“It was a complicated world tour from start to finish. I didn’t think I would experience so many adventures. It was a great adventure more than a race (…) We had our struggles but we overcame them. The world tour of resilience…”. During his last video posted this Sunday from the sea, a few hours before his arrival in Brest, Armel Le Cléac’h appeared marked but he showed, as usual, moderation. Not the type of the house to complain excessively or to exaggerate the facts (unlike some communicative sailing sailors). And yet, the skipper of the Banque Populaire trimaran will not have been spoiled, to say the least, during the first edition of the Arkéa Ultime Challenge. This Sunday evening, in Brest, he finished after 56 days and 8 hours at sea, hard and psychologically exhausting. And although he climbed onto the third step of the podium (out of six boats at the start), the winner of the recent Transat Jacques Vabre in doubles, has never managed to fight for the final victory.
His gap of more than 5 days with the winner, Charles Caudrelier (trimaran Edmond de Rothschild), already gone to recover with his wife and children under the Guadeloupe sun, clearly confirms the difficulties experienced by the man whom some saw as the big favorite of this unprecedented world tour in Ultim. Rare satisfaction for the winner of the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe in a monohull (after two second places), he managed to bring his flying multihull home safely. “56 days, it’s not a great score but at least it’s done,” he said, somewhat disappointed.
The Jackal, his nickname which appeared during the Solitaire du Figaro which he tamed three times, was the first of the six sailors to return to port to make a technical stopover (authorized by the regulations, unlike the Vendée Globe). During this stop of just over 24 hours in the port of Recife (Brazil) going down the Atlantic, Le Cléac’h was able to repair a damaged balcony and gennaker and resolve a hydraulic problem on his starboard foil but with a delay at the exit of 1217 miles on the leader Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue), then neck and neck with Charles Caudrelier, his chances of victory had seriously diminished. The Breton was happy to leave with “a boat that was 100% again” for a “new race (which) begins. Of course, we are behind the leaders but we have to be patient, it’s a long race, we have to give everything. Our goal has not changed since the start: to be at the finish and in the best position possible. We are motivated like never before…”
If Laperche (unfortunately) quickly disappeared from the radar, Charles Caudrelier will forever remain out of reach of Le Cléac’h who was never helped by the weather to find himself in a position to attempt a comeback. To avoid a bad storm in the far south, he even had to make a long, rarely anticipated detour, passing New Zealand from the north, before heading back down towards Cape Horn. And while he had overtaken Thomas Coville (Sodebo), he once again had to let his closest rival slip away when going up the Atlantic, and put the indicator back on to make a second pit stop, this time in Rio – this, after having been the victim in 48 hours of double damage to the rudders (including that of the central hull). Until the end, he was mistreated by the heavens, a final damage, a big hole in the deck of his trimaran (with a lot of water on board) forcing him to carry out a makeshift repair (which did not last ) and slow down to successfully complete the loop.
It was therefore with a real sigh of relief that Armel Le Cléac’h and his team concluded their difficult world tour. Unlike the 2018 Route du rhum, the Breton managed to avoid the fatal accident and bring his giant trimaran back to port. He will therefore be able to leave in June for the tropics with a distinguished guest on board: the Olympic flame (his partner, Banque Populaire is sponsor of the torch relay). Enough to forget the disappointments experienced during this somewhat disappointing first world tour in Ultim. And not just for him.
