Thomas Coville’s Sodebo and Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartigue set off within hours of each other, attempting to break the non-stop around the world crewed record, the famed ‘no limits’ Jules Verne Trophy.Sodebo Ultim 3 Skipper Thomas Coville
\nD\u00e9part ponton pour la tentative de record sur le Troph\u00e9e Jules Verne. Lorient 29 novembre 2024
\ncr\u00e9dit Vincent Curutchet \/ Team SodeboThe two crews are both attempting to break the non-stop, around the world record \u2013 the \u2018no limits\u2019 Jules Verne Trophy \u2013 which currently stands at 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.
\nThomas Coville\u2019s Sodebo Ultim 3 was first to start, crossing the virtual start line off Brest in western France, at 2103 last night, Friday 29 November. The \u2018line\u2019 is between Ouessant and the Lizard, UK.
\nThe crew set off at nearly 30 knots, though this morning were some 100 miles behind the equivalent pace set by current record holder IDEC Sport.
\nSodebo\u2019s tracker shows the bid\u2019s progress against current Jules Verne Trophy record holder IDEC Sport
\nIn order to break the record, Sodebo will need to return to cross the line by January 9, 2025 at 2034hrs.
\nFrancois Gabart\u2019s SVR-Lazartigue then set off this morning, Saturday 30 November, at 08.51 (local time). They will need to return by the morning of January 10 in order to break the record.
\nRecord-breaking routing
\nBoth teams set off independently, but their weather routing teams have identified the same weather window which is currently forecasting the boats to reach the Equator in around five days.
\nIn order to be in with a shout of beating the record, they will then need to be at the Cape of Good Hope within a dozen days of starting. Both teams progressively went from \u2018Code Orange\u2019 standby mode, to \u2018Code Green\u2019 before starting just 12 hours apart.
\nSodebo Ultim 3 Skipper Thomas Coville sets off on a Jules Verne Trophy bid from Lorient on 29 November, 2024. Photo: Vincent Curutchet \/ Team Sodebo
\nThomas Coville, skipper of Sodebo, explained: \u201cThe transition from orange to green is often quite brutal, you have to change mode and mentality.
\n\u201cPersonally, what helps me to switch is when I get dressed in my sea gear, when I put on my boots, it allows me to enter another world, that of a sailor.\u201d
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\nThomas Coville (far left), Benjamin Schwartz (centre) and the Sodebo Ultim 3 crew. Photo: Vincent Curutchet \/ Team Sodebo
\nCrew member and navigator Benjamin Schwartz explained the team\u2019s start strategy: \u201cWe will set off close-hauled\/reaching to look for a first front in the south of a depression, with a tack planned for Saturday afternoon, then dive south in a wind that will pick up, so downwind.
\n\u201cThe objective is to go around the Azores high from the east and slip under it for a final gybe, probably Monday morning, which will take us straight towards the equator in about five days, so a little ahead of the record time.\u201d
\nBut he cautions: \u201cThe window is quite short, insofar as the Azores High tends to emit a ridge\u00a0 (an extension)\u00a0 which closes the route to Portugal, so we will have to manage to slip into a fairly narrow corridor in time.\u201d
\nJules Verne Trophy crews
\nSodebo is sailing with a crew of seven: Thomas Coville, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, L\u00e9onard Legrand, Guillaume Pirouelle, Benjamin Schwartz and Nicolas Troussel.
\nSkipper Francois Gabart, third from left, and the SVR-Lazartigue crew setting off on their way to the Jules Verne Trophy start line in Brest on Saturday, 30 November 2024. Photo: Clement Gerbaud\/SVR-Lazartigue
\nSVR-Lazartigue is sailing with six: Francois Gabart, Tom Laperche, Pascal Bid\u00e9gorry, Am\u00e9lie Grassi, Antoine Gautier, and \u00c9milien Lavigne.
\nFor the Jules Verne Trophy the teams may use on shore routers, and each will have a team monitoring the weather, position of ice, and potential routing strategies. Sodebo\u2019s is headed up by Philippe Legros and Simon Fisher, while SVR-Lazartigue\u2019s router is Jean-Yves Bernot.
\nRecord holders rematch
\nThe current time was set by Francis Joyon on IDEC Sport in 2017, when his six-man crew completed a non-stop circumnavigation \u2013 in the non-foiling trimaran \u2013 at a blistering average speed of 26.8 knots.
\nBoth skippers have claimed the solo non-stop around the world record, Coville setting a record time in December 2016 of 49d 3h 7m 38s.
\nGabart set the current benchmark of 42d 16h 40m 35s the following year \u2013 remarkably just two days slower than the crewed record they are both attempting to beat, including an astonishing 24hr record of 851 miles solo.
\nThe newest of the Ultims, SVR-Lazartigue is perhaps the most advanced design. Photo: Guillaume Gatefait
\nGoing head to head
\nIn 2016, IDEC Sport and Spindrift 2\u00a0set off within hours of each other, in the first \u2018head-to-head\u2019 Jules Verne attempt. Both teams made it round, but neither broke the record.
\nThe last time two boats set off together was in 2020, when Gitana 17 and Sodebo started within hours of each other in late November.
\nBoth retired from their attempt early: Gitana turning back after three days after colliding with a \u2018UFO\u2019 (unidentified floating object), while Sodebo had a great start to their bid \u2013 extending to over 200 miles ahead of IDEC Sport\u2019s position, and regularly posting days with 30-35-knot averages.
\nBut by mid-December they too had to retire, after colliding with an underwater object and damaging the starboard rudder.
\nThe foiling Ultims are notoriously vulnerable to collisions, but in February 2024 Charles Caudrelier won the first ever single-handed around the world race in the giant trimarans, after his Gitana 17 made the circumnavigation without stopping for a technical repair (he did stop in the Azores to avoid \u2018impassable\u2019 conditions in the Bay of Biscay, with a forecast of 7-10m waves and 50 knot winds). That passage proved it can be done.
\nSupport crew bid farewell to the Sodebo Ultim 3 crew. Photo: Vincent Curutchet \/ Team Sodebo
\nHow to follow the Jules Verne Trophy
\nYou can follow the Sodebo attempt at their own tracker dashboard, which besides boat speed, wind data etc also includes the option to message the crew and even see who is on watch.
\nSVR-Lazartigue also has it\u2019s own tracker \u2013 which also shows relative position to IDEC Sport (100 miles ahead after two hours of racing), wind data etc.
\nIf they make it that far, the two crews are also likely to overtake the Vend\u00e9e Globe fleet in the southern oceans.
\nThe post Head-to-head Jules Verne attempts: two Ultim trimarans set off to try and break 40 days around the world appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thomas Coville’s Sodebo and Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartigue set off within hours of each other, attempting to break the non-stop around the world crewed record, the famed ‘no limits’ Jules Verne Trophy.Sodebo Ultim 3 Skipper Thomas Coville D\u00e9part ponton pour la … <\/p>\n