Paris (AFP)

Half a loop around the world in less than a month + flying + on the two Atlantic oceans: this is what Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier have done by winning Wednesday the Brest Atlantiques, race designed specifically for a small fleet of boats non-standard.

On board the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild blue and white tinged with yellow, the duo cut the line Wednesday morning after 28 days 23 hours 24 minutes of sailing, in sometimes dantesque conditions of the Atlantic waters north and south.

Starting November 5 in Brest, they completed a total of 17,000 nautical miles (31,500 km) via Rio (Brazil) and Cape Town (South Africa) to win in front of two other pairs: François Gabart / Gwénolé Gahinet (Trimaran Macif ) and Yves Le Blévec / Alex Pella (Actual Leader), expected best Friday in the harbor of Brest.

Fourth engaged, Thomas Coville tandem / Jean-Luc Nélias (Sodebo Ultim 3), who released his new machine, abandoned November 22 after several damages.

"This boat, I'm in love with it!" Exclaimed Caudrelier, once the line passed. "I have never had so much fun even though there is a little frustration that I did not fly as much as I wanted to," he continued, adding that he had done "half of the course in flying mode "but not the other half because of small technical problems.

- Steal -

The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, designed by the naval architect Guillaume Verdier and launched in July 2017, is the most flying of all Ultims, as he has just demonstrated on this race designed for and by Ultim.

It was the very first race reserved for this elitist class, who dreams of racing around the world alone on multihulls. The Ultims are maxi-trimarans 32 m long able to fly thanks to their foils (side appendages that raise the boat over the water) allowing them to spin at speeds of up to 50 knots (92 km / h). ).

"Flying, today is obvious to everyone, 4 years ago we almost laughed," said Caudrelier who shares the bar with Cammas since last May.

These gigantic sailboats, however, suffered a huge blow during the Route du Rhum in November 2018 with breakage, which forced the class to review his copy. The solo race around the world (Brest Oceans), which was due to start at the end of December, was postponed to 2023, giving way to Brest Atlantiques, which did not really take off from the general public.

- To exist -

"There are a lot of things that I do not like in this race but it was mounted at the last moment and with few means", explains to AFP Cyril Dardashti, director of the Gitana team (Edmond de Rothschild team), who has joined the class this year for one year.

"This race allowed us to exist this year, then it's an event worthy of our machine, we cross the Atlantic in 4 days, it should not be just a flash," he says. .

The team director felt that "technologically speaking" this race was important, even if it was only a story to four.

He also argued that it was imperative to stay in the Atlantic during this period of reliable boats to be able to intervene quickly in case of problems.

Three of the four boats were mostly damaged after striking Ofni (unidentified floating objects), forcing them to technical stopovers.

François Gabart, currently in second place, emphasized the importance of sailing with such boats. "We did not have a simple course, we had more experience on these magnificent boats, we have to keep sailing together, in competition mode over relatively long distances, to continue to progress and continue to prepare for the future" , he estimates to AFP.

Next meeting on May 10, again in Brest, for the departure of The Transat, mythical race alone to Charleston (United States). A race open to all.

© 2019 AFP