the navigator Tom Laperche, youngest of the first edition of the Arkea Ultim Challenge, confides his “desire to go for it”

2024-01-05 12:59:17

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Six sailors will leave Brest on Sunday for the Arkea Ultim Challenge, a 45-day race around the world non-stop and on giant multihulls. Among them, Tom Laperche: at 26 years old, he is the youngest in the fleet, and he might well become the youngest sailor to complete a round-the-world trip in a multihull.

Published on 05/01/2024 13:59

Reading time: 2 min

Skipper Tom Laperche on the SVR Lazartigue trimaran. (Alexis Courcoux)

He may only be 26 years old, but Tom Laperche already has the confidence of an old veteran. The young sailor is very comfortable on his new 32 meter long mount, this blue SVR Lazartigue trimaran, imagined and designed by the navigator François Gabart. It was on this same boat that the two men raced the last Transat Jacques-Vabre, where they came second.

Tom Laperche has been sailing on this multihull for two years, and he is preparing to set sail solo on Sunday January 7 for the first edition of the Arkea Ultim Challenge, 45 days around the world non-stop. For the youngest in this race, it’s an express promotion. “Yes, I want to go for it!he admits. But I’m not someone who rushes headlong without having any doubts, I’m more of a hard worker.”

“I ask myself a lot of questions, I prepare things quite meticulously. Areas of uncertainty and questions, I have fewer than two years ago when I wondered if I was capable of doing this around the world or not.”

Tom Laperche, navigator

at franceinfo

“Today, I feel capable of it, but there will be other questions until the start and even during the race!”he confides with a smile.

The student dubbed by his master

Tom Laperche and François Gabart have been working together for years. First as competitors for a long time, then the first did a study internship in the second’s company. François Gabart, solo round the world record holder, appreciates the personality of his younger brother. “To compensate for inexperience, you need maturity, and Tom is one of those people who I find very maturehe explains. He has perspective, both this very spontaneous side and this youthful dynamic, this energy that we can have, and at the same time having something very calm, because it is important to manage a boat, to manage a world tour and the complexity of this exercise.”

The blue trimaran SVR Lazartigue, imagined and designed by sailor François Gabart. (Guillaume Gatefait)

So far, Tom Laperche has only spent a few nights alone on this boat. “I qualified for this world tour, four or five days”, he admits. For the Arkea Ultim Challenge, he will sail alone for 45 days, but a trip around the world with these machines is a dream he might not refuse. “In my imagination, what made me dream when I was a child, I imagined myself on a multihullhe says. It was these images of boats that were floating, between air and water, that made me want to sail, to go quickly on the water. It’s very complete mentally, physically, in controlling a boat too.”

With a final dose of stress before departure: his boat underwent a major repair, following a crack on the front arm noted on his return from Martinique from the Transat Jacques-Vabre, and will not arrive until Saturday in Brest.

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