When will this foolish madness end? JOCELYN BLERIOT takes a close look at the most crazy Ultim yet… with GUILLAUME VERDIER, SEBASTIEN JOSSE AND CYRIL DARDASHTI

‘The team’s Imoca campaign was set up to plug a gap in the programme, between the sale of our MOD70 and the launch of the new maxi, which represented a period of approximately two years,’ says Cyril Dardashti. ‘We could have decided to focus everything on the build, but chose to run a proper competitive campaign in parallel: the Vendée Globe was on the horizon, and so was the 140th anniversary of the Gitana adventure… we could not really let these opportunities pass.