Brest, France: Six sailors set out on the 40,000km around-the-world Ultim Challenge from France on Sunday, hoping to complete one of the sport’s “biggest challenges” inside 50 days. Under bright winter sunshine in the Brittany port of Brest, the first such race on super-powerful but relatively fragile trimarans got underway. The Edmond de Rotshchild, helmed by Charles Caudrelier, was the early evening leader with an advantage of a few nautical miles. The most recent was Francois Gabart, who set the record for the enterprise in 2017 after 42 days spent at sea. “There’s impatience, stress, concentration, emotion, a little bit of everything... I’m going to make the most of it,” said Laperche.
