Armel Le Cléac‘h has had a busy year, with third place in the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest, the torch relay between Brest and the French West Indies, a stopover in Marseilles and then Paris for the Olympic Games. Before returning to the helm in September of Banque Populaire XI for the 24h Ultim (4th) and the Finistère Atlantique, which sets off on Saturday from Concarneau bound for Antibes. Tip & Shaft rewinds this season with the sailor from Saint-Pol-de-Léon.
▶︎ Did it take you a while to recover from the Arkea Ultim Challenge?
Yes, it was quite an adventure, and we all drew a lot of energy from it. Personally, it took me two or three months to get over the physical and mental fatigue. It was a real challenge to do the Transat Jacques Vabre and circumnavigate the world in succession. If you want to compare it with a Vendée Globe, I’d say it’s more tiring, because even if it’s not as long, it’s more intense. On these boats, the smallest grain of sand – a technical problem, a manoeuvring error – quickly becomes very complicated to manage single-handed. It takes time and energy, and you can’t solve it with a snap of the fingers, I remember it being easier on an Imoca. Now, I’m delighted to have taken part in this great first for me, to sail around the world in a multihull. It’s been almost eight years since I’ve been to the Southern oceans, so it was a good lesson, and I tell myself that if I have to come back in four years’ time, I’ll have this as an asset.
▶︎ What did you learn from it?
Firstly, that the boat was able to cope with a circumnavigation, which was a bit of an unknown at the start. Secondly, the fact that I’ve managed to sail her single-handed in 56 days in all types of conditions – I’ve had up to 56 knots downwind and lots of seas for several days – means that I can now look forward to the races ahead with a lot more peace of mind. Finally, with the exception of the Route du Rhum, we don’t sail these boats single-handed very often, so I’m much more confident in my abilities now and I’m not at all as apprehensive as when I set out from Brest in January.
▶︎ Does that mean that you need to do more single-handed races before taking on such a challenge?
No, you don’t have to do 15,000 of them, because it’s complicated to sail these boats single-handed. On the other hand, you need to sail more, double-handed or crewed. Today, the programme is beginning to have a sort of backbone, with the Route du Rhum, which is a very big event, and this Arkea Ultim Challenge, which is set to become one too, even if it hasn’t had the media impact of a Vendée Globe. Now it’s a first, we’ve started to make history, we need to continue, so we need to increase the number of races. I think we’ve reached maturity, there are fewer and fewer prolonged pitstops, the boats are almost all at the finish, so it’s up to us to have a coherent calendar in keeping with this class. It’s easier to do that today than it was three or four years ago, when we were still rather nervous, because we didn’t want to take any risks so as not to miss the major event of the season. Now, we can afford to be a little more flexible and have a fuller and more attractive programme, for us, for the sponsors and for the general public, because it’s important that they see our boats sailing more often.
“We want to end the year
with a win”
▶︎ At the beginning of June, you were in charge of the Olympic torch relay between Brest and the West Indies on Banque Populaire XI with a crew of celebrities, how was this experience?
It was a real source of pride, a great moment of sharing, and a lot of emotion at the start and finish, particularly with Marie-José Pérec, for whom it was very important to bring the flame to Guadeloupe, as she is very attached to the history of her island. It was the first time we’d done a transatlantic race with people who, in some cases, had never set foot on a boat, but we were lucky to have great weather, all downwind, on a direct course at between 12 and 25 knots. I’d never crossed the Atlantic so quickly in that direction, in less than six days, so we had to wait almost 24 hours off Guadeloupe to keep to the timetable! With Sébastien, it was good for us, because it allowed us to change our habits; generally, we focus on our trimming, our numbers and the rankings, but this time, for once, we approached an Atlantic crossing in a different way.
▶︎ After passing through Marseilles and Lorient for the 24h Ultim, here you are in Concarneau for the Finistère Atlantique, what are you expecting from it?
It’s an important objective, because it’s our last race of the season, and we really want to win and finish the year with a victory, like we did last year with the Jacques Vabre. We’ve seen in the 24h Ultim and in the training sessions in Port-la-Forêt that the boats are getting closer and closer. It’s all down to details now, just a few tenths of a knot between us, with the possible exception of Actual, which is a step behind in certain conditions. It’s really stimulating to take part in this kind of race, especially with a crew, where you can try out settings that you can’t try out solo.
▶︎ The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, Sodebo Ultim 3 and SVR Lazartigue will be tackling the Jules Verne Trophy next winter, why don’t you?
We actually took this decision before the summer. After the round-the-world race, we had to pull out all the stops to get the boat back in shape for the start of the torch relay. After that, we were in Marseilles for the Games, then we came back to Lorient for the races in September, so we thought we shouldn’t have one event too many. A lot of work has been done over the last few months, both for the team and in terms of communications at Banque Populaire, which was a partner in the Torch Relay and the Games, and everyone needed a break this winter. I think that if we’d had to continue with a Jules Verne, we would have taken unnecessary risks.
“New foils this winter”
▶︎ Is this just a postponement?
Yes, we’re putting off our attempt for a year. The Jules Verne will be a new page to open for me. Of course, we’re going to be following our friends this winter, and I hope that some of them will go all the way, and if they beat the record, that would be great. This winter, we’ve got a big job ahead of us, as we’re planning to change our foils. Next year will be the boat’s fifth season and we thought it was time to upgrade. We’ve been working on the subject with VPLP and our design office; thanks to the sensors and fibre optics on our foils, we’ve recorded a huge amount of data over the past three years, which we didn’t have when we built the first pair. We’ve tested different models in the simulator, and we’ve also benefited from feedback from the America’s Cup, which has enabled us to make the right choice. The appendages are really the sinews of war, and the die has now been cast! We’ll be receiving them in February/March, and we want to test them quickly, with a major objective in 2025 which is to defend our title, with Sébastien, in the Transat Jacques Vabre and then follow that up with the Jules Verne.
▶︎ There are rumours that Banque Populaire intends to return to the Vendée Globe in 2028 with a new boat. Can you tell us more about that?
Today, the Vendée Globe remains a major event that Banque Populaire follows closely. We’re not taking part this year for the reasons we know [separation with Clarisse Crémer, editor’s note], but we’re keeping a close eye on what’s happening on the Imoca circuit. We’re going to let this edition pass and then Banque Populaire will announce whether or not it intends to return to the event. For the moment, it’s not the priority.
▶︎ What are your priorities in the medium term?
Winning the Route du Rhum in two years’ time. After that, we’ll see. For the moment, I’ve got some ideas and desires, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
A 6th team in 2025? The Ultim fleet will change slightly in 2025, with the arrival of Charles Caudrelier’s new Gitana 18 in the autumn. The current Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is the subject of negotiations between Samuel Tual, president of Actual (and of the Ultim class) and the Gitana Team, but the sale is conditional on that of the current Actual Ultim 3, for which the team led by Yves Le Blevec is looking for a buyer. The price: €7 million.
Photo: Arnaud Pilpré
