Arkea Ultim Challenge - Brest - “Into the unknown”
by Arkea Ultim Challenge 31 Dec 2023 09:33 PST
7 January 2024
Arkea Ultim Challenge Brest: “Into the unknown” © Vincent Olivaud
After being closed due to the weather conditions yesterday the ARKÉA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest race village reopened today Sunday, offering visitors an informative and entertaining final hours of 2023.
Joseph Bizard, who is the managing director of OC Sport Pen Duick, the race organizer of the race, talks at about the village, the competitors, the commitment of the partners and how this race is one of the last great frontiers in ocean racing, and, indeed, sport.
Interview of the day. The thoughts of Joseph Bizard, CEO of OC Pen Duick
Bizard, "It's a unique race."
"It's so much more than an ocean race: it's one of the last challenges that we are capable of pushing to achieve. You are not seeing this new dimension in any other sport. We want share this experience, the emotion of really great human adventures. There is this extra element we don't see in any other sport, testing the soul, a dimension of surpassing oneself. And we hope that all our participants, teams and actors, and our visitors will be able to say 'I was there during the first edition of the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest'."
Bizard, "More people have walked on the moon than sailed solo, non stop round the world on a multihull'
"So much of it is unknown and that is what makes for a mythical side to this race and that, I think, is what the sailors like. And it gives a particular feeling to the project. We can compare this to the conquest of space, In fact only four sailors have completed it solo, non-stop in a multihull (Joyon, McArthur, Coville, Gabart) And this race into the unknown must be understood, managed and mastered, so it really is challenging such experienced teams and some of the best sailors in the world."
Bizard: "We have the boats and the sailors"
"We have almost all the boats capable of making this race around the world and to a great exten almost all the sailors capable of doing it. Very few have the guts and the skills to face this incredible challenge, to find their limits and leave their comfort zones. They all have their own strengths and stories. That is what will make the difference between these ultra high-performance boats which have to be managed all the time, hour after hour, day after day, and the boats must be reliable and pushed near to the maximum of their potential. It will be an incredible race to follow!"
Bizard: "Great to see the village open"
"The opening of the village on Friday was culmination of everything we have done. We have a great pride in sharing these first days of the village, seeing the public response, sharing this between the visitors and the public. We have all been working at very high level for a year. We want the public to be able to share the emotion of great human adventures."
Bizard: "Partner commitment"
"For such an event to take place, there is the work of all the sailors, their teams but also the buy in and support of all the partners who contributed to this new event. With them, we have bult this project from the ground up and it has been an enormous amount of highly demanding work to create a great first impression for each visitor to the race."
The view of Yves Parlier
Yves Parlier is one of the big names of ocean racing, a legendary sailor and innovator who inspires the imagination and who has always sought to challenge oneself and develop and embrace new technology. Parlier was "the extraterrestrial" (his nickname). During the 2000-2001 Vendée Globe, he memorably repaired and re-stepped his broken mast on a remote Stewart Island near New Zealand and went on to finish sixth. Yesterday he came to greet his friend, Thomas Coville and he returned again today. "This round the world race is the logical continuation of developments in ocean racing," Parlier said, " When the Vendée Globe was created in 1989, there really was this same pioneering spirit. We wondered who would be able to complete the loop. Here, we are asking ourselves the same question. Even if they go very fast, I do think that life on board the Ultims is less extreme than on the IMOCAs. But they are very complex boats. It's a great first to go this far into the southern latitudes, over time... Will they last? It looks exciting!"
More about...Armel Le Cléac'h
Winner and record holder of the Vendée Globe (2017), recent winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre (2023), Armel Le Cléac'h is preparing to compete on his fourth round the world race but his first on a multihull. Unlike other skippers, he does not use a mental coach. His way of preparing for the start is to logically and carefully make sure he has ticked all the boxes, mastering all the elements.
"I try to tick all the boxes. What I am looking for above all is a form of balance in physical and technical preparation, in terms of recovery as well, it many respects it is like the preparatory, upstream work of an astronaut before the take off of a rocket."