The goosebumps came before the speed and the open ocean ever did. On Friday evening, all eight Ultim maxi-trimarans left their berths at Quai Vauban and worked their way through the locks at Saint-Malo, the first act in a three-day departure sequence. The IMOCAs, Ocean Fiftys and Vintage Multis follow on Saturday, with the Class40s and Vintage Monos completing the lock passage on Sunday morning before the fleet starts.
The mood built steadily through the day. Quiet pontoons gave way to a wall of noise and energy at the locks, a shared send-off before Sunday's start.
By late afternoon the crowds were already enormous. Around 6pm the grandstands near the locks were packed solid, the village approaches jammed, and simply moving through the crowd took patience. That energy, though, hadn't yet reached the Ultim pontoon itself, where teams were still settling in and skippers finding their rhythm. The calm was a reminder of just how tricky this manoeuvre really is: threading a giant trimaran through a lock is a balancing act even in perfect conditions like Friday night's.
"It's quite tight," said Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue). "When you line up on the lock and look ahead, you think there's no way it'll fit, it's like going under a bridge and staring up at your own mast." Louis Burton (Armand Thierry) felt much the same. "There's a bit of stress because the lock is 25 metres and our boat is 23 metres wide. You're concentrating hard, but you're enjoying it too. There's a huge crowd out there, our boats and our sport are in the spotlight, it's pure happiness."
Alexia Barrier (IDEC Sport, CIC), the only woman racing in the Ultim class, had promised to "fire up the crowd so everyone gets the full show," leaving the technical side to her team, "who know this manoeuvre inside out."
For the shore crews, this passage is the first real test, the point where muscle memory kicks in and thoughts turn to Sunday's start. "These are lovely moments of real understanding between people. The movements are precise, careful, everything done in near silence, they're almost sacred moments. We're already in Armel's bubble, and everyone's holding their emotion in," said Sébastien Josse, technical director of the Maxi Banque Populaire team.
The locks themselves became an open-air grandstand for the occasion. Crowds had gathered from midday, and once night fell, DJ French79 took over, cranking the atmosphere up another notch. As the boats edged into the lock chamber under a striking display of sound and light, spectators raised their phone torches, all eyes on the skippers.
Guirec appeared on his bow, dancing and rallying the crowd. Alexia Barrier later ran out along the nets of her trimaran, leaping from side to side as she played to the spectators. Louis Burton, Tom Laperche, Armel Le Cléac'h (Maxi Banque Populaire XI) and Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild) followed in turn. It made for a strange kind of procession, part ceremony and part celebration, a shot of rhum passed round, and a welcome moment of collective release before the fleet throws itself into the race proper in under 48 hours.
