Future of the Ultimate class

Route du Rhum organiser, Pen Duick's Pierre Bojic shares his views

So now they have successfully completed their first race - what is the future of the Ultimate class of giant unlimited multihulls? Over the last few weeks we have been canvassing opinion from several of the class’ top exponents...and all their views differ: Thomas Coville is fully up for racing the giant unlimited multihull more and is gagging to compete aboard his around the world “before he gets too old”. Francis Joyon is more cautious and doesn’t believe the present generation are up to being raced around the world singlehanded non-stop. He would prefer to work up to such an event gradually, following the current Route du Rhum across the Atlantic with a longer race, like the record he set between France and Mauritius, of around 10,000 miles in length, before, finally, taking them around the world but only after they have proven themselves to be adequately seaworthy. Meanwhile Franck Cammas doesn’t think it is safe to race Groupama 3 singlehanded but believes it would be easier doublehanded. But then his boat was designed to be sailed fully crewed.

However an individual who may have the biggest hand in shaping the future of the Ultimate class is the man who originally proposed it for the Route du Rhum - Pierre Bojic, head of Pen Duick, organiser of France’s two premier transatlantic races, the Route du Rhum and the Transat Jacques Vabre.

In 2008, to coincide with Francis Joyon and IDEC making their triumphant return to Brest in northwest France after a second exceptional record breaking voyage singlehanded non-stop around the world, so Bojic announced their collaboration with the city of Brest on a singlehanded non-stop round the world race for giant multihulls called Brest – Ultimate Challenge.

However Bojic also identified that the Ultimate class might be good for his company’s transatlantic races: “After the 2006 Route du Rhum, we made an analysis of the situation and we thought that in 2010 [for the Route du Rhum] we would have a problem with the multihulls, because the big multihulls were in a period of transition. This transition had been going on for eight years and we couldn’t see exactly what the future would be for them. It is a problem for all the race organisers.

“In my opinion Pen Duick has two important races in the calendar and we need multihulls because for me multihulls are an important part of the oceanic adventure and the race history.

“My problem after 2006 was ‘what kind of boats and which boats will we have in 2010?’ so I felt we needed to take a position, not to be spectators and wait and see what happened before we decided. We needed to provide direction. We had two possible paths – firstly to limit the Route du Rhum to the Multi50s [as they did for last year’s Transat Jacques Vabre]. That was possible but for me Multi50s are very interesting, but for the Route du Rhum and the Transat Jacques Vabre they aren’t spectacular or exciting enough. And at the same time we had Francis Joyon and Ellen MacArthur [and Thomas Coville] who had built big boats for records, so there were three or four big multihulls in existence and I said we should take the risk and open the Route du Rhum for big boats and perhaps create an interest in these boats.”

However Bojic also felt that it wasn’t enough just to introduce one race for the new Ultimate class but to make it more valuable to skippers and their sponsors, there should be program. “My idea was to propose one big race every year,” he continues. “So in 2010 the Route du Rhum, then in 2011 one big transoceanic race only for the big boats and then the ultimate race around the world. But then the problem has been the economic situation which is complicated. But the first step of my project has been a success.”

Having nine Ultimate class boats on the start line of the Route du Rhum, Bojic says, was way beyond his expectations, even if only five of them were competitive. He admits that during 2007 and 2008 he was highly concerned that there might only be two boats and that could kill the whole Route du Rhum. As he explains: “With two big boats and 80 others, two boats arrive first in seven days and the rest come in after 12-15-20 days.”

One would think it would make perfect sense to have the Ultimate class putting in an appearance once again in next year’s Transat Jacques Vabre, but Bojic remains cautious. He is considering the stipulation in the Notice of Race for the 2011 TJV that there will only be an Ultimate class if they receive more than five entries for it for he isn’t convinced enough sponsors exist. “I don’t think in 2011 we will have five boats with sponsors to do the TJV. I hope we will, but I doubt it.” And this doesn’t seem to take into account that certainly the Ultimate class in this year’s Route du Rhum La Banque Postale had distinct A and B division, five competitive boats and four also-rans.

Bojic is also suggesting that in the future program for the Ultimate class the only singlehanded events are the Route du Rhum and the Brest-Ultimate Challenge non-stop round the world race. “For me the perfect scenario is to provide an interest from skippers like Grant Dalton for the future with these boats, for crewed races.” Dalts is possibly a bit tied up right now. “In my opinion next year - if we organise a transoceanic race for these boats it wouldn’t be singlehanded.”

So at present Bojic concurs with thedailysail that the ultimate race around the world – in multihulls, singlehanded and non-stop –is a case of ‘not if, but when’. While the Brest-Ultimate Challenge was originally scheduled to start in December 2011 this won’t happen and it is perhaps up to Pen Duick to announce some more detail on the program they are proposing for the Ultimate class and with the skippers to establish a realistic years for when Brest-Ultimate Challenge might take place.