Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild) leads the ARKÉA ULTIM CHALLENGE-Brest fleet but the gaps are tiny: only 17 miles separate the leader from fifth placed Anthony Marchand (Actual Ultim 3).
After leaving Brest at 13:30hrs Sunday the leading ULTIMs have already covered the 350 nautical miles across the Bay of Biscay and are passing Cape Finisterre around 06:00hrs UTC this Monday morning, after reaching speeds of 45kts during the first night at sea.
Speeds and routings have been as were predicted but it is still impressive to see how fast the leaders have devoured Biscay, but things look a little more challenging from midmorning Monday.
High speeds are on the menu, the winds should strengthen around 25 knots at the end of the morning with gusts to 30, 35 knots in the middle of the day.
Around midnight last night Tom Laperche skipper of SVR-Lazartigue messaged,
“It’s the dead of night we’re going down towards Cape Finisterre and we’re all side by side with the different boats. There is a super irregular wind, which is quite rare: one minute we’re at 40 knots, the the next at 15 knots, and what’s more, we’re slaloming between the cargo ships! It’s not easy but I managed to take a few naps.”
Follow the race tracking on https://www.arkeaultimchallengebrest.com/en
