Charles Caudrelier crowned first king of the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE

 

One day after his 50th birthday Caudrelier crossed the finish line off Brest at 08:37:42hrs local time yesterday morning to win the inaugural ARKÉA ULTIM CHALLENGE-Brest, the first ever race round the world for 32m high speed foiling ULTIM multihulls.

His elapsed time for the 22,460 nautical miles course, which left Brest on Sunday 7th January is 50 days 19hrs 7 mins 42 secs. He sailed an actual course of 28,938 miles on the water.

After losing his nearest rival when 26 year old Tom Laperche’s SVR Lazartigue struck an object on the 18th day of the race and had to retire into Cape Town, the lead of Caudrelier extended to the equivalent of six days at one point after the second and third placed skippers had had to make successive technical stops in Brazil and Hobart.

Along the way he set a new solo record for the passage from Ushant to Cape Leeuwin, 18 days 5 hours 44 minutes, and for the Indian Ocean between Cape Agulhas and Tasmania’s South East Cape in a time of 8 days and 8 hours. But the Pacific Ocean was less kind to him and he had to pause just after Point Nemo – some 1300 miles west of Cape Horn – to avoid a big storm at the fearsome tip of South America.

Last week he was able make a strategic stop into the Azores to avoid one final Biscay gale – storm Louis – before completing the final 1200 miles with this perfectly timed, perfectly executed finish this morning.

His win rewards his remarkable work ethic, a strong appetite for self-sacrifice, perseverance and a powerful sense of community, family and teamwork which also underpinned his successful leadership of the winning Chinese backed Dongfeng team on The Ocean Race. His solo triumph today is a just reward for the immaculately run historic Gitana team’s multihull project which started almost ten years ago.

And so the Paris born, former Merchant Marine officer Caudrelier, at 50 years and one day old, has become the Ultimate ‘Ultim’ sailor, the one who sailed best on the best prepared, most optimised and reliable giant ULTIM, to win this inaugural, first ever round the world race in a multihull and solo.