this crewed adventure. » Before setting off towards the starting line, located between the Créac'h lighthouse on the island of Ouessant (off the coast of Brest) and the Cap Lizard lighthouse (in the south of England), the crew from SVR-Lazartigue will monitor the weather.
“The visibility from Ushant to go down the North Atlantic as quickly as possible is still quite good. What is more difficult is to synchronize these first days of navigation with the idea of catching a depression off the coast of Brazil and having an anticyclone from Saint Helena as far north as possible to chain the South Atlantic on the as quickly as possible.
Beyond the equator and after five or six days, the information is not yet very precise, especially in an area which is not always very stable.“, Gabart said. For a week, another boat has been on standby in view of the Jules-Verne: Sodebo Ultim 3, skippered by Thomas Coville, with Frédéric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Léonard Legrand, Guillaume Pirouelle, Benjamin Schwartz and Nicolas Troussel as teammates. Will we be entitled to a duel around the world in a multihull?
