Discovering the Ultim trimarans, capable of more than 700 miles in 24 hours
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The Arkea Ultim Challenge now has a solid leader, Charles Caudrelier, who rounded Cape of Good Hope in the lead with about 900 miles on Thomas Coville. With the averages these monsters hold, 900 miles equals just over 24 hours, a margin that therefore leaves the crazy race around the world still wide open.
What boats are the Ultim, however, and how do they grind out averages well over 700 miles in the 24 hours with such consistency?
Ultim – What trimarans!
Let’s start with a firm point: the Ultim are not one-design trimarans, but they do have a class rule that defines the maximum dimensions within which designers can move, namely that 32×23 (length and width), which is the upper limit beyond which you cannot go. Smaller trimarans are also recognized in the class, such as former MOD 70s like Maserati, which is almost 2 meters smaller than the latest generation ultimates.
The class was born in 2014, and there are currently 16 Ultim in the world in operation, many of them in France. A watershed regatta for the class was the 2018 Route du Rhum, where the first real foils appeared, initially adopted only by Edmond de Rotschild and Banque Populaire.
To follow all the new Ultim were equipped with foils, that have made these flying boats, in fact, a somewhat complex exercise to do in the Ocean, and not without risk, not surprisingly in the first experiments there were numerous failures and only now do the Ultim guarantee full reliability on the foils. The original appendages were almost straight, then came the C-shape drifts, but it is since the introduction of L-shape foils that mileage averages have increased dramatically, even comfortably topping 700 miles in 24 hours.
Ultim – What regattas do they participate in
Ultim are eligible for the French transatlantic classics such as the Route du Rhum and the Transat Jacques Vabre, but they can also participate, for example, in regattas such as the Fastnet where they are often present. Then there are records dedicated to them, such as that of the Jules Verne Trophy, the fastest time around the world, currently held by Francois Gabart solo (42 days) and Francis Joyon crewed (40 days).
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