Solo skipper Charles Caudrelier has won the Arkea Ultim Challenge Brest, the first ever solo around the world race in multihulls, on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild giant foiling trimaran.
Caudrelier crossed the finish line off Brest, northern France, on 27 February after 50 days and 19 hours of racing.
This Arkea Ultim Challenge Brest is the first time giant multihulls have raced solo around the world head-to-head. Caudrelier is the first skipper to sail a foiling Ultim around the world alone, and in fact only the eighth ever to complete a solo circumnavigation on a multihull.
Though the race is ‘nonstop’, in the sense it has no scheduled stopovers, on returning to the North Atlantic Caudrelier was the only entrant not to have stopped for repairs.
But with potentially ‘impassable’ conditions in Biscay forecast of 7-10m waves and 50-knot winds, Caudrelier made a four-day technical stop in the Azores before cautiously sailing the remaining 1,200 miles to Brest to take the win.
Caudrelier had built up an unassailable lead since his nearest rival Tom Laperche on SVR Lazartigue retired into Cape Town after a collision with an underwater object. The duo had been locked into an early battle that saw the Ultims racing at speeds of over 30 knots just two miles apart. On 18 January Caudrelier covered an incredible 828 miles in a 24-hour period, just 23 miles off the current solo record. Caudrelier was never challenged from that point onwards, at one point extending his lead to over
