Arkéa Ultim Challenge: Anthony Marchand, the serene outsider

He is not the youngest (Tom Laperche), nor the least experienced (Éric Péron), nor the most favorite (Charles Caudrelier and Armel Le Cléac’h). At the start of the race around the planet this Sunday, Anthony Marchand wears the outsider bib. With his ten Solitaire du Figaro wins (including two podiums in 2018 and 2019) and three years spent in Yves Le Blévec's team, from whom he takes over at the helm of the trimaran Actual (the former Macif of François Gabart ), the 38-year-old native of Saint-Brieuc will take off without any particular anxiety. Surprisingly serene for an immense challenge around the globe.

“If you have to leave with lots of things worrying you, you shouldn’t leave,” puts the Breton into perspective. It’s true that there’s not much that worries me. And I want to start off happy to be there. I know it’s going to be hard but it’s an extraordinary race. My goal is not to look too far ahead, to take it step by step. In my head, I divide the route into fifty crossing points as we plan for fifty days.

“Antho”, his official nickname on the pontoons, says he feels “ready to go”, without “making too much of a film”. “I take things as they come and I’m happy to go there without thinking too much,” he confides to Le Figaro. Happy, finally, to set off on his very first solo world tour in discovery mode, ready to receive everything the planet will offer him. “I'm going to learn quite a bit about myself,” he predicts, he who is not overly panicked by having to tame both hostile elements and a three-hull multihull which changes him from what he previously lived on the “small” monohull of the Solitaire du Figaro (10 m) or the larger Imoca of Paul Meilhat (18 m) during the last crewed world tour with stopovers. “This allowed me to understand what awaited me in the South Seas (between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn). For the rest, it remains water, wind, a regatta, solo sailing.” What he can do. Well.

The only parameter that intrigues him is the fifty days of racing announced, a long duration, a fight against others and above all a journey with oneself, facing oneself. “I have never done it, I have no perspective. I sailed for a maximum of twenty days solo. But I like it, being in the race, and I'm happy at sea. I feel good there. Time passes so quickly..." Especially on the Ultim trimarans capable of panicking the meters and requiring constant attention.

“They are monstrous boats, but they are more impressive from the outside than from the inside. They are well designed for solo navigation.” And the new pair of foils released during the last Transat Jacques Vabre, more demanding in terms of settings, should allow it to better compete with more recent machines. A sporting goal? “I didn’t set a number for myself. I definitely want to finish and be proud of what I did. Regardless of the classification, I want to produce a clean, fast copy, with good tactical choices.” Which, in short, amounts to a successful world tour.