Everything about the Ultim class of giant, singlehanded trimarans is over the top. The size, speed, and power output of these monsters is hard to comprehend unless you’ve been on one, and the speed at which bad things happen is truly stunning. All of this makes it a surprise that we haven’t seen more of the big trimarans go over, but with Gabart, Le Cle’ach and the rest of the nutters prepping for a busy year of record attempts and the Route Du Rhum, we’re bound to see a lot more of what we saw early this morning: one of the world’s fastest sailboats – upside down, with the skipper and crew hanging out inside waiting for their shore teams and a tow. Head over here to check out a 360 degree video of the Maxi Banque Pop, and here’s more from their media team:
-Crew (Armel Le Cleach, boat captain Pierre-Emmanuel Herisse, and cameraman Fulvio d’Aguanno) are safe and uninjured inside the boat.
-Capsize occurred around 3 AM off of Morocco,
-Crew quickly triggered EPIRB, support and salvage plans were activated immediately and support operations are in progress.
-Trimaran was headed to Nice to compete in the Nice UltiMed event
-Weather data does not show anything extreme. Team is awaiting Armel’s explanation for the incident.
-Too early to say if Maxi BP will be able to make the Route du Rhum now.
