Around the world in 50 days?
A new supercharged era of ocean racing was ushered in off the Rade de Brest on 8 January, as a fleet of six 100’ ULTIM multihulls leaned into a gentle northeasterly breeze, jumped up onto their foils and roared off towards the distant horizon.
The Arkea ULTIM Challenge will be the first time monster trimarans in this class have raced singlehanded non stop around the world making this a truly intriguing challenge, particularly given that these supercharged monsters are capable of hitting speeds of over 40kts.
The course takes the classic clipper ship route around the world by way of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn meaning that the racers will be down in the Southern Ocean for an extended period of time.
Such are the vagaries of magazine publishing and the lightning speed of the boats involved, that.
