Friday, 19 January at 13:32:22hrs UTC, ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE-Brest leader Charles Caudrelier on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild crossed the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope.
The skipper of Gitana Team completed the 8,399-mile descent of the Atlantic in 12 days 1 hour 2 minutes and 22 seconds, which equates to an average speed of 28.85 knots in elapsed time.
Caudrelier was outside the time of record holder François Gabart, who achieved a time of 11 days 20 hours and 10 minutes in November 2017.
Caudrelier has now cleared Cape Agulhas, located 80 miles further east and is sailing in the Indian Ocean.
The Gitana team’s maxi trimaran is still making daily averages of more than 800 miles, and this could last at least as far as the Kerguelen Islands. Recent routings suggest that the route will be fast to Australia.
Meantime Thomas Coville (Sodebo) passed the compromised SVR Lazartigue, some 20 miles off, to move into second place.
Coville is slower than leader Caudrelier – 19 knots campared with 34 knots – and some 1276 nm astern both sailing along the Antarctic Exclusion Zone.
Tom Laperche is expected to arrive in Cape Town Monday (22 Jan) where the SVR-Lazartigue team awaits him.
Related post:
ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE – Major damage to the trimaran SVR – Lazartigue
