The choice is either to charge straight for the finish line between the Créac’h lighthouse on the island of Ouessant and the Lizard Point lighthouse at the southern tip of England, and be hit head-on by a nasty depression, or - “as good seamen” - to avoid these appalling, even dangerous conditions, even if it means letting the record slip away…
On a cruise and/or delivery passage, any multihull skipper would choose option 2; who would deliberately go up against 45 to 50 knots of steady wind with gusts to 55? What helmsman would willingly take a watch with 8 to 9 meters of swell? Pretty much no one, obviously… but we’re only hours away from breaking a world record that has stood since 2017 - right within reach of the bows!
Onboard comments from the Ultim on day 36:
“The North Atlantic is particularly rough right now, and it’s only going to ramp up even more by this weekend. On this round-the-world route, there are two sensitive sections where there’s no escape route: the Horn and the finish. We saw during the last Ultim round-the-world that some slowed down to pick the right weather window at the Horn, and some even stopped in the Azores to avoid a gale in the Iroise Sea. In a record attempt, that kind of luxury isn’t possible. We’ll have to deal with the weather, and Sodebo 3 will probably face the toughest conditions it has ever encountered since launching.”
So - will they go for it, or not? The finale of this Jules Verne Trophy attempt could still hold plenty of surprises for us…
