Organisers would like to hear from any women sailors who are still considering applying for the new offshore training scheme, UpWind by MerConcept, which is being supported by 11th Hour Racing with Francois Gabart’s MerConcept stable, and skippered by Francesca Clapcich.

The scheme is particularly keen to attract women sailors from a diverse range of nationalities and skillsets, so international applications are strongly encouraged.

The scheme has received over 30 submissions from female sailors based in 13 different countries. With experience from the offshore, inshore, and Olympic worlds, the sailors have applied from countries as far afield as New Zealand, Mexico, India, and Lithuania.

“This is exactly what we hoped for when we launched UpWind,” said Team Manager Louis Giard. “Not only do we have 30 strong applications so far, we have also had calls and messages from some very talented sailors indicating their intention to apply, so we anticipate this number will increase significantly over the final week.”

UpWind by MerConcept is developed to create a pool of female sailing talent based for the next two years around the Ocean Fifty tour, the international multihull racing circuit. The ambition is to see a female Ocean Fifty skipper on the startline of the 2026 solo Route du Rhum race from St Malo, France to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. 

The program will provide a training platform to upskill female offshore sailors in multihull racing, with the aim of creating opportunities to join mixed-gender crews for high-profile teams such as Jules Verne Trophy attempts.

Applications for UpWind by MerConcept close on March 24, 2024 and the application form for UpWind by MerConcept can be found here.

After a first round of video interviews, a shortlist of 12 candidates will be invited to MerConcept’s Concarneau base in the home of offshore sailing, in Brittany, France. The 12 candidates will be put through their paces over five days of assessments from April 15-19, from technical and physical, performance and teamwork. The successful sailors will then be assigned to either the racing or the training and development squads.

UpWind by MerConcept will enter a team for the 2024 and 2025 Ocean Fifty tour, which this year includes four European Acts (events) and a west-to-east transatlantic race from St Pierre and Miquelon, the French archipelago south of Newfoundland,  to Saint-Brieuc, France. 

Francesca Clapcich, the appointed skipper for UpWind by MerConcept, said, “We have put a lot of effort and thought into creating an accessible, fair, and just application system.

“I’ve had a number of calls with athletes who are lacking confidence, or feel they don’t have enough experience, or believe they know of someone better than them, who deservers it more.

“I’ve said to each and every one of them Apply! Don’t get discouraged if you think “Ohh I might not be good enough,” or “I’m not sure if I can commit enough time,” or the tons of other questions that inevitably come up in our minds when we want to apply for something. The process is part of the journey.

“At the end, only a small pool will be selected but the process of going through the application will make all of us grow and learn. I can promise you that we will do our best homework, with a diverse board of selectors, with a lot of input, to make it fair for all.”

The post Final week for applications for women’s Ocean 50 trimaran programme appeared first on Yachting World.

In a newly announced move, MerConcept, the offshore sailing and sustainable tech hub in Concarneau, France, has unveiled a new multihull racing program named UpWind, which is dedicated to empowering female sailors in the world of offshore multihull racing.

Aimed at fostering inclusivity and diversity, UpWind by MerConcept will recruit, train, and support a squad of six talented female sailors for the Ocean Fifty offshore sailing circuit, with the ambitious goal of having a female skipper at the helm for the 2026 Route du Rhum.

Start of the Route du Rhum. Photo: ALEXIS COURCOUX

Backed by Founding Sponsor 11th Hour Racing, UpWind is aiming to spearhead a transformation in offshore sailing. With a vision for a more inclusive and diverse sailing community, the program seeks to provide equal opportunities for all, ultimately expanding the pool of skilled female sailors available for selection in mixed multihull crews for iconic challenges like the Jules Verne Trophy.

Based in the heart of the Brittany (the Mecca of the offshore sailing world), MerConcept was founded by François Gabart, the fastest person to sail around the world, and he is at the forefront of this initiative. “Our mission at UpWind is to support and empower female sailors, breaking down barriers and creating a welcoming and safe space for everyone. We believe that diverse talent enhances team performance, and by fostering a critical mass of skilled female sailors, we aim to pave the way for mixed crews in future challenges like the Jules Verne Trophy,” Gabart says.

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The application process to join this groundbreaking program is now open to female sailors worldwide, with the deadline for submissions set for 24 March 2024.

Cécile Andrieu, MerConcept’s Director of Racing, emphasises the program’s spirit of performance and diversity, welcoming applicants with a range of racing experience. Two groups will be formed – a performance-focused squad for Grand Prix and transatlantic races, and a second group supporting training and deliveries, gaining valuable sailing experience for their CV.

Francesca Clapcich, the accomplished skipper who clinched victory in The Ocean Race with 11th Hour Racing Team in 2022-23, will lead the sailing squad. Gabart praises Clapcich as the ideal skipper, with an impressive sailing CV across various disciplines and a strong advocacy for women in the sport.

Francesca Clapcich will lead the sailing squad. Photo: G.Gatefait | MerConcept

MerConcept’s acquisition of the Ocean Fifty trimaran, previously owned by Armel Tripon, adds to the program’s excitement. The trimaran is currently undergoing a complete refit and is set to launch at the end of March, ready for the 2024 Ocean Fifty circuit, which will include four events between June and October.

11th Hour Racing’s role as Founding Sponsor underscores its commitment to diversity, opportunity, and access in sailing. Michelle Carnevale, president of 11th Hour Racing, states, “UpWind by MerConcept marks a substantial progression for women in sailing, and we look forward to witnessing its positive influence on the future of ocean racing.”

The race schedule for 2024 is yet to be officially announced, but this initiative could well be poised to make history.

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There are many iconic raceboats, but few capture the feeling of an era as much as the 60ft trimaran in which Florence Arthaud won the 1990 Route du Rhum. She beat Philippe Poupon, winner of the previous edition, by eight hours to become the first woman to win a major offshore race, inspiring a new generation of young women to follow in her footsteps.

Arthaud had already broken the west to east transatlantic record earlier that year, taking a whopping 20% off Bruno Peyron’s existing time. She also became the first sailor to be awarded the title ‘Champion des Champions français de L’Équipe’. It was a remarkable turnaround for someone who, only four years before her first Route du Rhum, had been gravely injured in a car accident that left her in coma and hospitalised for six months.

The pace of change in yacht design in the 1980s was as breathtakingly fast as it is today. Although they’re separated by only 12 years, this boat could hardly be more different to Mike Birch’s 39ft plywood Walter Green trimaran Olympus Photo in which he won the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978. Birch’s boat, for example, had little more than half the beam of Arthaud’s.

The ORMA 60 trimarans that quickly came to dominate the scene from the mid-1980s were huge vessels by comparison, built of the most hi-tech materials available, while their creators pressed hard against the boundaries of design and engineering knowledge. Pierre 1er, as the boat was originally named, was built to a VPLP design of fibreglass and Kevlar by Jeanneau’s former JTA (Jeanneau Techniques Avancées) division.

iconic image of Arthaud at the finish of the 1990 Route du Rhum in Martinique. Photo: Thierry Martinez/ Sea&Co

These boats had an unprecedented power to weight ratio that, despite their enormous inherent stability, led to a number of capsizes. This came to a head in the stormy 2002 Route du Rhum in which five boats capsized and only three of the 18-strong fleet finished. As a result sponsors rapidly quit the class, which collapsed within three seasons.

Nevertheless, Pierre 1er went on to have an illustrious 20-year history of racing and record breaking. American billionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett, who renamed the boat Lakota, became her second owner in 1993.

He picked up 5th place in the 1994 Route du Rhum, despite a lack of experience at the time, before taking line honours in the Transpac the following year. In a seven-year period he broke 12 world records with the boat, including Round Britain and Ireland and around the Isle of Wight.

Poupon reduced the size of the staysail for heavy weather work and added a furler. Huge asymmetrics are flown from the bowsprit. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Her next owner was Atlant Ocean Racing in Sweden, with the boat again breaking records under several different names. Andrew Pindar chartered her in 2001, when she was renamed Pindar Systems for Emma Richards to race in the Transat Jacques Vabre. She finished 9th, with Miki von Koskull, who had sailed with Richards on Tracy Edwards’ 1998 Royal Sun Alliance Jules Verne attempt, as co-skipper.

The boat picked up line honours in the 2003 Cape to Rio race, before heading east under the ownership of an experienced French multihull sailor from 2011-2021 who was based in Hong Kong and kept the boat in Subic Bay in the Philippines, using her primarily for fast cruising and ocean voyages.

Flo – Golden girl

Despite all the different owners and skippers, when I visited Flo in Saint Malo, just before the start of the 2022 Route du Rhum, it was striking just how original the boat remains. There’s a huge curved mainsheet traveller on the aft beam, while the giant winches in the small cockpit are physically much larger than today’s equivalents. And, despite the boat’s awesome power, there are no pedestal grinders.

Both amas have helm seats in a similar way to MOD70s, but without the foot pedal to dump the mainsheet in a hurry. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Equally, Flo still has both a central tiller in the cockpit and helm seats perched precariously at the aft end of each ama.

Below decks the boat is surprisingly small, with a vestigial galley, just one berth, plus a navstation tucked in the corner between the daggerboard case and the main bulkhead.

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The original striking gold colour scheme on the hulls and spars was reinstated earlier this year, when she was renamed Flo by Poupon, who skippered her in the 2022 race, 36 years after his 1986 victory.

Surprisingly, he told me very few changes were needed to prepare Flo for her latest transatlantic: “Almost nothing has changed, the electrical system and electronics are new, but the deck gear and layout are almost all original.”

Relatively minor alterations included lowering the head of the staysail and adding roller furling for it. “I prefer a smaller sail that’s easier to handle and has better shape for this purpose,” says Poupon. He also added a fourth reef to the mainsail, “which has a lot of surface area.”

Philippe Poupon, runner up to Florence Arthaud in the 1990 Route du Rhum, now skippers Flo. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli

Dramatic new role for Flo

What led to Poupon’s current involvement with Flo? “Me and my wife [film maker Géraldine Danon] were very close to Florence Arthaud,” he told me. Indeed, in French media interviews he has even described her as “part of the family.” Poupon and Arthaud competed together as co-skippers on a later Fleury Michon in the 2000 Transat, and Arthaud also took part in a Figaro ll and Transat Jacques Vabre campaign with Poupon’s brother Luc in the mid-2000s.

“Géraldine started working on a script for a film about Florence two years ago,” continued Poupon. “We started to talk about what boat to use for the film and of course it had to be this one.”

The trimaran turned out to be easy to find, as Vendée Globe veteran-turned yacht broker Bernard Gallay was listing the boat for sale at the time. However, Poupon and Danon lacked both the €250,000 purchase price and the time to sail her back to France. Poupon says those problems were “… solved in a bar,” and the deal was completed in December 2021.

Controls for the wing mast. Daggerboard needs to be fully lowered to clear the boom in tacks and gybes. Photo: Rupert Holmes

The new owner, Philippe Brillault, took a crew that included Bernard Stamm as skipper out to deliver the boat back to France, via the Red Sea. The four-month trip was not without incident. New batteries were needed in Thailand, engine problems forced a stop in Sri Lanka, and having strayed too close to the coast of Yemen after departing Djibouti, the delivery crew was attacked by pirates.

“There were bullet tracks on the mast!” Fortunately they were able to escape and return to Djibouti, before proceeding with a military escort.

Poupon took over the boat in Cannes in July last year, where shooting for the film started. Flo took pride of place in the Vieux Port and anchored overnight off Île Sainte Marguerite, where Arthaud’s ashes were scattered after her 2015 death in a helicopter accident while filming a reality TV programme in Argentina.

Return to Rhum

The final leg took the boat to Michel Desjoyeaux’s Mer Agitée yard at Port La Forêt, where Flo had a short refit ahead of an opportunity for Poupon to complete the 1,200-mile solo qualifier needed for the 2022 Route du Rhum.

I visited him on board just before it was announced the race would be postponed by three days to avoid a dangerous sea state in 7.5m waves with a brutal 12 second period. How concerned was he at the prospect of sailing an old boat in such conditions?

“I have sailed a lot before on this type of boat and I am sailing more than six months a year on my own boat [a 66ft high latitude expedition yacht] so I will know what to do – maybe it will be to wait in Finisterre. I don’t have sponsors and I am not out to win overall, so I can decide for myself. I am here just to pay homage to Florence and for the movie.”

Poupon was also quick to point out that when he did the first race back in 1978 medium range weather forecasting didn’t exist and all that could be expected was a rough idea of what to expect the day after the start.

Flo’s small cockpit has most of the original winches and no grinder, despite the boat’s enormous power. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Poupon finished the race in 7th place in the 17-strong Rhum Multi class, crossing the line in 18 days and 19 hours, more than three and a half days slower than Arthaud’s 1990 time. Her Route du Rhum victory was just months after Tracy Edwards’ all-woman team on Maiden finished the Whitbread Round the World race 2nd in class, having won two legs, including the gruelling 7,260 mile Southern Ocean section. Back then there was real hope that professional sailing was changing from its entrenched position of male dominance. Yet three decades later only seven of the 138 Route du Rhum skippers were women.

It’s a concern Volvo Ocean Race winner and ex-race organiser Knut Frostad (now CEO of marine electronics and equipment conglomerate Navico Group) highlighted in his keynote speech at the most recent Yacht Racing Forum – not just for the sake of fairness, but also for the threat it represents to the sport in the longer term. Frostad warned: “Our industry will die in a generation if carry on as we are…”

Flo specifications

Design: VPLP
Launch: 1989
LOA: 18.28m / 60ft 0in
Beam: 15.10m / 49ft 6in
Draught: 1.54m-2.88m / 5ft 1in-9ft 5in
Displacement: 6,000kg / 13,230lb
Upwind sail area: 230m2 / 2,475ft2

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“The late Mike Birch’s Olympus Photo, designed and built by Walter Greene, sits at the root of all modern multis,” says Verdier. “Mike and his boat began the legend of the Route du Rhum and made offshore racing so popular. With his 12m-long yellow trimaran he beat Michel Malinovsky on his 21m (69ft) monohull Kriter in 1978, by less than two minutes – extraordinary considering they didn’t know each other’s position at the time.

“Greene’s design was a cold moulded wooden-epoxy coated boat with small longitudinal stringers. At the time it was a very original way to build boats, developed by the Gougeon brothers.”

“I remember watching it on television (probably not live since we had no television at home then) when I was eight years old and had just completed my first sailing camp in the Rade de Brest.”

In this year’s Route du Rhum, 44 years later, the Verdier-designed 100ft Gitana 17 won with a new record time of 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes.

Photo: Jack Garofalo/Paris Match/Getty

Olympus Photo stats rating

Top speed: 20 knots
LOA: 12m/39ft 4in
Launched: 1978
Berths: 2
Price: $40,000
Adrenalin factor: 90%

Guillaume Verdier

Guillaume Verdier is one of the most talented and successful naval architects of the modern era. He has drawn many of the most competitive IMOCA 60s, both collaborating with VPLP and working alone, including the Ultime Gitana 17, Comanche, and many others. As designer for Emirates Team New Zealand he also created the AC75 foiling monohull.

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Thomas Ruyant sailing LinkedOut was has won the IMOCA 60 class in the 2022 Route du Rhum after a tight battle between himself and Charlie Dalin sailing Apivia.

Although Dalin led the race from the start, and was 90 miles ahead during the passage of a ridge of light winds after the Azores, Ruyant broke west and outmanoeuvred Dalin on Friday morning and took the lead which he held to this finish line this morning, Monday 21 November. Dalin was a little over eight miles behind when Ruyant crossed the finish line to take the biggest victory of his career.

His elapsed time of 11 days 17 hours 36 minutes 25 seconds beats the course record for the class which was 12 days 04 hours 38 minutes and 55 seconds set in 2012 by Francois Gabart by 11 hours 02 minutes and 30 seconds.

“I make no secret of it I am only here to win. That is all that interests me. I have one of the best boats in the fleet. There are newer boats on the start line but our 2019 Verdier design is fully optimised to the best level of development,” said Ruyant in Saint Malo. Winning is a fitting farewell to Ruyant’s boat which he is replacing with a new IMOCA 60 ahead of the 2024 Vendée Globe.

Dalin has been the stand-out performer in the IMOCA fleet of late, winning the vast majority of races, but Ruyant has also been impressive and the two have never been far from one another. In fact, the pair’s battling goes all the way back to the last Vendée Globe, tussling over the lead until Ruyant broke his port foil early in the Southern Ocean going on to finish sixth.

With both sailors awaiting their new boats it was anticipated that they would be pushing hard to win, with the consequences of any damage being somewhat lower than for those in newer boats or in boats that they plan to sail in future races.

Thomas Ruyant celebrates his 2022 Route du Rhum victory/. Photo: Alexis Courcoux / #RDR2022

At present it seems as though Jeremie Beyou sailing his brand new Charal IMOCA 60 will be the third skipper home, a good result as he looks to work up his radical design ahead of the next Vendée Globe. Also in a brand new boat, Kevin Escoffier should finish just behind Beyou at some point today. Both skippers will be happy with their results in new boats and will see this performance against two highly optimised IMOCAs as a good mark of the potential for their new designs going forward.

Another close finish

Another two-way battle concluded over the weekend as French solo skipper Erwan Le Roux sailed his Ocean 50 Koesio across the finish line first in the early hours of Sunday morning narrowly beating second placed Quentin Vlamynck (Arkema) after nail-biting head to head over the final miles around the west of Guadeloupe.

The duo were only 100 or so metres apart on Sunday, but the older, more experience Le Roux, 47 (who won this class in 2014) stayed offshore at the southern turn around the island, picked up more breeze and finished just 18 minutes and 13 seconds ahead of the 29 year old Vlamynck who led throughout much of the race but was caught by Le Roux on Saturday night on the final approach to Guadeloupe.

Le Roux said, “It was incredible what we did with Quentin. We were neck and neck for a long time in a small group each time we looked at the rankings. Primonial dropped back and I found myself with Quentin. I dreamed of arriving at Tete à l’Anglais alongside him when we were out training together.”

Class 40

The leaders of the Class40 fleet are now also closing in on the finishline with the leading Class40 sailors mixed in with the tail end of the IMOCA60 class.

There’s still c.600nm left to run in their race, but it’s currently looking very good for Yoann Richomme sailing Paprec Arkea who is 125nm ahead of second placed Corentin Douguet who is locked in a ferocious battle for second place with Ambrogio Beccaria with the pair currently within a mile of each other.

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Charles Caudrelier sailing his Ultime trimaran Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was first to cross the finish line of the 2022 Route du Rhum race this morning in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe in a time of 6 days 19 hours 47 minutes and 25 seconds.

This is a new (yet to be ratified) course record for the Route du Rhum with Caudrelier beating the previous best set in the last race by Francis Joyon of 7 days 14 hours 21 minutes and 47 seconds, despite early conditions being far from favourable.

After the line an emotional Caudrelier said: “I’m not even tired. The first 24 hours were hard.”

The Gitana campaign is one of the most long-standing and committed sponsorships in sailing. Caudrelier took over the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, also known as Gitana 17, as solo skipper last year, having previously co-skippered with Franck Cammas for double-handed and crewed campaigns.

He continued: “I so wanted to win the race for the team. I’ve been dreaming of it since I was young. It’s for the family Rothschild. It seemed like a crazy idea, building a boat that could fly. It’s for Franck Cammas, as he had the experience. Without him I wouldn’t be here. He left me the place for the Rhum. He could have won it himself.

“It’s a Formula 1 team and I just drive in the race. This is a team effort and there’s Guillaume Verdier, the designer. I recently lost my mother and she isn’t here to share this moment. Thanks to everyone for believing in me.”

Maxi Edmond de Rothschild shortly before winning the 2022 Route du Rhum. Photo: Alexis Courcoux / Route du Rhum

It has been an impressively close battle between the top three Ultime trimarans (Gitana, Sodebo and SVR-Lazartigue Ultime) throughout much of the 3,542-mile race. Caudrelier led the fleet from the start but has not had things all his own way.

Initially the race committee called Gitana as was one of several boats over the starline, which would have required Caudrelier to stop for a mandatory four hour penalty. However, the Gitana race team were able to provide a significant amount of GPS data to the race officials to show that he was actually 50m behind the startline at the gun and the penalty was dropped.

Although Gitana led out of the start and at the finish, the lead swapped between Caudrelier and François Gabart (sailing SVR-Lazartigue Ultime) on a number of occasions as the huge foiling multihulls navigated several complex light wind transitions. But is was Caudrelier in the lead most of the time, with his gap to Gabart remaining around 40nm for much of the Atlantic crossing with a maximum gap to second of a little over 100nm.

Gabart is set to finish shortly, picking up his second consecutive 2nd place in the Route du Rhum, having lost victory to Francis Joyon in the final minutes of the 2018 edition of the Route du Rhum.

Thomas Coville on Sodebo Ultim 3 also remained in close contention with the lead two boats throughout this year’s Route du Rhum and was close enough to be consistently putting pressure on Gabart in second. This morning, however, his team reported he had caught a fishing net on his final approach to Guadaloupe.

Four years of improvement

Most significantly, this Route du Rhum resolved many questions of reliability for the giant Ultimes, with no significant incidents after Armel le Cleac’h on the Maxi Banque Populaire XI incurred foil damage at the start (he was able to repair and restart later).

It is a significant contrast to the 2018 Route du Rhum, which saw the previous Banque Populaire capsize and break up, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild had a whole bow section ripped clean off, the previous Sodebo suffered structural issues, while Gabart’s Macif limped to the finish missing two of its newly retrofitted foils.

This time around the Ultime skippers consistently managed 30-plus knot speeds and periods of headwinds and large swells, without capsize or serious damage. The reality of these giant 100ft trimarans racing around the world solo has got a step closer.

Route du Rhum still close for the other fleets

Further back, in the middle of the Atlantic, Charlie Dalin (Apivia) remains the clear leader of the IMOCA 60 fleet – a position he has held since the fleet sailed out of the English channel shortly after the start of the race. But a singnificant lead for Dalin has been reduced as he was the first to hit a lighter weather front allowing the rest of the fleet to close on him.

This gateway to the trade winds is very narrow and keeps changing for the IMOCA 60 fleet and is causing headaches for those in the tight pack immediately behind Dalin. “As long as we haven’t slipped under the area of high pressure and crossed the ridge, it’s going to be complicated,” commented Jérémie Beyou (Charal) early in the morning on Wednesday 16th November.

Jeremie Beyou is in a close fight for second in the IMOCA 60. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut

The winds are light and variable going from 6 to 13 knots. “I’m getting passed by Thomas (Ruyant). He is two miles above me, but I can’t find the wind here… It’s complicated with a lot of people around me, but that does offer the advantage of indicating where the wind is. Losing or gaining places happens very quickly, when it’s close like this.” His lead of ten miles over Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) and Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) has quickly vanished.

There is a similar situation with the Ocean Fifty boats with the gaps narrowing between the three frontrunners, Quentin Vlamynck (Arkema), Erwan Le Roux (Koesio) and Sébastien Rogues (Primonial). Eighty miles separated the three yesterday, but now the gap is down to less than 25.

Things are slightly different for the Class40 boats with Yoann Richomme, skipper of Paprec Arkea leading the fleet since Monday afternoon. He continues to extend his lead and is now thirty miles ahead of Corentin Douguet (Quéguiner – Innoveo). “I’m trying to sail well and keep cool. There is another front moving in from the west. We have to get in the right place to deal with it. I’ll be trying to cross it where there is the smallest risk. The weather changes very quickly. I’ll try to avoid the calms, as it would be a pity to get stuck in there. We have to remain on it. The gateway is narrow and changing all the time. This is a critical and crucial moment in the race,” concluded Yoann Richomme.

Follow all the latest Route du Rhum updates here.

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It has been another intense 24 hours in the Route du Rhum 2022, with two dramatic mid-ocean rescues, as well as multiple other abandonments as the 138-boat fleet continues to contend with punishing transatlantic conditions.

Most dramatic was Fabrice Amedeo’s mid-ocean rescue. Amedeo was forced to abandon his IMOCA 60 Nexans – Art et Fenêtres after it literally exploded into fire mid-ocean. He was rescued by a nearby freighter M/V Maersk Brida.

Amedeo, a former journalist turned ocean racer, gave an extraordinary description of the events leading up to his rescue:

“Sunday morning: everything is fine on board and I’m having a great race. The boat is flying hard in the squalls and the sea is heavy. Suddenly, I realise that my ballast has exploded on a wave and that I have several hundred litres of water in the boat. I stop to be safe and start to empty everything.

“At that moment, the batteries are immediately affected by the water and failed and I had a complete blackout on board. I have no more electricity: no more autopilot, no more computer, no more electronics. I decide, in consultation with my team, to proceed cautiously towards Cascais.

“Sunday afternoon: big smoke on board the boat. I use the extinguisher, I put on my TPS (survival suit). I alert the race direction who asks a competitor in IMOCA to divert to assist me if necessary. The smoke eventually stops. I decide to resume my passage to Cascais.

An image sent by Fabrice Amedeo shortly after radioing for help. Photo: Fabrice Amedeo / Nexans – Art et Fenêtres

“I meet James Harayda, the skipper of Gentoo who had come to the area to help me. I thank him and resume my passage. I completely dry the boat and prepare myself for a difficult passage…

“Again 2h30 of siesta then 7 hours on the helm. Shortly after 1230 pm more new smoke on board. Followed by an explosion. I grope my way back into the cabin and manage to retrieve my TPS. My Grab bag (survival bag) had remained in the cockpit. I’m going back to get my wedding ring. I hit the fire extinguisher but nothing happens. The smoke is not white like yesterday but yellow. The cockpit warps and yellows. Seawater spray sounds like the sound of water hitting a saucepan. I understand that I will have to evacuate. I warn my team of a possible evacuation.

“When I hang up, I am then at the back of the boat ready to trigger my survival: a torrent of flame comes out of the cabin and the coachroof. I am caught in the middle of the flames. I can’t even open my eyes. I manage to push the life raft into the water and jump.

“Normally the end that holds the liferaft to the boat is supposed to let go. It doesn’t let go. The boat, which… is still going forwards pushed by rough seas, pulls it and it fills with water. I manage to get on board without letting go… I say to myself “if you want to live you have a few seconds to find the knife and cut”. The IMOCA pulls me back towards it. The waves bring me dangerously close to it. I finally find the knife and cut. My raft is drifting downwind of the boat which is fully on fire. It takes 30 minutes to sink. I spoke to the boat and thanked it. We were going to go round the world together in two years time.

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Dismastings, a capsize and damage toll rises in Route du Rhum

The Route du Rhum’s reputation as one of the toughest offshore races in the solo sailing calendar is proving to…

UPDATE: Route du Rhum 2022 start postponed. Is this the greatest ever offshore race?

The Route du Rhum 2022 single-handed transatlantic race start has been postponed until Wednesday 9 November. The decision was announced…

“Then you have to get organised. The satellite phone did not like the water in the raft and doesn’t work.

“I say to myself: ‘nobody knows that the boat has sunk and that you are in your raft, if you activate the beacon on the IMOCA that you were able to take with you and you trigger the one on the liferaft they will have the information’. That’s what I do. I can’t find a baler [sic] on board. A Tupperware box containing batteries will save me. I empty the raft. I begin the wait. I stand behind the raft so that it does not overturn.

“The sea is very, very big. I take stock of the equipment on board and prepare for what’s next. I gather the flares. I put the VHF around my neck. I spend three to four hours in this raft. I am surprisingly calm. The raft regularly fills with water from the lightly breaking waves. I understand all this but feel safe. I know, however, that nothing is over.

“Every 30 minutes, to preserve the batteries, I make a Mayday call on the VHF. I took the VHF on board thanks to Éric, my team manager, who had time to give me this advice just before I hung up. I keep the batteries of the raft for later.

“A few minutes later a voice answers me. A cargo ship which is 6 miles from my position arrives in the area. I’m reassured but don’t see how I’m going to board such a giant with this sea. I’m in constant contact on the VHF with the captain who can’t see me: the sea is big and the sun is on the water and I’m a tiny orange dot. He told me earlier: ‘You are alive because you told me: I am approximately 2 miles from your starboard side’.

Fabrice Amedeo in the water awaiting rescue

“I launch a distress flare. He sees me. He loses me. I hit a second one. He sees me and arrives in the area. He tries a first approach which fails. It is very impressive to be in my inflatable raft a few metres from this steel giant. He apologises on the VHF and leaves for an approach. As it passes, the wake builds, the raft fills with loads of water. He repositions himself upwind of me, a few metres away, it’s crazy, and drifts towards me. This building calms the sea a little and sucks me in. The raft rubs against the hull from front to back. If that doesn’t work it will very quickly become complicated. The crew threw ropes at me that I couldn’t recover at all at first.

“Eventually I retrieve one near the bow of the ship. Everything is played out down to the wire. There is the thickness of that line between success and failure, survival and drama. The crew pulls me to a gangway that has been dropped. With the waves I sometimes go up to the level of the top of the steps then go down 5 metres below. This is one last test. If the liferaft goes under the stairs it will be pierced and I will be thrown into the water. I approach. A first time: I don’t feel it’s right. A second wave, I go up and hop. I jump on the stairs which I reach, then find myself in the arms of a man wearing a helmet. I climb on deck.

“I am welcomed by about 20 crew members. It’s crazy right now. They take me in their arms, congratulate me.

“Once I am on board the freighter, the fear and adrenaline surge. My legs are shaking. It’s crazy, this animal capacity that humans have to manage a survival situation. Then it hits home. Death did not want me today or rather life did not want me to leave it. I’m devastated but the happiest of men because tonight my wife and daughters aren’t going to bed crying.

“This adventure in no way alters my passion for my job and for the ocean. I would like to thank my team, the race management of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, the rescue teams, who worked to ensure that this rescue operation took place in the best possible conditions.

“I also think of my partners. I thank them for their trust. I will bounce back. We will bounce back.”

Maisonneuve’s Marsaudon catamaran, CMA île de France – 60000.

Route du Rhum rescue for Brieuc Maisonneuve

The previous day Jean-Pierre Dick had rescued fellow competitor Brieuc Maisonneuve after Maisonneuve’s Marsaudon catamaran (CMA île de France – 60000) capsized.

Dick, a former IMOCA skipper who was racing his Verdier-designed one-off in the Rhum Mono class, diverted course and was able to recover Maisonneuve from the hull of his upturned catamaran.

Maisonneuve’s team is now focussing on a salvage effort. The upturned multihull is halfway between La Coruña and the Azores, around 400 miles from the Spanish port.

Adrien Hardy, offshore racer who specialises in these types of rescue operations, is already working in the area on the recovery of the capsized Ocean Fifty trimaran Solidaires En Peloton – ARSEP. Skipper Thibaut Vauchel-Camus was rescued on Sunday by the rescue boat Merida.

A shot from onboard one of the dismasted Class 40s

Shipwrecked and rescued

A third skipper was rescued this morning (Tuesday 15th November) while their trimaran beached. Erwan Thibouméry had been heading for La Coruña (Spain) after suffering a series of problems with both sails and engine on his Nigel Irens-designed 50ft trimaran, Interaction, which he was sailing in the Multi Rhum class.

At 0444hrs today Thibouméry reported that he had lost manoeuvrability of the trimaran and was in difficulty off the coast of Spain. The skipper was lifted off by helicopter, while his boat drifted onto a beach in Ferreira.

So far 21 skippers have been forced to retire: 13 Class 40s, 4 IMOCAs, 2 Rhum Multi entrants and 2 in the Ocean Fifty class. They include Australian Rupert Henry overnight, whose Class40 has suffered structural damage to a forward bulkhead, and, fellow Class 40 sailor François Jambou whose A l’Aveugle – Trim Control dismasted, and Matthieu Perraut who had a collision with an underwater object, damaging the keel fairing, port rudder and caused major delamination of crash box area in the bottom of the hull.

Charles Caudrelier currently leas the Ultime class on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut / PolaRYSE / Gitana

Route du Rhum cliffhanger

Impressively, the Ultimes have suffered fewer problems with foil damage following collisions in this race.

Aboard SVR-Lazartigue, Francois Gabart had a technical issue with a board control line, but was able to repair it. “I broke the line that lifts and lowers the port foil. I slowed down for two or three hours to repair that. I hesitated but with the team we said there was still a lot of starboard tack before the finish, but I lost quite a few miles after being pleased about my position to leeward of Charles.”

“The pace is quite intense. Since the start, we’ve had upwind tacking, the first front with lots of sail changes, then upwind on the other tack, then some reaching, a second front in the Azores and some more reaching, and now we’re downwind. But that’s what you can expect in the Route du Rhum.”

He and race leader Charles Caudrelier on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild are now less than 500 miles from the finish in Guadaloupe, and expected to arrive early tomorrow morning (Wednesday 16 November).

Caudrelier currently has an 80-mile lead over Gabart, but the notoriously light and fickle winds around the island of Guadaloupe could see that advantage dissipate in the final moments.

“It’s not over before Guadeloupe! Concentration and rest are on the agenda for the day,” he commented this morning. “I don’t have enough of a lead to relax completely.

“What worries me is the bit around Guadeloupe. I’m afraid that François will ‘do a Joyon’, that he will take revenge for the last time!”, added Caudrelier, recalling how Joyon slipped past Gabart to take the win in light winds during the last night of the 2018 Route du Rhum race.

“I will get there at the wrong time, at the beginning of the night in local time. At this time of the day, the winds are not yet coming down off the land. Everything is in place to create a cliffhanger of a finish just like you like on land, but one you hate at sea as a racer”.

Follow all the latest 2022 Route du Rhum developments

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The Route du Rhum’s reputation as one of the toughest offshore races in the solo sailing calendar is proving to be true once again.

Last night the IMOCA 60s went through the second Atlantic front of the race and, as Pip Hare on Medallia put it on a video sent from onboard, “This one means business, it’s got teeth!”.

The system brought gusts nudging 40 knots and resulted in three dismastings within a three hour period, and the capsize of an Ocean 50. All skippers are safe and uninjured.

First Louis Burton on the IMOCA Bureau Vallée dismasted yesterday early evening. Burton was lying 9th at the time. He is safe and motoring back to shore.

At around 2000hrs last night, the leading Ocean Fifty trimaran, Solidaires en Peloton – ARSEP skippered by Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, capsized. The skipper is safe inside the central hull and awaiting rescue around 400 miles west of the Portuguese coast.

Two Classe 40s also dismasted. One of the leading pack, champion free-skier Aurélien Ducroz on Crosscall lost his rig, as did Amélie Grassi on La Boulangère Bio who was in 10th place while about 350 miles northwest of Cape Finisterre. All skippers are safe.

They join Damien Seguin, whose IMOCA was dismasted two days ago after being struck by a cargo ship, and was returning to Lorient under motor and using a kite-power system. Developed by Yves Parlier, the Liberty kite does not require a mast to support it. Seguin is expected to make landfall later today.

Pip Hare’s Medallia disappeared from the tracker leading to concerns for fans, but it is just a technical glitch

Race followers and fans of Pip Hare were concerned when Medallia’s tracker did not show her position this morning, although her team have confirmed that it is only a tracker issue and all is well onboard, and she continues racing.

Conditions were challenging, as Conrad Colman on the IMOCA Imagine recounted: “I am in the middle of the approach to the front and currently have 35 knots sustained, gusting 38kts more or less upwind with two reefs and the J3. It is up to 39kts, the boat is doing 16kts over the ground and every once in a while it has a big, big landing off the waves. It is pretty lumpy and it is as well it is dark as better not to see this grumpy sea.”

In the IMOCAs, Charlie Dalin continues his dominance on Apivia, having built an impressive lead during the early stages thanks to a significant boat speed advantage.

Dalin holds an 80-mile advantage over Jeremie Beyou on Charal and Thomas Ruyant on LinkedOut, with Paul Meilhat (Biotherm), Kevin Escoffier (Holcim-PRB), Maxime Sorel (V&B Monbana Mayenne) and Justine Mettreaux (Teamwork.net) forming a tight chasing pack within 30 miles. Managing how hard to push in a group this competitive will be a challenge, especially for skippers in new boats who will be closely eyeing IMOCA qualification miles.

Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is back in the lead in the Ultimes. Photo: Mark Lloyd/Gitana

Tight at the front for the Ultimes

The leading Ultims are now largely clear of the worst of the weather now and are racing south-west at high average speeds of over 30 knots.

Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild) has regained his lead over nearest rival François Gabart (SVR-Lazartigue) by just over 25 nautical miles. Caudrelier is slightly to windward and may be able to hold the better breeze longer as they approach the Bermuda high ridge of lighter winds.

Although the higher proportion of upwind sailing in the early stages of the race means the Ultimes are not set to break the course record by any significant margin, the giant trimarans are already over halfway on the 3542-nautical miles course to Guadeloupe, and look set to only get quicker over the second half of the race.

Caudrelier commented last night: “François came back at me in the light airs, shortly before the Azores. He was going straight, while I couldn’t! I tacked four or five times, which took a lot of energy. I took a slightly more physically demanding option than his in the archipelago but, in the end, it came down to almost the same thing.

“It is still a bit of a war in terms of conditions. It is far from dream stuff. We are impatiently waiting to be able to take off the foul weather gear and enjoy stable winds. Here it is up and down between 20 and 30 knots and far from restful.”

François Gabart’s foiling UItime, SVR-Lazartigue is chasing in second in the Ultime fleet

Caudrelier has had his four-hour time penalty for being OCS at the start dismissed. Gitana team manager Cyril Dardashti explained: “We sent the GPS track of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild over the entire start phase, as well as the positioning of the Yellow Brick beacon provided by the organisation. The two agree and show that we were 50 m from the starting line at 2.15 p.m. when the gun was fired”.

Armel Le Cleac’h on Banque Populaire XI is bringing up the rear of the Ultim fleet, having restarted the race yesterday after repairing foil damage. Le Cleac’h had returned to Lorient in Brittany on Thursday and set off yesterday afternoon.

Banque Popularie XI’s daggerboard snapped on Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after the race start.

Le Cleac’h reported hearing “a crack”. He reported: “There was no warning. It broke in two seconds. It’s hard to believe.”

Having had to abandon his previous maxi trimaran in the last Route du Rhum race in 2018, Le Cleac’h’ was determined to restart this one

“It ended badly four years ago, we lost a boat. This year, we want to finish the story.”

Class 40s

Last year’s Class 40 winner Yoann Richomme (Parpec-Arkea) has sailed back into 3rd place after taking his statutory four hours penalty for crossing the start line early.

He described last night’s conditions: “It was fast but very, very violent after the front. The boat was jumping off the waves. It felt like everything was going to explode at any moment!”

“It was freakishly scary. Xavier Macaire seemed to be the one who attacked the most and I admit that I didn’t try to keep up with his pace, especially after seeing Aurélien Ducroz and Amélie Grassi dismasting behind my stern. I really thought we were all going to suffer the same fate.

“I know what it is to lose your mast in these types of conditions. It’s incredibly hard to undo all the lines and cables in rough seas and at night too. It is a stark reminder to keep a lid on it.”

British born Luke Berry (Lamotte Module Creation) also reported this morning, “It was a strong front and I can understand why some dismasted. I hope they are OK. I lost two aerials and so now I feel like I am sailing blind and the rest of the course is going to be a bit of headache.”

Two other Class 40s have also retired ­– Croatian Ivica Kostelic on ACI has several technical problems including autopilot failure, Kéni Piperol (Captain Alternance) was taking on water, and Pierre Casenave-Péré (Legallais) suffered rigging problems. All are heading for La Coruña.

Ocean 50 fleet

The multihulls are especially vulnerable to confused sea states, and the Ocean 50s racing north of the Azores are now through the front in 15-20kts westerly winds but still face cross-seas and gusty conditions.

“Now on this leg towards the Azores it is quite difficult, with cross seas and a few squalls that are unforgiving. We have to stay vigilant, ”explained Quentin Vlamynck on Arkema, now leading the Ocean Fifty fleet after Thibaut Vauchel-Camus’s capsize.

“This accident was a big wake-up call for all of us to calm things down. Me? I continue to sail cautiously. You have to be careful and that leaves no time to go to sleep, especially since you have to think about what’s next.”

Follow all the latest Route du Rhum 2022 developments

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With 138 single-handed boats on the line, the 2022 Route du Rhum start was always going to be spectacular. 

Three days later than originally scheduled, thanks to a severe depression and sea state forecast for the North Atlantic, the 2022 Route du Rhum started today in a near-perfect south-westerly of 11-15 knots with sunshine.

All 138 entries – from the giant 100ft Ultimes to the smallest 40-footers – set off upwind from the same line, the largest multihulls furthest out to sea, the huge 38-boat fleet of IMOCAs looking for clean air in the middle, while the 55 Classe 40s ducked and dived around each other at the inner marker as if they were about to start a local club race, not a transatlantic against a multi-million Euro fleet.

Photos: Close racing for the Ultimes from the start of the 2022 Route du Rhum. Photos: Philpre Arnaud/Route du Rhum

Despite the fact that the race is 3,542 nautical miles to Guadeloupe, there were several boats called OCS at the startline, including the overall leader, Charles Caudrelier on the Gitana Ultime (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild). The standard time penalty is four hours.

There was an incident early in the Ocean 50 class, when British skipper Sam Goodchild, the 32-year-old skipper of Leyton, was injured in the pre-start and had to be evacuated ashore to hospital in Saint Malo. He was reported to have injuries to his arms and face.

A statement from the team this evening said: “Whilst trimming the sails of his Ocean Fifty Leyton during the start phase Sam Goodchild suffered injuries to his arms and face. A technical problem caused the pedestal winch to backwind and he was hit hard by the handles. He was evacuated from the boat and taken to hospital by doctors. He was able to see his family. It is with deep sadness that he is forced to abandon the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.”

Ocean 50 skipper Sam Goodchid has had to retire from the Route du Rhum following an injury. Photo: Philpre Arnaud/Route du Rhum

Two IMOCAs have also returned to port after being involved in a port-starboard collision approaching the Cape Fréhel buoy, around three hours after the Route du Rhum start. Ollie Heer (Oliver Heer Ocean Racing) and Kojiro Shiraisihi (DMG MORI Global One) both suffered damage, the most obvious being damage to Heer’s bowsprit and pulpit whilst DMG MORI has damage to the starboard side which is being assessed tonight. Both teams will be reviewing to see if it’s possible to repair and restart.

Heer explained: “I am gutted to say the least. It was a port-starboard incident at the Cape Fréhel gate. I was on starboard and Koji on port. I decided that even though I would have made it through the gate, I decided to hitch closer inland to get out of the tide.

“I tacked over and was a couple of minutes into the tack and was about to pull the windward daggerboard up and there was a massive bang. I was thrown into the pit. I was convinced he had seen me. But now there is huge disappointment and frustration, we have worked hard to get here. 

“But we have until Saturday to get it repaired. We are optimistic. The biggest damage is the bowsprit, the crash box took most of the impact and we have a minor hole in the port side. We have a lot of people supporting us. I have Pete Hobson, who was the designer of Alex [Thomson’s] Hugo Boss, on the way here on the ferry. And we will try everything to get going again. We are optimistic.” 

On the dock Koji apologised, saying, “We were on the same tack near the mark and he tacked and I did not see him coming. Then the buoy was really close and I could not avoid him. The damage is really big but at the moment I am really glad Ollie is fit and healthy.”

Route du Rhum early leaders

The early overall leader was Charles Caudrelier on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in the Ultime class, chased hard by Armel Le Cléach on Banque Populaire XI.

In the 38-strong IMOCA fleet Charlie Dalin on Apivia was first past the first rounding mark of Cape Fréhel. Going into the first night, his nearest rivals were Kevin Escoffier on the new Holcim-PRB, and long-term rival Thomas Ruyant on LinkedOut, who had both taken an inshore line along the Breton coast.

Although the fleet will avoid the most severe weather (50 knot gusts and 6-7m sea state) forecast, thanks to the start postponement, that same front has left some tricky conditions for the skippers to contend with, and are likely to face wave heights of up to 4.5m as they exit the English Channel tonight.

Close racing for the largest fleet, the Class 40s, from the outset. Philpre Arnaud/Route du Rhum

The first major decision will come overnight, as skippers have to decide whether to sail to the North or South of the Traffic Separation Scheme off Ushant. Caudrelier looks to be the first to have tacked to the south-east of it, and was sailing at 30+ knots this evening. 

A front stretching from the west of Scotland to the Azores is currently generating stronger winds to its east, though that is likely to also generate heavier seas. An alternative route will be to cross the Bay of Biscay towards La Coruna, although this option will involve an additional number of tacks upwind. 

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The Route du Rhum 2022 single-handed transatlantic race start has been postponed until Wednesday 9 November.

The decision was announced at this morning’s skippers’ weather briefing. While the forecast for the scheduled start day tomorrow was raceable, with 20-25 knot westerlies, a severe depression in the Channel during the first 36 hours of the race gave the skippers no safe routing options.

An active cold front sees Monday’s forecast give average winds of around 40 knots, and gusts above 50, accompanied by a very large swell, of 7m-plus waves, created by tropical storm Martin.

Boris Herrmann and Will Harris explain the metro situation on this video:

British IMOCA skipper Pip Hare described the forecast as ‘Biblical’, saying “No one want to go out into those conditions – but we were feeling like we had quite a strong boat. It’s a lot to process.”

In a statement, the race director, Francis Le Goff, commented: “We have received and heard your [the fleet’s] comments and concerns. Together with OC sport, I have decided to postpone the start on Sunday to Tuesday late afternoon or Wednesday in the morning.”

The 138 solo skippers taking part will be held ashore in St Malo’s docks, while the Ultimes – which docked out last night, along with a few other boats – are on secure moorings at Dinard.

Route du Rhum 2022 – the most impressive offshore fleet ever?

When the race does start, it will be off a single, 3-mile startline off St Malo for the 12th running of Route du Rhum 2022.

Is it the most impressive gathering of offshore competitors ever seen? It would be a bold claim to say that this year’s Route du Rhum is the greatest offshore race ever, but when it comes to strength, depth, and technological advancements, every single fleet in the Route du Rhum 2022 is so exceptional that maybe, just maybe, it deserves that accolade.

The other reason the Route du Rhum is so special is not only because of who has gathered this year, but because of who has gone before. Since it’s first running in 1978, won by Canadian Mike Birch, who recently passed away, its trophies have been littered with the names of legends – Bruno Peyron, Florence Arthaud, Ellen MacArthur, Yves Parlier, Michel Dejoyeaux, Franck Cammas, Loick Peyron… to win a class in the Route du Rhum is to take your place among the true elite.

Mike Birch helming Fujichrome ahead of the 1990 Route du Rhum. Photo by Nicolas LE CORRE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

And what makes it hard, of course, is the variables of mother Nature. The 3,543 mile race from St Malo, Brittany to Point-a-Pite Guadeloupe tests the solo skippers from start to finish.

Flung from the protection of St Malo’s mediaeval walled battlements and deceptively protected harbours, the fleet is usually immediately faced with the Bay of Biscay and North Atlantic at its November worst – rolling depressions, vicious sea states and strong headwinds often characterise the opening sections of the transatlantic, and early indications are that this year’s race looks set to bring similar.

Although the delayed start should avoid the most immediately severe weather, there are a series of fronts moving across the North Atlantic, and the likelihood is that the fleet will still face some strong upwind conditions before entering the trades.

This is a race we will be nervously glued to the tracker for the first 48 hours.

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How to follow the Route du Rhum 2022

NOTE: Since this article was published the start date for the Route Du Rhum 2022 has been pushed back to…

The ultimate foiling machine? Onboard SVR-Lazartigue

Launched in July after 150,000 hours of work, SVR-Lazartigue is the latest addition to the burgeoning Ultim 32/23 fleet. In…

38 IMOCA 60s on Route du Rhum 2022 startline

The numbers across the Route du Rhum 2022 are staggering, but the IMOCA pontoon stretches as far as your eye can see, with no fewer than 38 IMOCA 60s lined up side by side. It’s a record entry for the event and perhaps the largest ever gathering of IMOCAs in the class’s history. It’s five more boats than the monster 2020/21 Vendée Globe entry, and almost as many as will be permitted (40) in the 2024/25 Vendée Globe.

There has been much commentary about the current rude health of the IMOCA fleet, where new designs seemingly cannot be built fast enough. But the Route du Rhum fleet in St Malo is like an exhibition of two decades of offshore racing history, with vintage daggerboard designs nestling alongside latest generation foilers. Nearly every boat has a remarkable history to tell, and above the IMOCA pontoons was an absolute crush of spectators craning to see the iconic yachts.

Charal 2 was designed by Sam Manuard and features a scow-style bow. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut – polaRYSE / Charal

Among the 38-boat entry are seven brand new launches that were splashed in 2022, for skippers who were able to swiftly move onto the next IMOCA cycle immediately after the 2020/21 Vendée Globe. They are Kevin Escoffier’s Holcim-PRB, Maxime Sorel’s dragon-branded V and B-Monbana-Mayenne, Jérémie Beyou’s radical new Charal, Boris Herrmann’s Malizia-Seaexplorer, Sam Davies’s new scow-bowed Initiatives-Coeur, Yannick Bestaven’s Maitre CoQ V and Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm.

It would be surprising, but not unheard of, for one of the new boats to dominate. Reliability issues, the need for skippers to refine their load management, and well-placed caution, are likely to mean these boats are pushed less hard than those belonging to skippers who have a new boat on order.

Of that latter category, Charlie Dalin and Thomas Ruyant are likely favourites – both sailing exceptionally fast previous generation IMOCAs, but with new boats in the shed for 2024.

“In my opinion, Charlie Dalin and Thomas Ruyant are in the best position with their super well proven, very reliable IMOCAs. Especially Dalin who won everything this year and who even beat fully crewed boats [on the Azimut Challenge]. It’s beautiful to see,” said German entrant Boris Herrmann.

In Charlie Dalin’s hands Apivia has proven itself to be a bit of a rocketship. Photo: Pierre Bouras

“There is a risk that not all new boats will finish into Guadeloupe because of teething problems. I really don’t want to be part of the battle but want to get there. The weather is not looking easy, it is going to be a real adventure.”

The winner of the 2018 Route du Rhum, Paul Meilhart returns this year, also sailing a brand new boat, Biotherm. Meilhart’s boat was launched at the very end of August this year and he admits that he is not expecting to defend his title, though he hopes to be competitive. “You have to choose your battles. I am setting off feeling humble…” he said.

“I’m still currently testing [Biotherm’s] reliability and getting used to my IMOCA… My main goal is of course to finish, but I want to do battle with the others to see what potential Biotherm might have. In spite of not having much preparation, I still want to be up there in the contest.”

However, it’s not just the skippers of new boats who will be making some delicate risk versus reward calculations. The more stringent Vendée Globe qualification rules for 2024 mean that almost all IMOCA skippers are now in a race against time to accumulate sufficient qualification miles in their Vendée boats.

Even those who’ve taken delivery of a well-proven previous generation design will be keenly aware that a race-ending breakage would shave thousands of valuable miles from their total, and pile the pressure on for 2023.

Pip Hare now has a foiling IMOCA 60 having completed the 2020-21 Vendée Globe on a 1999 vintage boat.

“It is all fantastic for the Vendée Globe to have all this interest and it is fantastic to be part of it and I definitely respect the need for a qualification. But I do joke about the fact that everyone got a free pass before this and then the year I come back to do it again you need to qualify!” commented Pip Hare, who’ll be returning for her second Vendée Globe next year and is sailing the new-to-her Medallia in this year’s Route du Rhum.

“But it really has changed the whole dynamic as it is now just mostly about a race for miles, even for the new boats. Everyone has a lot to lose if they don’t finish this race. And that includes the guys who are doing The Ocean Race who have to get the boat back quickly and then have, like, three weeks or so for a refit to do The Ocean Race.”

Another factor which Hare says is playing on her mind is the record fleet size. “This is a massive fleet. I am really, really nervous about the start.

“Can you imagine having a collision at the start and in the first 24 hours? And it looks like it will be upwind which then means the fast, new Class40s will be in with the IMOCAs so it will be … busy.

“I think I will approach this all with a sail plan I can handle quickly and easily with the top (roof) open, fully kitted up, alarms on and the minimum possible sleep. I need to be super vigilant and if the situation looks ‘iffy’ at all then just back off a bit.”

François Gabart’s foiling UItime, SVR-Lazartigue

8 Ultimes: foiling trimarans go solo

Though numerically the smallest, there’s no question that the Ultime 32/23 fleet is the most impressive, with no fewer than eight of the extraordinary trimarans taking part – also the largest ever gathering of the latest generation foilers.

Lined up nose to tail in the Route du Rhum 2022 race village, their retracted foils looming over the pontoons and leviathan-scale wing masts towering over everything, the Ultimes form a multi-million-Euro kilometre-long F1-style pit lane. To say it is impressive would be, well, an understatement.

(And, quick reality check, they’re also sailing solo)

Charles Caudrelier on Gitana is the obvious favourite, with the longest optimisation programme and most race victories behind him, including the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre last November (2021).

However, in this fleet, and in this race, past success does not guarantee future glory. That’s something François Gabart discovered in 2018 when, a few months after setting his solo around the world record on the 100ft Macif, he lost out to Francois Joyon in the much older, and slower Idec in the final miles of the Route du Rhum finish, finishing just 7 minutes behind.

Gabart is back this year with his brand new (and controversial, foiling Ultime SVR Lazartigue). As is Joyon, on Idec.

“The standard of the competition is high with a few boats that were there four years ago and have been updated and the new ones, which learnt a lot from the older ones. As for the conditions, I feel curious rather than apprehensive. Is it going to be stronger than what I have already sailed upwind? You can suffer damage because the boat is new and hasn’t been tried and tested, as is the case for some of my rivals, or suffer damage because the boat is too old with its original gear like mine, so it remains open…” commented Joyon before the start.

Banque Populaire Xl is the result of a colossal 150,000 hours of design and construction
work. Photo: J Lecaudey/BPCE

Getting across the Atlantic unscathed is far from a given for these giant trimarans, and the Route du Rhum 2022 sees the return of Armel le Cleac’h with his new Ultime Maxi Banque Populaire XI. His previous maxi trimaran capsized and broke up 24 hours into the 2018 Route du Rhum. The boat was a total write off.

The new Maxi Banque Populaire XI picked up a 3rd place in the Transat Jacques Vabre (2021), while le Cléac’h has already completed the equivalent of a world tour in racing and training miles. During this summer’s crewed Ultime contest, the Finistère Atlantique, le Cleac’h enjoyed a close battle with the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. In the end, le Cleac’h finished 2nd, 26 minutes after Caudrelier after more than 3,100 miles of racing.

Thomas Coville, a previous Rhum winner, returns with Sodebo, also a new generation foiler. This will be Coville’s 7th entry in the race.

The other three older Ultimes are Actual Ultim 3 skippered by Yves Le Blevec, Use it Again! (the original B&Q/Castorama) skippered by Romain Pillard, and Mieux, skippered by 34-year-old Arthur Le Vaillant.

“I’m scared, but I’ll be at 200% to get off to a good start. There will be all the sailors I love around me. I’m here for that,” said Le Vaillant before his first Ultim race.

The Class 40 fleet is a hotbed of design innovation. Photo: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

55 Class 40: biggest fleet in Route du Rhum 2022

With 55 entries, the Class 40 fleet is the largest of all the Route du Rhum classes, and again represents one of – if not the – largest gatherings of the class in its history.

Unsurprisingly, picking out a likely favourite to win is near impossible, with at least 10 boats widely tipped for the top slot. Even then, “there are so many outsiders around that anything is possible. It’s a pity that betting is not allowed,” points out Halvard Mabire, the president of the class.

Among them will surely be Yoann Richomme on Paprec Arkea, winner of the last edition of the Route du Rhum and also a double winner of the La Solitaire du Figaro. “There is no magic formula to decide who the top contenders might be,” Richomme mused ahead of the start.

While the Class 40 has always been seen as a precursor to the IMOCA fleet for many skippers, it is increasingly becoming a design test bed also, and there are now 30 scow-style designs in the fleet. This partly reflects the continued success story that is Sam Manuard’s Class 40 design development, but also the sheer number of well-funded and skippers campaigning in the fleet.

Sam Goodchild’s Leyton is one of the favourites. Photo: Yann Riou/polaRYSE

8 Multi 50 trimarans

Although the eight-strong fleet of Multi 50s is much smaller, the evenly matched trimarans make it almost equally hard to predict the podium. British skipper Sam Goodchild (Leyton) is often ranked as the favourite, though Sébastien Rogues (Primonial) and Quentin Vlamynck (Arkema) are also likely front runners.

Meanwhile the considerable offshore experience of Vendée veteran Armel Tripon (Les P’tits Doudous), three times TJV winner and former Route du Rhum winner Erwan Le Roux, and the former Figaro, Volvo Ocean Race and Tour de France a la Voile sailor Eric Peron certainly mean they too have clear podium potential.

Acapella (the sister ship of Mike Birch famous Olympus) built by Walter Green in 1980 will compete in the Route du Rhum 2022. Photo: Christophe Launay

16 Rhum Multi, 14 Rhum Mono

The ‘Rhum’ classes represent an eclectic mix of modern and vintage designs, often sailed by passionate but more Corinthian campaigners.

Books could be written about the storied entrants in these fleets. Among them is Catherine Chabaud, the first woman to have raced around the world solo, non-stop in the 1996/97 Vendée. She returns to solo racing in the Route du Rhum 2022 aboard the 1990-built ketch Le Cigare Rouge.

Pen Duick III will be sailed by Arnaud Pennarun. Vendée veteran Jean-Pierre Dick sails his Verdier-designed custom 54-footer Absolute Dreamer, while St Malo resident and Jean-Sébastien Biard, a removals company boss, will be racing his 42ft Beneteau in the Mono fleet.

The Multi fleet has an even more intriguing mix, with former round the world skippers lining up in everything from new high performance cruising monohulls to vintage Walter Green designs.

They include Marc Guillemot, racing a new 50-foot catamaran apparently built using parts recovered from previous offshore racing yachts. Charlie Capelle returns sailing his invincible little yellow trimaran Acapella. Loic Escoffier, brother of IMOCA skipper Kevin, is racing a Marsaudon ORC 50. Roland ‘Bilou’ Jourdain is racing a sustainably built Outremer 5X. Philippe Poupon is racing Flo, the iconic 60ft trimaran which Florence Arthaud sailed as 1st Pierre to victory and worldwide fame in 1990.

(Perhaps the question of which is the greatest fleet of all time remains up for debate…)

Nonetheless, this year’s Route du Rhum 2022 start is a tantalising prospect for offshore racing fans.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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NOTE: Since this article was published the start date for the Route Du Rhum 2022 has been pushed back to Wednesday 9th November at 1415hrs local time. A major storm in the north Atlantic, which would have seen the fleet facing 50-knot winds and 6-7m swells was deemed too dangerous to start the race. You can watch the live stream of the start below

The Route du Rhum is one of the biggest solo offshore races in the world, and will see 138 singlehanded competitors take to the startline in Saint-Malo, France this year as they prepare to race alone and non stop to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

The Route du Rhum is a simple enough race, essentially, it’s a straight blast across the Atlantic as fast as possible.

The transatlantic course covers a total of 3542 miles, though typically the distance sailed is much higher than this as sailors try to find the most favourable weather conditions.

The Route du Rhum always takes place in early November, which means that sailors take on the autumnal Atlantic, often providing very windy weather as they boats leave France in the north Atlantic, cross the Bay of Biscay and dive south to try to pick up the favourable trade wind conditions.

What boats race in the Route du Rhum?

The Route du Rhum is split into six classes in total: the foiling Ultime trimarans; Multi 50 trimarans; IMOCA 60s; Class 40; and two classes for a broad range of boats that do not fit into any over the above categories, one for multihulls and one for monohulls.

As such the stories that come from the race vary, from the super high tech Ultimes who will fight it out to set new course records, to the IMOCA fleet, many of whom will be sailing a first solo transoceanic race in brand new super high tech boats, down to individuals on a shoestring budget who want to take on one of the worlds greatest solo challenges.

All boats in all classes start the 2022 Route du Rhum at the same time on the same (usually around 3 nautical mile long) startline. This makes for a spectacular sight and is relatively unique for such a big race.

The start of the race will be streamed on the Route du Rhum Youtube channel as well as the Route du Rhum Facebook page.

Yannick Bestaven’s IMOCA 60 Maitre CoQ V was launched in 2022 and will compete in the Route du Rhum Photo: Breschi /Maitre Coq

How long does the Route du Rhum take?

With such a wide variety of boats competing, finishing times will vary dramatically. The Ultime fleet will be the first boats to complete the course and they will all be looking to set a new race record should conditions allow.

With technical developments running at such a fast pace in this fleet, however, it will not take particularly special conditions for the record to fall, so expectations are high.

The current race record belongs to Francis Joyon who set the time of 7d 14h 21m 47s aboard IDEC Sport in the 2018 edition of the race.

One of those who will be fighting Joyon for victory in the Ultime class – sailing his radical foiler SVR-Lazartigue is François Gabart. Gabart currently holds the IMOCA 60 record time of 12d 04h 38m 55s which he set back in 2014.

The slowest boats in the fleet are likely to be in the Rhum Mono class and the record here is a little over 16 days, but such is the wider scope of performance, the slowest boats are likely to take over 20 days to complete the course.

François Gabart’s foiling UItime, SVR-Lazartigue

Where to follow the Route du Rhum

As mentioned the start will be streamed on the Route du Rhum Youtube channel and regular content will be uploaded there throughout the race.

We here at Yachting World will be keeping a close eye on proceedings and will keep you updated via our dedicated 2022 Route du Rhum homepage.

For those that want up the the minute information on which skipper is where you can follow the race live via the Route du Rhum race tracker, which can be found on the Route du Rhum website.

The Route du Rhum starts at 12:00 (GMT) on Sunday 6 November.

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Pip Hare is a British professional sailor and solo skipper, and the 8th woman ever to finish the Vendée Globe. She needs little introduction to regular readers of Yachting World, as a regular writer and boat tester on these pages.

Pip Hare grew up in landlocked Cambridgeshire but spent many holidays and weekends cruising aboard the family’s Folkboat, and later a Moody 33 moored on the River Deben near Ipswich. She read extensively about the Whitbread Round the World Race, and the achievements of solo skippers like Isabelle Autissier and later Ellen MacArthur, and realised from an early age that she wanted race across oceans.

She has been working in sailing for over 25 years, as an instructor, coach and race skipper. She also cruised – on and off, around sailing work – for eight years while living aboard her Lightwave 395 The Shed, completing many short-handed ocean crossings.

However, it wasn’t until 2009 that Hare first moved into solo racing, aged 35, sailing The Shed in the OSTAR singlehanded race from Plymouth to Newport, RI. Her preparation for that first single-handed race including delivering The Shed back from Uruguay to the UK on her own, a passage which took 58 days.

Pip then moved into the Mini Transat class, competing in the solo transatlantic in 2011 (aboard a Mini 6.50 named The Potting Shed) and 2013.

Swiftly working her way through the ranks, she moved into the Class 40s, and finished 9th in the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre in 2015. She campaigned in the Class 40 fleet for many years, also working as a coach with other teams.

The ultimate goal for any solo sailor is typically the Vendée Globe non-stop around the world race, which departs every four years from Les Sables-d’Olonne. Pip Hare set out to join the hallowed ranks of Vendée skippers in 2018, committing to take part in her first Vendée Globe aged 46, at the time with no sponsor and no IMOCA experience, and an old, early generation boat which she had chartered.

The route to the Vendée is a tough one and for many the hardest race is simply to get to the start. Hare’s incredible determination got her there with a tiny budget and a support team made up of volunteers and friends, but in June 2020 she secured Medallia as a title sponsor for the Vendée Globe campaign, allowing her to finally recruit a small team in preparation for the start in November 2020.

In her own words, Pip says she had to: “just make it happen, force a campaign into existence and not be fussy about what I had. I just wanted to experience the [Vendée Globe] and show potential sponsors that I was worth backing.”

No one was more surprised than Pip Hare when Leslie Stretch, CEO of software company Medallia, stepped in to sponsor her 2020 Vendée Globe campaign, just months before the race start.

She admits she had been Googling ‘How do you go bankrupt’ just days before Stretch contacted her with an offer. A keen solo sailor who keeps a Beneteau 41.1 in San Francisco Bay, Stretch said Hare‘s track record as ‘an intrepid offshore sailor’ meant sponsoring her campaign to race around the world in a 1999 vintage IMOCA 60 was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up, and ‘it was an easy choice to sponsor her again in 2024.’

Hare sailed an impressive 2020-21 Vendée Globe, despite the challenges of her IMOCA 60 (the former Superbigou built by Bernard Stamm), which was well known to be one of the hardest to sail in the fleet – with halyards led to the mast base, a block and tackle canting keel system, no foils, and little in the way of cockpit protection.

She finished in 19th position, with a final time of 95d 11hr. Despite sailing the second-oldest boat in the fleet she finished within a few hours of the two closest foilers ahead (Alan Roura’s La Fabrique in 17th, and Stéphane le Diraison on Time for Oceans).

On her Vendée Hare suffered power generation issues, lost her wind instruments, and even had to replace a rudder mid-ocean in the Pacific.

She also proved herself a fantastic communicator during the race, turning the skills she regularly utilises in writing for Yachting World to share the emotional rollercoaster of a Vendée Globe campaign with a non-sailing audience. Her blog posts from the race captured her raw, unfiltered enthusiasm for what it feels like to achieve a lifetime dream, and inspired many followers.

Her ability to drive every ounce of performance from her boat, meanwhile, proved she would be capable of much improved results with the right machinery underneath her.

Pip Hare now has a foiling IMOCA 60 having completed the 2020-21 Vendée Globe on a 1999 vintage boat.

IMOCA 60 Medallia

Sail number: GBR 77
Designer: VPLP – Verdier
Builder:: CDK Technologies, Port-La-Forêt
Year: 2015
LWL: 18,.28 m
Beam: 5.80 m
Draught: 4.5 m
Displacement: 6.5 tonnes
Foils: Yes, 2020 generation, new ones in build

Following the huge success of their original partnership, Medallia backed Hare again for a second Vendee Globe in the 2024-25 race.

CEO Leslie Stretch had asked Pip mid-race on the race’s live video show: “What’s next Pip? Let’s get to the end and then let’s go shopping for a new boat, shall we??” – on her return they did just that, buying the fastest boat ever to complete the Vendée Globe.

Launched in 2015 as Banque Populaire, the new Medallia comes with an impressive history. It was one of the first generation of yachts that were built specifically to foil, and it won the Vendée Globe for Armel Le Cléac’h in 2016, setting an unbroken course record of 74 days.

In the 2020 Vendée Globe it competed as Bureau Vallée with skipper Louis Burton, placing an impressive 3rd despite Burton having to stop and reattach a mast track among other repairs.

Pip took ownership of her new IMOCA 60 in 2021 and has spent the past year learning how to get the most out of a foiling IMOCA. She has new, larger foils in build as part of her ongoing optimisation and development programme for the boat.

Although she has a wealth of ocean racing experience, Hare will take on the Route du Rhum for the first time in 2022. She will be hoping to demonstrate her potential in a new foiling IMOCA 60 whilst also critically securing qualification miles for her second Vendée Globe.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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Non-French sailors who have made a name for themselves in the IMOCA 60 fleet are rare, but German-born Boris Herrmann is just one such international skipper who has impressed.

Many singlehanded offshore racers also race in a variety of other classes, from crewed offshore to dinghy racing. Herrmann is just such a jack of all trades, regularly racing 505 dinghies and competing in the foiling catamaran GC32 series.

But the German is best known for his offshore shorthanded racing. In a world dominated by the French, Boris Herrmann has a long list of events in which he was the sole German competing.

His first proper offshore solo race was the Mini Transat in 2001 where he was the only German on the startline (and the youngest skipper too). His 11th place finish there marked him out as one to watch for the future.

Boris Herrmann moved into the Class 40s, sailing Beluga Racer into 2nd place in the single-handed 2008 Artemis Transat. He then won the Portimão Global Ocean Race, a five-leg round the world race on Class 40 boats, with co-skipper Felix Oehme.

On moving up to the IMOCA fleet, he raced in the double-handed Barcelona World Race in 2010 with American co-skipper Ryan Breymaier, finishing in 5th place. He added more top five finishes in both the Route du Rhum (2018) and Transat Jacques Vabre (2017), showing that Herrmann has what it takes to race at the sharp end of the fleet.

In 2018 (alongside Pierre Casiraghi) Herrmann founded the Malizia Ocean Challenge project. This initiative aims to combine sailing, science and education to get children fascinated about sailing and ocean topics whilst teaching them about climate change.

In 2019 he sailed climate activist Greta Thunberg from Plymouth to New York City in mid-late August 2019 on his emission-free IMOCA 60 Malizia II.

With the backing of Yacht Club de Monaco (which had supported him with the IMOCA purchase), he entered the 2020-21 Vendée Globe with Malizia II (originally launched under Gitana colours for Seb Josse for the 2016-17 edition of the race) and in so doing became the first German to compete in the event (Isabelle Joschke is Franco-German, having been born in Munich but racing as a French entrant).

Boris Herrmann had an incredibly strong race and for a time it looked as though he may even become the first non-French sailor to win it in the tense last few days of racing.

After Charlie Dalin took line honours in the Vendée, four skippers, including Herrmann, Yannick Bestaven, Louis Burton and Thomas Ruyant, were left steaming across a wet and windy Bay of Biscay into Les Sables d’Olonne at 16-20 knots, with the margins too close to predict who would finish ahead – all were due some time correction thanks to their efforts to help a search and rescue operation for fellow skipper Kevin Escoffier earlier in the race.

However, Herrmann’s chances dissipated just minutes after Dalin’s victory, when his boat, which was in 3rd place at the time and still well within his six-hour margin to overtake Dalin, collided with a fishing boat some 90 miles from the Vendée Globe dock. He limped home to finish 5th in the event.

The new Malizia – Seaexplorer features a large, enclosed cockpit. Photo: Antoine Auriol/Team Malizia

IMOCA 60 Malizia – Seaexplorer

Sail number: MON 1297
Designer: VPLP
Builder: Multiplast
Year: 2022
LWL: 18.28 m
Beam: Not published
Draught: 4.5 m
Displacement: Not published
Foils: Yes, latest generation

The 2022 Route du Rhum will see Herrmann take to the startline in a brand new IMOCA 60, which was launched in the middle of 2022.

Malizia – Seaexplorer is relatively unique in the world of IMOCA 60s in that she has been designed with the fully crewed event The Ocean Race in mind in addition to short handed sailing – the only other IMOCA 60 launch to date that has taken this route is 11th Hour Racing’s Malãma, which is geared more towards The Ocean Race than solo racing.

Herrmann hopes to be equally competitive in both events, but they both have slightly different requirements, with fully crewed boats able to be pushed harder for longer they need to be tougher and are thus likely to be built to a minimum weight. They are also less likely to be optimised for pure downwind performance.

For this new design, partly due to the fully crewed needs for The Ocean Race and partly as a personal preference, Malizia – Seaexplorer has gone with an almost entirely enclosed cockpit. It is not quite as radical as Alex Thomson’s last generation Hugo Boss is (now Hublot in the hands of Alan Roura), but it is not far off.

It’s an interesting conundrum and it will certainly be fascinating to see how Herrmann goes in the 2022 Route du Rhum in his new boat.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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Yannick Bestaven was declared the 2020/21 Vendée Globe winner, having finishing 3rd on the water but earned the win thanks to a time compensation of 10 hours and 15 minutes which he was awarded for his role in the search and rescue of fellow competitor Kevin Escoffier.

For Bestaven this was his second tilt at the Vendée Globe, having dismasted in the 2008/09 edition. Since 2008, Bestaven has taken two victories in the Transat Jacques Vabre in Class 40, and 4th place in the Route du Rhum in 2014. Having secured sponsorship from Maître CoQ, Yannick managed to purchase the first foiler designed by architects Verdier-VPLP for the Vendée Globe 2016, formerly Morgan Lagravière’s Safran.

Yannick Bestaven has always been known for his autonomy. In 2001, he won the Mini Transat on a boat that he’d built himself, with the help of Arnaud Boissières who finished 3rd.

Having gained an engineering degree from École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, he also the founder of the hydro generator company Watt & Sea, a must-have power generation source for the IMOCA fleet as well as many other racers and cruisers.

For the 2020 edition of the Vendée Globe, he was his own project manager, responsible for the project from start to finish.

This all-round knowledge of a well-sorted (if not absolute latest generation) boat contributed to a Vendée Globe race which gradually moved from impressive to standout. Bestaven led the fleet back into the Atlantic having moved up into 1st place just south of Australia and was still fighting hard within the leading pack of four boats until the very end.

The 2022 Route du Rhum will see Bestaven competing in a solo transoceanic race for the first time in a brand new IMOCA 60, which was commissioned with his sponsor Maître CoQ shortly after his victory in the 2020-21 Vendee Globe.

Yannick Bestaven’s Maitre CoQ V was launched on 2022. Photo: Breschi /Maitre Coq

IMOCA 60 Maître CoQ V

Sail number: FRA 17
Designer: Guillaume Verdier
Builder: CDK Technologies
Year: 2022
LWL: 18.28 m
Beam: Not published
Draught: 4.5 m
Weight: Not published
Foils: Yes, latest generation

The 2022 Route du Rhum is the first big race Yannick Bestaven will take part in onboard his brand new IMOCA 60. There are likely to be some teething problems with the boat – as is always the case with such high-tech offshore racers.

However, Verdier and CDK are a well established designer and builder combination, so there should not be any significant surprises. And a sailor like Bestaven, who is so used to being self-sufficent is unlikely to have any significant issue working though the inevitable gremlins. The key thing for Bestaven, along with all skippers bringing a new boat up to speed, will be to avoid pushing so hard they incur any significant damage at this critical point of the campaign.

Certainly with a Vendée Globe win under his belt, years of solo offshore experience, and now a brand new IMOCA 60 in his hands, Bestaven must surely feature in anyone’s pick of podium potentials for both the Route du Rhum and Vendée Globe in 2024-25.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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Paul Meilhat was the winner of the IMOCA 60 class in the last Route du Rhum back in 2018, adding that victory to a CV full of podium places and wins in major offshore events including the Fastnet Race, Bermudes 1000, Défi Azimut and a 2nd in the Transat Jacques Vabre.

Paul Meilhat came to offshore racing following many years racing dinghies. He was a French Laser champion, raced at a high level in the 49er fleet and had Olympic sailing aspirations to represent France in the doublehanded skiff.

However, despite some decent results, that route to professional sailing never quite took off. Meilhat instead became increasingly interested in the shorthanded offshore scene and in 2008 started sailing a Figaro Beneteau 2.

Victory alongside Gwénolé Gahinet in the AG2R was Meilhat’s first big shorthanded offshore success and was enough to secure sponsorship from SMA. They purchased François Gabart’s 2012-13 Vendée winning IMOCA 60 and Paul Meilhat set about readying himself for his first Vendée Globe race.

However, a keel ram failure forced the Frenchman to retire from the 2016-17 Vendée Globe. After that race, he showed impressive pace in the boat, coming home 2nd (again alongside Gwénolé Gahinet) in the 2017 Transat Jacques Vabre before that impressive win in the Route du Rhum the following year.

With SMA bowing out of offshore racing sponsorship, Meilhart was without a headline sponsor. He remained very involved in the world of shorthanded racing, and was a popular choice as a co-skipper for double-handed events, sailing with Sam Davies and Charlie Dalin among others while he looked for a new backer. Without a sponsor he missed out on racing the 2020-21 Vendée Globe, but secured Biotherm as a headline sponsor in for a dual campaign for both the The Ocean Race 2023 and the Vendée Globe 2024.

Now, with a brand new boat underneath him, he returns to the frontline of offshore solo racing and is set to compete in the 2022 Route du Rhum just two months after the launch of his brand new IMOCA.

Meilhat’s new IMOCA is the last of the 2022 builds to be launched.

IMOCA 60 Biotherm

Sail number: FRA 2030
Designer: Guillaume Verdier
Builder: Persico Marine
Year: 2022
LWL: 18.28 m
Beam: unpublished
Draught:: 4.5 m
Displacement: unpublished
Foils: Yes

Biotherm is a fourth generation foiling IMOCA 60 and is a sistership to the new LinkedOut, currently under construction for Thomas Ruyant. Unlike Ruyant, Paul Meilhat has no third generation IMOCA to sail on until the completion of his new boat, so this IMOCA 60 build schedule was shortened in order to get it on the water as quickly as possible and start optimisation.

The combination of Verdier as designer and Persico as builder is a well-trodden path and should provide a highly refined platform upon which to compete for the top step of the podium in the Route du Rhum, Vendée Globe and the fully crewed Ocean Race (for which IMOCA 60s will compete as a class and in which Meilhat has confirmed entry).

As it is so new, it’s hard to gauge the potential of Biotherm at present and the Route du Rhum will represent the first true chance to see the boat in action – though it is likely teething problems may hinder chances of a podium, as is always the case with the highly complex and technologically advanced foiling monohulls.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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Whilst there are some routes that are well-trodden to becoming an IMOCA skipper (Mini Transat, Figaro, Class 40…), there are a variety of routes into the world of offshore shorthanded sailing. The skills needed to make a successful solo racer are so multi-faceted that there is no one set path to success, but Frenchman Damien Seguin’s route to the Vendée Globe is undeniably unique.

Seguin was born without his left hand and this disability, coupled with his love of sailing, led him to the Paralympic Games. He was incredibly successful in Paralympic sailing, winning two golds and one silver medal between 2004 and 2016.

However, sailing was removed from the Paralympic Games ahead of the 2020 Games in Tokyo, and Seguin switched his focus to full time offshore solo racing.

Damien Seguin already had a good deal of offshore sailing experience, having completed the Tour de France à la Voile on three separate occasions from 2015-2017.

In terms of solo racing, he has completed many races in the Class 40 – seen by many as the direct feeder for the IMOCA 60 class. He’s finished two Route du Rhum races and three Transat Jacques Vabre transatlantics.

In 2020 Damien Seguin set off on his toughest task to date, competing in the Vendée Globe race. His 7th place finish would be remarkable for most first time competitors in the race, add to that his ability to keep an older boat competitive amongst the newer foilers, and becoming the first Paralympic skipper to complete the race and you his achievements are unequivocally impressive.

After crossing the finish line of the 2020-21 Vendee Seguin displayed his trademark flamboyant style, donning a pirate costume, complete with hook, to sail up Les Sables d’Olonne’s famous channel.

Damien Seguin has purchased the 2020-21 Vendee Globe winner. Photo: Jean-Marie LIOT / Groupe APICIL

IMOCA 60 Groupe Apicil

Sail number: FR 13
Designer: VPLP – Verdier
Builder: CDK Technologies, Port la Forêt
Year: 2014
LWL: 18,28 m
Beam: 5.8 m
Draught: 4.5 m
Weight: 8 tonnes
Foils: Yes

For the 2024-25 edition of the Vendée Globe, Damien Seguin has picked up a first generation foiling IMOCA 60 and, crucially, the boat that won the 2020-21 race in the hands of Yannick Bestaven last year (ex Maitre Coq).

As with all IMOCA 60s, there is an important balance to strike between outright pace and reliability. Although history would suggest that it is usually a new boat that wins the race, getting hold of a fast boat that has proven itself on a lap of the planet is a sensible option for those without the multi-million Euro budgets of a new custom build.

With a newer boat underneath him that is proven it can be quick in the right hands, Seguin should be a force to be reckoned with. He may not be a nailed on podium contender for either the 2022 Route du Rhum or the Vendée Globe, but you wouldn’t put it past him.

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Nothing about Romain Attanasio’s early life indicated that he might end up a solo offshore yacht racer. He was born to a skiing family in the Hautes-Alpes region of France where he grew up far from the sea and surrounded by snowy mountains.

However, Romain Attanasio did take many holidays on the water as a youngster and found an early love for the sea during that time. Having become increasingly interested in offshore racing during his school years – as well as actively racing dinghies during this time – he picked up a Mini 6.50 and took on the Mini Transat on a shoestring budget in 1999.

His boat was rolled during that event and Attanasio was rescued by a ship but the experience did little to dent his passion for ocean racing.

Shortly after, he was accepted into the Pôle Finistère Course au Large based out of Port-la-Forêt. This is widely accepted as a training ground for the best offshore racing talent in France (and, therefore, the world).

He saw decent results in the Figaro Beneteau 2 in which La Solitaire du Figaro and Transat AG2R are both contested. It was also during this time that he met fellow ocean racer and Vendée Globe skipper, Sam Davies, with whom he had a son.

Romain Attanasio has two Vendée Globes under his belt, completing the solo non stop race around the world in the 2016-17 edition and the most recent 2020-21 race in a 2001 boat and a 2009 boat respectively.

Ex-Malizia II, Attanasio’s IMOCA 60 is a decent performer. Photo: Yann Riou / polaRYSE

IMOCA 60 Fortinet-Best Western

Sail number: FRA 10
Designer: VPLP/ Verdier
Builder: Chantier Multiplast, Vannes
Year: 2015
Length: 18.28
Beam: 5.70
Draught: 4.50
Foils: Yes

Attanasio, alongside sponsors Fortinet-Best Western, has purchased a first generation foiler for the 2024-25 Vendée Globe.

The boat was initially launched as Gitana 16 – Edmond de Rotschild for skipper Seb Josse ahead of the 2016-17 Vendée Globe, though Josse was forced to retire after suffering significant foil damage.

It was then picked up and raced by Boris Herrmann under the Malizia II name. Herrmann did a great deal of work optimising the boat and, though it is not spectacularly quick, in his hands is became a solid boat, capable of being sailed quickly for long periods of time in a range of conditions.

The boat will represent a solid step up to competitive order for Romain Attanasio even if it is likely to be significantly slower than the very latest foiling IMOCA 60s. A solid boat and a sailor who knows singlehanded sailing intimately should be well placed come the finish of the Route du Rhum.

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Swiss-born sailor Alan Roura already has two Vendée Globe races to his name. He participated in his first, the 2016-17 edition of the event, when he was just 23 years old, making him the youngest ever competitor in the solo non-stop round the world race.

Roura finished a credible 12th in that first attempt at the Vendée Globe. He was so young on his first attempt, that even when Alan Roura lined up four years later for a second shot at the Vendée, he was still the youngest skipper on the startline.

The 2020-21 edition of the race saw a great many technical woes for the Swiss sailor and he finally crossed the finish line in 17th overall.

Alan Roura’s sailing history is an interesting one. Having sailed on Lake Geneva through his early youth, he then spent 11 years sailing across the world with his family on their own boat before finally discovering the allure of offshore racing. He competed in his first major offshore race at the age of 20, taking part in the Mini Transat – just three years later he would be on the startline of the Vendée.

Since that early foray in the shorthanded racing scene, Roura has competed in all the big races on the calendar with multiple Transat Jacques Vabre and Route du Rhum races to his name. He has not not yet picked up a podium in any of the transatlantic races he has taken on, but until now neither has he had a latest generation IMOCA under him.

Roura has, however, demonstrated that he has the outright pace to be a factor in a 2022 Route du Rhum or 2024-25 Vendee Globe race, as he proved himself more than capable in 2019 when he set a new North Atlantic solo crossing record, which still stands to this day.

Alan Roura’s IMOCA 60 Hublot, was previously Hugo Boss, a radical design Alex Thomson hoped would win him the Vendée Globe. Photo: Pierre Bouras

IMOCA 60 Hublot

Sail number: SUI 7
Design: VPLP with Pete Hobson
Builder: Carrington Boats, Southampton (GB)
Year: 2019
LWL: 18,28 m
Beam: 5,40 m
Draught: 4,50 m
Weight: 7,6 tonnes
Mast height: 29 m
Foils Yes

There was much speculation surrounding who would purchase Alex Thomson’s latest Hugo Boss after the 2020-21 Vendee Globe. But it was Alan Roura alongside his headline sponsor Hublot who picked the boat up, instantly making Roura one to watch.

The boat is radical in its design and showed some impressive bursts of speed. But it never managed to show what it could do over an extended period of time.

Structural problems during that edition of the Vendée hampered Thompson’s efforts and he was eventually forced to retire with rudder failure in the South Atlantic.

The boat features a unique enclosed cockpit design – now adopted to varying degrees by other new design IMOCAs – which Thomson hoped would keep him better protected and rested and thus able to work at maximum ability for longer periods of time. It also created some significant structural weight saving opportunities.

Hublot also had radical c-shaped foils. These have divided opinion. Some see the benefit that their ability to fully retract in light weather, reduced exposure to unidentified floating objects and downwind efficiency provide. Others think it is a step too far in terms of optimising for pure downwind performance at the expense or upwind or fetching.

Whatever the benefits of the radical design, most would agree we have not seen the boat at her absolute best yet and Alan Roura will be hoping to find the speed the design showed at times as he aims for Route du Rhum and, ultimately, Vendée Globe glory.

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Conrad Colman, or the ‘crazy Kiwi’ as he became known, was the first New Zealander to compete in the Vendée Globe in 2016.

Colman studied economics in the US, founded a small business and became a competitive mountain biker before deciding that the world of bluewater sailing was where his true passion lay. He moved to the south coast of England in 2007, taking any job he could to fund his sailing and build skills, from working in a sailmaker’s loft to sanding antifoul.

Two years later he moved to France, joining the Mini 6.50 fleet which he described as “the best offshore sailing school in the world”, and competing on a shoestring budget.

A year later he moved up to a Class 40 entry in the Route du Rhum, and then onto the Class 40 Global Ocean Race double-handed race around the world in 2011, which he won overall – also winning four of the five legs, sailing with a different skipper each time.

In 2014 he moved up to IMOCA 60s, competing in the double-handed Barcelona World Race with Hungarian skipper Nandor Fa.

Writing for Yachting World, he described his offshore career thus: “While on paper this is a rapid progression I was always a day late and a dollar short and progressed by accepting roles that no sane person should.

“I signed for my Rhum race three months before the race started, I signed my sponsorship deal for the Global Ocean Race ten days before the start and I accepted to sail the Barcelona World Race only five weeks before the start. More often than not, this meant that I found myself racing through dangerous waters on overpowered boats with complete strangers!”

Despite having proven himself as a round the world competitor, attempts to raise funds for a Vendée Globe campaign fell short and he decided to buy a cheap 2005 boat to refit whilst still attempting to secure backing. The boat arrived in Les Sables d’Olonne unbranded, and in the end he signed with his sponsor just 48 hours before the start of the 2016 Vendée Globe.

Conrad Colman also set out to became the first Vendée Globe competitor to complete the race without using fossil fuels, instead using renewable solar and windpower only.

The Vendée Globe proved a battle of attrition for Colman, who had to contend an electrical fire that knocked out the boat’s electronics, rebuild a leaky hydraulic keel ram and fix a broken forestay after a 60-knot storm.

Then, just 250 miles west of Lisbon, Portugal, Imagine was dismasted while Colman was lying in 10th place. Having built a jury rig using his remaining sails and straightening the damaged boom, he managed to sail 740 unassisted to limp over the line, hungry but jubilant, two weeks later.

Conrad Colman did not participate in in the 2020 Vendée Globe, but has again bought himself a previous generation IMOCA and is looking for partners to support his return to the event for 2024.

Conrad Colman’s IMOCA 60 comes from a generation before foils, but is a tried and tested design. Photo: Fanch Galivel

IMOCA 60 Imagine

Sail number: NZL 64
Architect: VPLP – Verdier
Construction: Indiana Yachting, IT
Year: 2007
LWL: 18.28m
Beam: 5.5m
Draught: 4.5m
Displacement: 8 tonnes
Mast height: 29m
Foils: No

Conrad Colman has bought Maxime Sorel’s former IMOCA ex-V&B Mayenne. Originally launched as Groupe Bel (famously branded as the ‘laughing cow’) in 2007 for Kito de Pavant, the VPLP Design/Verdier is reportedly the boat that inspired Colman to move into solo offshore racing. It was widely seen as a development of the radical Safran.

The boat was dismasted just two days into de Pavant’s 2008 Vendée Globe, then had to retire from the 2011 Barcelona World Race with keel damage. Kito de Pavant returned with the boat for the 2012 Vendée, but was again forced out on day two, this time after a collision with a fishing boat.

In 2016 the boat returned to the Vendée Globe, this time as Le Souffle du Nord for talented young skipper Thomas Ruyant, and was near the front of the pack when it suffered severe structural damage – Ruyant reported hitting an unidentified floating object – and had to limp to New Zealand for repairs.

In 2020 the boat made its fifth round the world race start, and this time completed the circumnavigation, with Sorel finishing a respectable 10th.

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Louis Burton shot to Vendée Globe fame when he sailed across the line of the 2020-21 Vendée Globe in 2nd place in his 2012 IMOCA 60 Bureau Vallée. He finished 3rd overall after redress had been awarded.

Typically it is the newest IMOCA 60 designs that dominate the Vendée Globe. However, with the weather in the 2020 edition not providing the usual downwind high-speed conditions that the latest generation boats were highly optimised for, some of the older, even non-foiling designs, were able to be competitive.

Nevertheless, to take a podium place finish in a boat that was already two generations old requires remarkable skill and a sailor who is willing to adopt a no-limits approach to their racing.

Burton’s style of racing was clear for all to see within seconds of the event getting underway. As the start gun fired off Les Sables d’Olonne in western France, Louis Burton was pushing to get the best start in the fleet and actually found himself fractionally over the startline – he would incur a 5 hour time penalty for the breach.

This full-throttle approach continued throughout the race. It took its toll on the boat at times and Burton was twice forced to make major repairs, at one point climbing the mast three times while drifting in the protective lee of the remote Macquarie Island halfway between New Zealand and the Antarctic. Burton even had to contend with a fire onboard during his Atlantic return. However, his ability to push the boat to near 100% of its potential was widely noted among his competitors.

Burton’s ascent to the front of the IMOCA 60 fleet has not been that of a superstar thrust into the limelight, rather he has spent years chipping away at the fleet, building miles and experience whilst supported by long-time sponsor Bureau Vallée.

He initially competed with Bureau Vallée in the Class 40 where he saw some decent results and then moved up to the IMOCA 60, purchasing a 2006 Farr design to compete in the 2012-13 Vendée.

A collision with a fishing boat in the opening few days of the race forced Louis Burton to retire but he returned in the 2016-17 Vendée Globe in the same boat determined to finish. He duly crossed the line of that edition in 7th place putting him in the top half of finishers.

This result, on a 2006 boat up against the first generation of foiling IMOCA 60s, sufficiently impressed Bureau Vallée for them to invest in a more modern boat for Burton. They bought
Banque Populaire VIII, the foiling winner of the 2016 Vendée Globe (and current course record holder), which competed as Bureau Vallée 2. It has since been sold to Pip Hare, as the new Medallia.

It’s his track record of picking up decent results in older designs that makes Louis Burton such an intriguing proposition. Starting three Vendée Globes and finishing two is an impressive hit rate, while scoring both a 3rd place and a 7th in previous generation boats is remarkable.

Burton’s Bereau Vallée was previously L’Occitane en Provence, a radical scow-bowed design that impressed in the last Vendée Globe

IMOCA 60 Bureau Vallée

Sail number: FRA 02
Designer: Sam Manuard
Builder: Black Pepper
Year: 2019
LWL: 18.28m
Beam: 5.5m
Draught: 4.5m
Displacement: 7.8 tonnes
Mast height: 28m
Foils: Yes, 3rd generation

Upon completion of the 2020-21 Vendée Globe, Louis Burton and his sponsor announced they would be sticking to a tried and trusted route and purchasing a newer generation second-hand boat in order to compete in the 2024-25 edition of the event.

Burton will be sailing the 2022 Route du Rhum (and the 2024-25 Vendée Globe) in the radical scow-bowed design from Sam Manuard, which was previously Armel Tripon’s L’Occitane en Provence.

It was widely accepted that this was potentially a very quick boat that did not quite live up to its full potential in the last Vendée. So impressive was the design that one of the most experienced skippers in the fleet, Jeremie Beyou selected Manuard to design his new IMOCA. Sam Davies has also opted for a new boat from the same moulds as L’Occitane.

Having completed the purchase swiftly after the Vendée Globe finish in 2021, Burton has a full four-year cycle in hand to iron out any reliability issues. This, combined with his no holds barred approach to racing and a boat that has yet to show what it can really do, means Burton is suddenly one to watch. Could the 2022 Route du Rhum be the place where he cements his position as a real front runner?

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Thomas Ruyant truly made his mark on the IMOCA 60 fleet in the lead up to and during the 2020-21 Vendée Globe Race.

The Frenchman took 4th place on the water in the singlehanded solo non-stop race around the world, finishing 6th overall after redress was awarded to competitors involved in Kevin Escoffier’s rescue.

Thomas Ruyant was duelling for the lead in the Vendée Globe when his port foil suffered major damage just three weeks into the race. Incredibly, he climbed out onto the end of the foil to cut the most badly damaged section away using an electric saw, before resuming racing.

Although he was able to make the foil partially functional, his speed was severely compromised on starboard tack for the remaining 19,000 miles of the race.

Born in Dunkirk, Thomas Ruyant was a dinghy sailor initially. He purchased a Mini 6.50 while at university, which he reconditioned. In 2007 he took on his first big solo offshore test, the Mini Transat, finishing 24th.

Two years later Ruyant was back with a new boat and won the transatlantic race, cementing his position as one to watch for the future.

In 2010 Ruyant moved into the Class 40, where he again dominated in the class which is seen by many as a feeder to the IMOCA 60. Ruyant won almost everything he entered, including the Transat Jacques Vabre.

He also tested himself in the Figaro Beneteau class, and although mid-fleet in the competitive Solitaire du Figaro, with its many short, almost inshore, coastal sprint legs, he won the Transat A2GR La Mondiale in the Figaro in 2018.

Ruyant secured the position of skipper on the IMOCA 60 Le Souffle du Nord ahead of the 2016-17 Vendée Globe and cemented the faith placed in him by finishing 4th alongside co-skipper Adrien Hardy in the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre – his first proper IMOCA 60 race.

In his first attempt at the Vendée Globe, Thomas Ruyant was performing impressively when disaster struck. Some 260 miles from the coast of New Zealand, while travelling at almost 20 knots, his boat hit an unidentified floating object (suspected to be a container) and suffered severe structural damage.

Ruyant managed to limp to the nearest port of Bluff, on the south island of New Zealand, with the boat literally breaking up around him. After a tense two days he finally made it safely to land.

Determined to make the start of the 2020/21 Vendée Globe, Ruyant began the build of a latest generation foiling IMOCA before he had committed backing from a title sponsor, instead raising funds from a consortium of supporters from the 2016 race.

Fortunately, the gamble paid off, and he secured backing from the French employment organisation LinkedOut, which continues to sponsor him today.

Thoms Ruyant and his IMOCA 60 LinkedOut at full chat. Photo: Pierre Bouras

IMOCA 60 LinkedOut

Sail no: FRA TBC
Architect: Guillaume Verdier
Builder: Persico, ITA
LWL: 18.28m
Beam: 5.85m
Draught: 4.5m
Displacement: 8 tonnes
Mast height: 29m
Foils Yes – 2020 generation

This third generation foiling IMOCA 60 came from the trusted pen of designer Guillaume Verdier and was built by the Italian yard Persico Marine in 2019 – both respected options in the world of IMOCA designs and high performance construction

LinkedOut has proved impressively quick across the wind range on all points of sail. She may be out-performed by some more radical designs on specific points of sail, but Thomas Ruyant and his team have done an impressive job in moding and optimising the boat to provide a very quick package. They also competed in the fully crewed Ocean Race Europe.

Ruyant will be competing once again in LinkedOut for the Route du Rhum 2022, although he will be getting a new IMOCA 60 for the 2024 edition of the Vendée Globe. For his new boat, Ruyant is changing designer to a new build from Antoine Koch working with Finot-Conq, who are making a return to the IMOCA class.

Ruyant has been quoted as looking for a design for his new boat which is more tightly geared towards the fast downwind conditions that dominate round the world racing.

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English-born Samantha Davies has the rare status of being loved by both French and British sailing fans. She is now among the most experienced IMOCA 60 skippers in the fleet, and well known for being one of its best communicators, also being bilingual.

Sam Davies was born in Portsmouth, on the south coast of the UK, and spent much of her childhood sailing with her parents on their schooner, where she is said to have taken her first steps. After school she studied mechanical engineering at St John’s College, Cambridge, and swiftly moved into competitive sailing, beginning in the Mini 6.50 class.

At the age of just 24, she was part of Tracy Edwards’s 1998 round the world Jules Verne record attempt, which ended when the 92ft catamaran Royal & Sun Alliance was dismasted.

Davies moved to France, and spent many years in the highly competitive Figaro class. She became part of the high profile Offshore Challenges team, securing Figaro sponsorship from Skandia, and also sailing with Nick Moloney on his IMOCA 60.

In 2008/09 she competed in her first Vendée Globe on Roxy, crossing the line in 3rd place and finishing 4th after redress was awarded to other competitors (for the rescue of Jean le Cam). For her achievements she was awarded Yachtsman of the Year by the Yachting Journalist Association in 2009, but more significantly she demonstrated that she was a superb story teller, regularly sending engaging videos and blogs from Roxy which demonstrated her love of ocean racing (and the fact that she was also a great asset to sponsors).

Sam Davies was dismasted in the 2012 Vendée Globe, but went straight on to the all-female Team SCA entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, in which she was made skipper.

Davies has trained for many years at the prestigious Port La Forêt, and now has more than 25 transatlantic races under her belt as well as three circumnavigations.

She missed out on the 2016 Vendée Globe, but returned for 2016 with the 2010 generation IMOCA Initiatives-Coeur, raising awareness for a campaign that funds life-saving heart surgery for children in developing nations.

Initiatives-Coeur suffered a collision in the South Atlantic with an unidentified floating object, and Sam Davies was forced to head to Cape Town to make repairs, which put her out of the race. However, she restarted the circumnavigation to complete the course in 109d 23h 40m, raising thousands of pounds for the charity on the way.

For the 2024 Vendée Globe cycle, Davies has her first new IMOCA, also branded Initiatives-Coeur. This will be her second Route du Rhum, but her first major competition in her new boat.

Sam even has her own Lego model.

Davies’ first ever brand new IMOCA 60 on launch day. Photo: Marin LE ROUX – polaRYSE

IMOCA 60 Initiatives Coeur 4

Sail number: FRA 109
Architect: Sam Manuard
Builder: Black Pepper
Year: 2022
LWL: 18.28m
Draught: 4.5m
Displacement: 8.5 tonnes
Mast height: 28m
Foils: Yes, latest generation

Sam Davies’ newly built Initiatives-Coeur is the second hull to come from the mould originally used for Armel Tripon’s former L’Occitane en Provence (now Bureau Vallée 3). The Sam Manuard-designed L’Occitane with its radical scow shaped bow was widely admired by skippers in the 2020 Vendée Globe for its seahanding capabilities and high average speeds.

This latest generation iteration of the Manuard design includes new foils, designed to have higher tolerances in a range of conditions, whilst also being slightly smaller than those fitted to L’Occitane en Provence in accordance with the latest IMOCA rule changes.

Other changes were made to the hull construction as some materials are no longer allowed, such as Nomex which has since been replaced by a foam cored or monolithic construction.

Initiatives Coeur was launched in July 2022 and the 2022 Route du Rhum will be its first major competitive outing.

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Charlie Dalin has risen to become one of the stand-out stars of the current generation of IMOCA 60 sailors. His biggest moment in the spotlight so far was crossing the finish line first in the last edition of the Vendée Globe, though his entire career trajectory is one of success after success

Despite finishing 1st on the water into Les Sables d’Olonne in January 2021, however, Charlie Dalin was not the overall winner of the solo round the world race. Yannick Bestaven, who crossed the line 2nd, was awarded 10 hours and 15 minutes of redress for his part in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier. This meant that Bestaven was declared the overall winner.

Leading the fleet in the world’s most celebrated offshore race is something many skippers hope (and fail) to achieve in a lifetime: Dalin crossed the finish of the Vendée Globe in 1st place on his first try.

Dalin sailed a near-faultless race during the 2020 Vendee Globe. In addition to demonstrating the speed of his latest generation Apivia, and his tactical nous, he also showed that other highly important skill of the solo offshore racer: a Macgyver-like ability to make repairs on the fly. When his port foil casing failed in the Southern Ocean, the Frenchman was forced to construct a remarkable 18-hour repair that involved climbing out onto the foil and reinforcing it with a complex web of lines.

Since the 2020 Vendee Globe, Charlie Dalin has maintained his winning momentum. He was 2nd alongside co-skipper Paul Meilhat in the double-handed 2021 Transat Jacques Vabre, and won the solo Vendée Arctique in early 2022.

These impressive results will be of little surprise to anyone that has followed Dalin’s career over the years. He’s the epitome of a modern day French offshore racer, combining both technical and sailing skills with a slick professionalism and daunting work ethic.

Like so many other talented young French sailors, he began his career in the Mini 6.50 class, taking 2nd place in the 2009 solo transatlantic.

After studying Naval Architecture at the university of Southampton, he was accepted into the Pôle Finistère Course au Large based out of Port-la-Forêt. This is widely accepted as a training ground for the best offshore racing talent in France (and, therefore, the world).

Having moved into the Figaro class, more podium places followed, including 1st in the Transat AG2R in 2012. He also took the title of Elite French Singlehanded Offshore Racing Champion in both 2014 and 2016.

Dalin was accepted onto the highly competitive Macif collective and swiftly moved into IMOCA racing. He joined Yann Elies for the double-handed 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre, with the pair picking up a 3rd place, and was subsequently named reserve skipper for Elies ahead of the 2016-17 Vendée Globe, though did not compete.

In Charlie Dalin’s hands Apivia has proven itself to be a bit of a rocketship

IMOCA 60 Apivia

Sail number: FRA 79
Architect: Guillaume Verdier
Builder: CDK Technologies, Lorient
Year: 2019,
Former names
LWL: 18,28 m
Beam: 5,85 m
Draught: 4,50 m
Displacement: 8 tonnes
Mast height: 29 m
Foils: Yes

In 2018 Apivia named Charlie Dalin as their skipper for the 2021-22 edition of the Vendée Globe, with the intention of building a brand new boat for the race.

The boat was designed by the highly experienced Guillaume Verdier and built at CDK Technologies in 2019. These were considered trusted options in a fleet that was increasingly looking further afield for design innovation in the fast developing class, which was now building its third generation of foilers.

Apivia has proven itself to be an incredibly fast boat across the wind range, and optimisation both ahead of the 2020-21 Vendée and since means that it is lightning quick (in the hands of Dalin at least) on all points of sail.

Charlie Dalin and Apivia are due to launch a new IMOCA 60 in 2023 (Apivia 2) ahead of the next Vendée Globe, but such is the pace of his current boat he would likely be considered a threat for victory in that event even without a new boat on the horizon.

The Route 2022 du Rhum will see Dalin competing in his current Apivia and he must start as one of only the hot favourites to win the race. But it most be noted, too, that this will represent his first ever Route du Rhum race.

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Jérémie Beyou is one of the most experienced offshore racers in the world and has a daunting record of wins and podium places across a wide variety of classes, in both solo and crewed races.

The Frenchman is one of only a handful of sailors to have taken part in four Vendée Globes and is aiming for a fifth entry in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe race. His best position to date in the solo non stop round the world race is a 3rd place that he picked up in the 2016-17 edition.

A new boat, launched with plenty of time to develop Charal ahead of the 2020-21 Vendée, combined with Jérémie Beyou’s impressive skills made him the clear favourite to win ahead of the 2020 race (as much as there can be a clear favourite in a race which regularly sees the a significant proportion of the fleet retire).

However, a collision soon after the start put paid to his winning chances, leaving Jérémie Beyou faced with returning to port for repairs, restarting (allowed in the immediate early stages of the race), and continuing the course.

Beyou, who is more accustomed to being at the front of the fleet than chasing the tail-enders, initially struggled with being uncompetitive. Nevertheless, he continued, adding his personal challenge to the legions of Vendée human stories and came home in an impressive 13th place.

Jérémie Beyou has been at the forefront of the offshore shorthanded racing scene since the late 1990s, notching up a swathe of impressive results. He has won the supremely competitive La Solitaire du Figaro – widely considered as the event to cement your name in offshore racing circles – on three separate occasions and finished in the top five seven times.

He won the 2017 Transat Jacques Vabre and has finished on the podium on two further occasions, was a part of the Volvo Ocean Race winning crew onboard Dongfeng in 2018, won the IMOCA 60 class in the Rolex Fastnet Race, and won the first ever Vendée Arctique just before the last Vendée Globe.

There is scarcely a race that sailors want to win in the world of offshore racing, that Beyou has not already taken a 1st in… with the exception of the two big ones, the Vendée Globe and the Route du Rhum, though he finished 2nd in 2014.

Charal 2 was designed by Sam Manuard and features a scow-style bow. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut – polaRYSE / Charal

IMOCA 60 Charal 2

Sail number: FRA 3
Architect: Sam Manuard
Builder: CDK Technologies, Lorient
Year: 2022
LWL: 18,28 m
Draught: 4,5 m
Mast height: 29m
Foils: Yes

Jérémie Beyou was the first to launch a third generation IMOCA 60 ahead of the last Vendee Globe, splashing Charal in the summer of 2018. While other skippers chose to launch as late as possible to try and gain a design advantage, Beyou instead used the extra time at his disposal to optimise his IMOCA and make it as reliable as possible.

Beyou and his backers Charal announced their renewed partnership for the 2024-25 Vendee early, enabling them to again get their build underway ahead of many other IMOCA teams. The latest Charal is one of the earliest ‘4th generation’ foiling IMOCAs on the water, having been launched last year.

In the Route du Rhum 2022 all eyes will be on Beyou and his new IMOCA 60 to see what pace they are showing at this early stage in the development cycle. The new boat is likely to still have some teething issues, with skippers that are still sailing their older boats likely to have a much firmer grip on their moding. However, flashes of serious pace are the kind of signs to look for that could deliver a Vendée chance of victory (and could be enough to secure an elusive Route du Rhum win too).

The new Charal is something of a departure for Beyou, who has this time turned to Sam Manuard to design his new boat. Manuard designed the radical scow-bowed L’Occitane en Provence for the last Vendee Globe and it proved both quick and stable. Clearly this has not gone unnoticed by Beyou and his team, with the last boat known to be tricky to handle even in the hands of a super-skilled pilot.

Although this new boat shares the same designer as L’Occitaine, and does feature something of a scow bow, it is not quite as pronounced as the older Manuard design. What is brand new, however, is an interesting rudder system, with the twin rudders both mounted close to the centreline of the hull and dramatically toe-ed outboard in a marked move away from convention.

This newest Charal is a combination of learning from the previous Charal and from L’Occitane. And with another two years of potential development ahead, is likely to look at least a little different come the start of the next Vendee.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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Kevin Escoffier is a hugely experienced ocean racer, a Volvo Ocean Race winner and a member of Loick Peyron’s Banque Populaire V crew that smashed the fully crewed round the world record in 2015. However, he didn’t move into solo offshore racing until he was in his 40s.

Escoffier grew up sailing in Brittany, accompanying his father – a passionate amateur offshore sailor – to many of the major ocean races. In 2005 Kevin raced with his father on the Multi50 Crêpes Whaou II in the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre to Brazil, and won.

After studying composites design and engineering to a high level, he was appointed lead of the design office for the maxi trimaran Banque Populaire at the age of just 26.

Talking to Yachting World earlier this year, Kevin recalled: “They told me, ‘you won’t be sailing’. And I didn’t care. I would be doing one of the best boats ever built. But since I was physically strong, and I knew the boat perfectly from the daggerboard to the top of the mast, they said, ‘Okay, come on the boat just to double check some things’.

“From then on I was pushing, pushing, and pushing. I’d done all the sailing days – every single day that boat was on the water I’d been on board. So that’s how I did the Jules Verne. I was the youngest on board, I was 30 years old sailing around the world.”

In 2012 Kevin Escoffier was part of the crew of Banque Populaire V when it won the Jules Verne Trophy and broke the world record for a non-stop circumnavigation with a time of 45d 13h 42min 53sec. He then took part in two Volvo Ocean Race campaigns with Dongfeng Race Team, winning in 2017-18.

However it was only after both these huge achievements – winning a crewed non-stop around the world record and the Volvo Ocean Race – that he considered moving to solo sailing, taking over Vincent Riou’s successful campaign at PRB at Riou’s suggestion.

Escoffier started the 2020 Vendée Globe in Riou’s 2010 Verdier/VPLP-designed PRB, which was widely accepted to be one of the best-prepared previous generation IMOCAs in the fleet, having gone through a thorough refit that had included retro-fitted foils.

Kevin Escoffier was having a superb race, lying 3rd on the approach to Cape Town, when PRB suddenly and dramatically broke up in November 2020. What followed was one of the most dramatic rescues ever seen during a circumnavigation race.

“The stern of the boat was underwater and the bow was pointing skyward. You’ve seen images of shipwrecks? It was like that, but worse,” Kevin recalled.

He was plucked from the South Atlantic by fellow competitor Jean Le Cam, then later transferred to a French naval vessel while Le Cam continued for the remainder of the race. Escoffier returned to shore determined to return to solo ocean racing and the Vendée Globe.

The 2022 Route du Rhum will be Escoffier’s first entry in the race, and his first major competition with his new boat. His brother, Loic, is also competing in the Rhum Multi class, having also been rescued in a dramatic capsize this summer off Ireland.

PRB has the latest evolution Verdier foils for improved stability at speed. Photo: Yann Riou/polaRYSE

IMOCA 60 Holcim-PRB

Sail no: FRA 85
Architect: Guillaume Verdier
Builder: Carrington Boats, UK
LWL: 18.28m
Beam: 5.5m
Draught: 4.5m
Displacement: 8.2 tonners
Mast height: 29m
Foils: Yes – latest generation

After Kevin Escoffier’s return from his abandoned 2020/21 Vendee Globe, he and sponsors PRB (who had immediately renewed) urgently began searching for a new IMOCA. However, due to the current burgeoning popularity of the IMOCA class, build slots were full and lead times long.

Escoffier instead secured a new Verdier-designed IMOCA hull that had originally been conceived as a fully crewed boat for The Ocean Race. The yacht was in build at Carrington Boats in the UK, before a change of circumstances saw the project paused. Escoffier’s team bought the hull, finishing the build in the UK before shipping it to Lorient for final fit out and launching.

Escoffier made several design changes after taking ownership of the hull, including cutting a over 4m off the bow and adding a redesigned shallower section for improved downwind performance.
Escoffier explains: “The hull was designed for The Ocean Race. [Originally] in The Ocean Race a few legs were going north up to China, so it was quite a deep bow in order to also be efficient upwind. Whereas for me most of the races – like the Route du Rhum, Vendée Globe – are more downwind races and single-handed.”

The new PRB also features a fully enclosed cockpit, and a distinctive concave fordeck which both reduces weight and allows for a lowered boom.

The boat was launched in PRB’s traditional orange livery. However, shortly after Kevin Escoffier announced a new co-partnership with Holcim and an entry for The Ocean Race (which starts in January 2023), with the IMOCA relaunched as Holcim-PRB and new branding. The campaign now has a busy schedule, going from the solo transatlantic Route du Rhum (St Malo-Guadaloupe) in November 2022, the fully crewed around the world Ocean Race in 2023, and then the solo Vendée Globe in November 2024.

Follow the 2022 Route du Rhum

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One of offshore racing’s greatest heroes, Canadian Mike Birch, has died at the age of 90.

Legendary Canadian skipper Mike Birch won the first edition of the Route du Rhum in 1978, crossing the finish line on the diminutive yellow trimaran Olympus Photo just 98 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Michel Malinovsky’s mighty 21m yacht Kriter V. 

Birch’s win was a catalyst to a revolution in offshore sailing, the reverberations of which are still being felt today: cast iron proof that – in the right hands – multihulls could be as fast, or faster, than monohulls over long ocean crossings.

Born in Vancouver, Canada on 1 November 1931, Birch had a varied career which included working as a gold miner, on oil derricks, as a mechanic – where he developed a love of beautiful sports cars, and even as a real-life cowboy competing in rodeos, before he began sailing full-time. 

Birch was in his mid-40s when he moved into offshore racing. After working as a delivery skipper in Dartmouth in the 1970s he entered the 1976 OSTAR in the 32ft trimaran Third Turtle and finished 2nd, not far behind Eric Tabarly’s 73ft Pen Duick VI.

Two years later, he won the Route du Rhum in the smallest boat in the fleet, the 30ft tri Olympus Photo. The nail-biting finish which was broadcast live, making not only Birch but the new French transatlantic race (set up as an alternative to the English Transat from Plymouth) famous.

OlympusPhoto, skippered by Mike Birch overtakes (foreground) the yacht Kriter at the finish in Point-à-Pitre, Guadaloupe, of the 1978 Route du Rhum. Photo AFP via Getty Images.

Birch went on to spend the next decades innovating in multihull offshore racing. He built several Nigel Irens designs, beginning with the 50ft Vital. 

That was followed by Formula Tag (later ENZA and Tony Bullimore’s Doha, now Energy Observer), which was at the time the largest ever pre-preg structure ever made, and in many senses the yacht from which today’s record-breaking maxi multihulls and foiling Ultimes have evolved. Birch skippered the 26m (85ft) catamaran to victory in the Monaco-New York Race in 1985, and sailed a remarkable 516 miles in 24 hours in the Quebec-St Malo race  – unheard of speeds nearly four decades ago.

He was a force to be reckoned with on the ORMA circuit during the 60ft trimaran class’s heyday, twice finishing on the podium of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe.

Birch continued to race for many decades, competing in every edition of the solo Route du Rhum until he was 71. He was 9th in his final outing in 2002, and finished 3rd in 1982 and 4th twice, in 1986 and 1990. 

He carried on double-handed racing even longer, competing in the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre aged 77 in 2007, with American co-skipper Rich Wilson on the Open 60 Great American III, and the 2012 TWOstar race with Franco-American sailor Etienne Giroire, aged 81, on a 60ft trimaran Eure-et-Loir. 

Mike Birch helming Fujichrome ahead of the 1990 Route du Rhum. Photo by Nicolas LE CORRE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Birch divided his time between his house in Brittany and a remote cabin in his native Quebec, also continuing to sail his own boat – named Dolly, after his mother – until last year.

While his actions on the water were often revolutionary, and widely celebrated, Birch himself was modest, self-deprecating, and a fan of the quiet life.

“I have never done anything but what I wanted,” he said when his biography was published in 2017,  “But also I’ll make a confession. I have always hated to talk about myself.”

I met him in St Malo ahead of the 2018 Route du Rhum when Birch, then 87, was there to wish his good friend Charlie Capelle good luck, who was racing A Capella, a yellow Walter Greene trimaran that is a sistership to Olympus Photo. Birch was treated like a true celebrity by the gathered crowds on the pontoons, but preferred to quietly step down below aboard A Capella, and chat about the race – politely and self-deprecatingly deflecting any questions about himself. 

Canadian former skipper and first winner of La Route du Rhum Mike Birch in November 2018 in Saint-Malo. Photo: FRED TANNEAU/AFP via Getty Images

“A character from a novel,” is how fellow solo skipper Thomas Coville summed up Birch’s remarkable life when news of his death was announced today. Coville had sailed with Birch on the ORMA Fujicolor trimaran in the 1990s. 

“I discovered very late that he had had this life before and rode the great outdoors. I read his book, one of the rare seafaring books that I read to the end, as if I had read a story by Jack London. This gentleman has always been young.”

Fond memories of Birch have been widely shared by those in the offshore racing community The Route du Rhum, which starts on 6 November, will be paying tribute to Birch with his photo projected on the ramparts of Saint-Malo every evening.

Birch died peacefully last night at his home in France, just a couple of days before his 91st birthday. 

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We all know how French solo skippers get so darn good. They move from youth sailing to Mini Transat and Figaro classes, where they drill for years. Then the lucky few step up into IMOCA 60 and test themselves against each other at training camps like Port la Foret, refining their single-handed skills further and further. It’s a production line of talent that no other nation can compete with.

But it’s not the only way – even in France. Kevin Escoffier took another route, and the career he has built is all the more impressive for it.

Escoffier, now 42, is full throttle on his second Vendée Globe campaign for the 2024 race, but he only did his first solo IMOCA race in July 2020, racing in the Vendée Arctique. Four months later he set off on the pinnacle of single-handed competition, around the world non-stop.

Escoffier’s talents were well proven, but he honed his craft as an engineer and his reputation as one of the best ocean racing crew in the world before taking on the challenge of racing solo at the age of 40.

Training on his previous PRB ahead of the 2020 Vendée Globe. Photo: Yann Riou/polaRYSE

Breton youth

That the young Kevin Escoffier did not leap straight into the world of short-handed racing is even more surprising given he was immersed in it from a childhood in Brittany. His father Franck-Yves was passionate about sailing, and moved the family from Paris to St Malo when Kevin and his two brothers were boys in order to be by the sea. Kevin quickly fell in love with the sport (along with rugby, an enduring passion), though even then he opted to crew rather than race solo in classes like the Optimist.

Family holidays were spent cruising, and his father went on to compete in the Figaro and short-handed races like the Route du Rhum, teenage Kevin and his brothers earning pocket money by diving to scrub hulls before the start.

After school, Escoffier studied engineering for three years in Paris, then Montreal for another two and finished his studies in Maryland, USA, specialising in composite structures. The extended studies reflect an intellectual rigour which has been a career constant.

Back in France, he took an internship with Michel Desjoyeaux at Mer Agitée. It was a dream opportunity – working on Orma 60s and the build of two boats in particular that would go on to play a huge role in his career: the Multi 50 Crêpes Whaou II and Vincent Riou’s IMOCA PRB.

While in his sailing Escoffier seems fearless, his decision to build a solid engineering career reflects a degree of cautious realism. He explains: “I’m quite a safe guy, it meant that it was also a job. If you study engineering, you can do whatever you want after. I knew that I wanted to sail, and I knew that if I was an engineer, I wanted to apply that on sailing boats.

“You can see plenty of people who are very good at sailing but at 35, 40 are not lucky enough to have a sponsor. It’s not like soccer, it’s not a sport where you can earn enough money from 20 to 35 to then say, ‘I’m done.’ You have to think about the long term.”

Celebrating winning the TJV with his father in 2005. Photo: Reuters/Alamy

That balance of passion and pragmatism was learnt from his father, who built a fishing business in order to be able to go racing. “For my father the start is a love of the sea. He also loves competition, for sure, but his way of thinking was how to earn a living built around the sea.”

Multi-talented

In 2005 Kevin and his father raced Crêpes Whaou II in the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre to Brazil, and won. Shortly after, aged just 26, he was offered a role as head of the design office for Banque Populaire on one of the most ambitious builds ever: the 130ft (40m) VPLP-designed maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V.

“They told me, ‘you won’t be sailing’. And I didn’t care. I would be doing one of the best boats ever built. But since I was physically strong, and I knew the boat perfectly from the daggerboard to the top of the mast, they said, ‘Okay, come on the boat just to double check some things’.

“From then on I was pushing, pushing, and pushing. I’d done all the sailing days – every single day that boat was on the water I’d been on board. So that’s how I did the Jules Verne. I was the youngest on board, I was 30 years old sailing around the world.”

Escoffier was part of the 14-strong team led by Loïck Peyron which smashed the fully crewed round the world record in 2011/12, taking nearly three days off the previous time. From beginning his career with Michel Desjoyeaux to racing with the legendary Peyron, Escoffier learnt from the best.

A young Kevin (far left) having just broken the Jules Verne Trophy round the world record with Loïck Peyron on Banque Populaire V. Photo: Reuters/Alamy

“I’ve been very lucky. Every time I’ve been sailing, I was sailing on top sailing boats with top people, on top budget projects. For me it was my goal – to be part of very interesting projects that are competitive,” he says.

Next, he joined the Dongfeng Volvo Ocean Race team, sailing with Charles Caudrelier in two editions of the fully crewed round the world race.

I went aboard the Dongfeng V065 before the first race, and the striking thing about Kevin was that you never quite knew where to look for him. One minute he would be on the bow, the next tending to the keel, another beside the helmsman. By all accounts, he kept that up for two round the world races, often going up the mast, over the side to clean the rudders, or into the bowels of the boat to make repairs. He is also a strong trimmer and driver.

“I love doing the Volvo,” he says. “Especially fully crewed – for me, the new Ocean Race is not quite the same because there are less people, so you’re using autopilot.

On the bow of Dongfeng in the Volvo Ocean Race. Photo: Yann Riou/Dongfeng/Volvo Ocean Race

“I love to be at the helm of the boat; some of my best souvenirs are the North Atlantic record, which we still hold on Banque Populaire, 3d 15h, and the 24 hours record we set of 908 miles in the south. On the Volvo, when you’re getting smashed by the waves, you can see the squall to windward, the tension of being at the helm, to feel everything and trim the boat as you want, I love it.”

Article continues below…

Extraordinary boats: the new radical PRB IMOCA 60

As if the new PRB IMOCA 60 were not eye-catching enough, the story behind it is truly remarkable. The reason…

Vendée Globe rescue: Kevin Escoffier on his sinking and recovery

“I AM SINKING. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. MAYDAY” At 1345 (UTC) on Monday 30 November, on a grey and…

It was only after the second, victorious Volvo Ocean Race that Escoffier considered going solo. “After having gone around the world on a multihull, and round the world with the Volvo monohull fully crewed at 38 years old, I asked myself: ‘Okay, today am I able to do single-handed?’ And just when I had this question in my head, Vincent Riou phoned me.”

Going solo

The reasons Escoffier had not considered single-handed racing before are various. Partly, he was just too busy, working back-to-back on overlapping projects as his career went stellar. It’s also easy to see why his personality makes him such a great asset in a full crew; he’s warm, convivial, attentive to those around him, and excellent company – not traits universally shared by solo sailors.

His engineering side enjoys the challenge of pushing a tool to its limits. “What I like in full crew sailing is to be able to use the boat to 100% of its capacity. For me single-handed racing was not the same,” he explains.

With Armel le Cléac’h on the Ultime Maxi Banque Populaire XI. Photo: Fred Tanneau/Getty

“There’s another thing; sometimes single-handed racing is part of a big ego. I don’t care at all about that. If I could, I’d be sailing without talking about me and PRB.”

Most tellingly however, he adds: “Maybe I did not trust myself enough at the beginning.”

But when Vincent Riou offered Escoffier the keys to the PRB campaign, there was no question of turning it down. That PRB was a 2010 Verdier-VPLP designed IMOCA, with foils retrofitted. Escoffier poured all his engineering knowledge into rigorously preparing a boat that, for the first time, he would skipper around the world, and alone.

“I knew this boat,” he recalls, “I knew it was light. I knew what I needed to work on. It was a very good boat for me to start single-handed racing in, with a lot of performance but easy, since light is easy. I put 200 kilos of carbon in the boat to be sure not to break anything. That was my job. The first thing I designed when I took on this project was a new keel ram structure. I designed it on the computer, I sent the drawing to the machine guy. At no time had I made a choice between performance and reliability. I always chose reliability.”

But on Monday 30 November, 2020, three weeks into Escoffier’s Vendée Globe, the boat suddenly and catastrophically broke up. He had time only to send a three line Whatsapp message:

“I AM SINKING. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. MAYDAY”

Escoffier swimming to transfer to a French naval frigate from Le Cam’s IMOCA after his dramatic rescue in the 2020 Vendée Globe. Photo: Marine Nationale/Défense

Mental fortitude

What followed is one of the most remarkable tales of survival the Vendée Globe has ever witnessed. The bow of PRB ripped off. “The stern of the boat was underwater and the bow was pointing skyward. You’ve seen images of shipwrecks? It was like that, but worse,” he recalled.

He had time only to don a survival suit, snatch a single grab bag and launch the liferaft as PRB sank beneath him. It was the start of an ordeal which saw him drifting in a raft, without even a handheld VHF, for over 11 hours.

Four skippers were diverted to search for him, frantically criss-crossing the south Atlantic through the night in 22-25 knot winds. Finally Jean Le Cam, who had himself been rescued by Vincent Riou after capsizing in the 2008 Vendée, found Escoffier’s liferaft and plucked him from the sea.

Escoffier and his Vendée Globe rescuer Jean le Cam. Photo: Jean-Francois Monier/Getty

PRB sank without trace, leaving Escoffier with no answers as to why it had failed so dramatically. The fact that he’d prepared the boat so thoroughly, he says, made it easier to come to terms with its loss – and to contemplate entering the Vendée again.

“Since I think I had done everything right, I’m not the reason why it broke, so there is no reason why to stop. My wife would say that I don’t usually think like everybody else, but for me, knowing that helped me to recover.

“While I was with Jean, I had already recovered from the danger. For my family; my wife, my brothers, my father, my mother, my kids, they experienced trauma. I hadn’t because when you are in this situation, you need and must imagine the best [outcome] so that you’re able to give all your energy to get it. When you’re on land, you are a spectator, you think the worst. My wife was already thinking how to tell the kids that I will not come back. That is a trauma, but [it was] not for me.

“I was very lucky as well that I was with Jean, and we discussed it because he has been in the same situation. After 36 hours of being on the boat with Jean, I was already thinking how to design my next boat.”

Escoffier reunited with his family at a 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race stopover. Photo: Jesus Renedo/Volvo AB

Escoffier is not, however, going back to the Vendée with his brand new PRB IMOCA 60 to lay old demons to rest. He wants to race, to win. When PRB broke up he was lying 3rd, a point he is justly proud of. “I want to show that I will fight competitively again. I’m not coming only to finish.

“Obviously I want to finish, but not at all costs. I won’t slow down just to finish. If you want to sail around the world alone, you can do that cruising.”

Similarly, he rejected well-meaning suggestions he race double-handed with Jean Le Cam. “He’s a great guy, a great sailor, but you don’t want to repeat the story.”

For Escoffier, every sailor he sails with has something new he can absorb. “I’ve been sailing with Pascal Bidegorry, Loïck Peyron, Vincent Riou, Michel Desjoyeaux. That’s the top of the top. And I’ve learnt they are definitely not all sailing in the same way. Pascal is always – vroom! – a very flat sail, trying to go fast. Loïck Peyron sails very twisted and smooth. Armel le Cléac’h, I love the way he is sailing. Always the average speed, never the fastest, never the slowest.

“In sailing you’re able to get to the same place in lots of different ways.”

Since this interview, Escoffier has announced he will also compete in The Ocean Race in his IMOCA 60, now Holcim-PRM. He’s also a brand ambassador for North Sails Performance clothing.

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A curious pattern repeated in the 2018 Route du Rhum, as the newest designs – like the foiling Ultimes, and foil-assisted IMOCAs Charal and Hugo Boss – were defeated on the line by older boats. But there was one class which bucked this trend: the Class 40s, where Yoann Richomme sailed a near-faultless race in his customised Lombard design Veedol to lead from day two, also setting a new class course record.

This is an interesting time for the Class 40s. Thanks to the success of previous production models, including Lombard’s Akilarias, the fleet has developed strength in numbers, with 53 taking to the start in the Rhum. But many skippers at the front of the fleet are now ordering semi-custom designs, and the performance level in the fleet has made a real jump.

“I did two Transat Jacques Vabres in 2011 and 2013 [in a Class 40], and it doesn’t feel like it was the same class at all,” says Richomme, who has also competed in the IMOCAs. “Back then they were painted inside, they weren’t as stiff, the sails weren’t as good – nothing was up to the level it is now. They didn’t cost as much either! Because this does cost a lot of money. But the boats have improved, they’re a lot harder to sail. This is almost where the IMOCAs were ten years ago.”

The Lift 40 is particularly strong in reaching and upwind conditions, but has won in light airs also. Photo: Christophe Launay

Richomme has a hugely covetable sailing CV. Having been part of the Macif stable for several years, he won the 2019 Solitaire du Figaro, having already won it in 2016. He came 2nd in the 2013 TJV, has worked as a preparateur for Roland Jourdain’s IMOCA 60 campaign, studied naval architecture in Southampton, and was heavily involved in the development of the new Figaro 3. He is technical, fluently bilingual and a superb communicator. From a sponsor’s perspective, he is a complete package.

However, when his Macif sponsorship came to an end he had to decide what to do – try and raise the funds to pursue a Vendée Globe dream in an older IMOCA, or prove his potential by bidding to win in the Class 40s? For 2018 he chose the latter, and when that ambition aligned with his new sponsors’ aims, he placed an order for a new Lift 40 (hull No.1 had been designed for Louis Duc) and set out to optimise it further (this year, after his Figaro win, he is back in the IMOCA class and will be competing in the Transat Jacques Vabre in October 2019).

Article continues below…

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Charal: On board the radical IMOCA 60 that takes foiling to the next level

In St Malo for the start of the Route du Rhum in early November, every inch of the IMOCA 60…

Volume and power

The most striking feature of the Lift 40 is its fat forward sections and almost scow-like bow. Internally this creates a positively cavernous space, which Richomme has worked hard to maximise the stacking potential of, getting all available weight as far outboard as possible.

“This is definitely the boat with the most volume forward,” he explains, “It’s not structured the same way [as other 40s], which makes the stacking a lot easier. It’s very, very stiff, it’s got a lot of longitudinals, whereas [other designs] have transverse structures and are a lot more bendy, a lot softer.”

Control lines are led to the cockpit outside of the coachroof where possible. Photo: James Tomlinson

“This boat has got 12% more righting moment than the Mach 3, because it is wider, and because I can stack better. Basically when I am fully powered up – which is quite late compared to the others, at more than 18 knots – I’ve got full stack at max beam. I’ve got six bags, the gennaker, then all the water ballast. They’re stacking about a metre inside the hull when I’m stacking right on the outside.”

The forward sections also provide the lift which the Lift 40 is named for – Richomme says one of the things that makes the class hard to sail currently is the propensity for many boats to bury their bows in waves.

“What you have to imagine is that the boat is never running flat, so what you see in the harbour doesn’t make a lot of sense. But when you heel the chine is in the water, so it’s providing a lot of righting moment all the way forward, and that nose is out. So while we have a very round nose lying flat, it’s actually a ‘V’ when it’s heeling at 20° or 25°.

“That volume helps with lifting the bow out. You’ve got 2m of bow completely out of the water the whole time, and the water is just running underneath a flat surface. So it actually isn’t creating that much drag.”

“I think the designers have really done an amazing job, it’s got so much power.” Richomme says that in less than 18 knots the Lift is very comparable to other designs. Even in light conditions the extra volume hasn’t proved a handicap – Richomme won the Drheam Cup in very light winds soon after the boat launched.

Once true windspeed reaches 18-20 knots he will often be half a knot quicker. “I carry more sail for longer and a lot faster; the boat goes about 9.5 knots upwind. It’s absolutely crazy.”

Living arrangements

Fold down footrests give Richomme a dry seated position under the cuddy, with access to main and jib sheets as well as a view of the nav screen. Photo: James Tomlinson

One area Richomme has particularly personalised on Veedol is the cuddy, pit and nav area. Rather than having any lines running through the side of the cuddy to split winches, Richomme has led as many sheets as possible outside to the cockpit.

The rest are channelled through a central beam, which runs diagonally through the companionway to a central winch on the cockpit floor. This hugely reduces the amount of water that enters the sheltered cuddy area.

Richomme has two seats on each side of the cockpit – two fold-down footrests turn the side decks under the fixed roof into dry seating positions, while fold-down backrests a couple of feet abaft provide seated helming positions out in the open.

A screen on a pivoting bracket can be pulled into the companionway on either tack, so Richomme can trim the main and jib sheets, traveller and tackline, and navigate, all from under cover. The computer can be spun to face inside the boat also, and he can reach the central winch from inside too.

“So I can play the mainsheet from my resting position. Even if I’m in my pyjamas, I can do it without getting wet! I can even do the first sheet. Either jib sheet, spinnaker sheet or main track – I can do all that while watching the computer. To me that’s a big gain.”

Whilst the companionway entrance is slightly awkward when the boat is flat, Richomme says that when heeled the beam provides a useful bracing point. The other result is that the rest of the cockpit is very uncluttered.

The Lift 40 has a single spreader rig, created by Lombard together with spar makers Axxon. Richomme has also made efforts to reduce clutter aloft. “I worked the aerodynamics a lot on this boat, I’ve probably got the mast with the least gear on it – I took a lot of things out. So that’s saving a lot of windage and a lot of weight obviously.

“A lot of people tell me that the boat looks empty, it looks like there is nothing on deck, but it’s like Desjoyeaux’s rule: everything must be used twice, if not more. So every time there’s a rope, a fitting or anything, it must be used more than once to justify itself.”

Specification

LOA: 12.18m (41ft 1in)
Beam: 4.50m (14ft 9in)
Draught: 3.00m (9ft 10in)
Displacement (light): 4,500kg (9,920lb)
Water ballast: 2x750lt (2x165gal)
Upwind sail area: 115m² (1,238ft²)
Downwind sail area: 265m² (2,852ft²)

The post Veedol: On board Yoann Richomme’s record-breaking Lift 40 appeared first on Yachting World.

New yachts and gear

No compromise: Baltic 67

When a renowned superyacht yard builds a 67-footer for short-handed cruising you can be sure the result will be special

New yachts

A look ahead to Düsseldorf, the world’s largest boat show

New gear

Showcasing award-winning new products for the year ahead

Practical features

Special report

Elaine Bunting on the start of the 2018 ARC

Extraordinary boats

The foiling IMOCA 60 Charal

Navigation briefing

Tidal laylines with Mike Broughton

Masterclass with Pip Hare

How to balance speed v comfort in your routing

5 tips

Paul Larson on how to get your boat on the pace

COVER PICTURE

Lift off for the foiling IMOCA 60 Charal, the world’s most extreme solo racer

Photo by Gauthier Lebec/Charal Sailing team

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The post January 2019 appeared first on Yachting World.

Along a three-mile start line off St Malo, 123 boats set off on the 40^th Route du Rhum singlehanded transatlantic race to Guadaloupe this afternoon.

For most of the skippers, setting off will be a temporary relief. The first stage of the solo transatlantic to Guadaloupe – the famous docking out through St Malo’s locks – started yesterday evening and ran right through to the small hours of this morning.

As well as being a spectacle, the drawn out process is a logistical necessity for the enormous fleet to exit St Malo’s medieval walls and huge tidal range. For skippers with support crews it was an enjoyable photo opportunity, a chance to acknowledge the huge crowds that assemble to wave every boat off, before a fast RIB ride back to a warm hotel bed for the last night. But for solo sailors on a shoestring – and there are plenty, in amongst the glossy branded boats – it will have been a tiring start before what looks set to be an exhausting race.

© Photo Mark Lloyd

The forecast is intimidating. I spoke to Jack Trigger, who is sailing the Class 40 Concise 8, straight after yesterday’s weather briefing, and he said that the conditions for the first 72 hours were better than anticipated. This afternoon saw the huge fleet set off in sunshine and around 15-18 knots. With boats ranging from 39ft plywood trimarans to the foiling Ultimes all on one line, albeit a zoned one, the less frenetic conditions than previously predicted will have been a relief to everyone

But a low pressure system will reached the bulk of the fleet, particularly the Class 40 fleet, by Tuesday. The faster Ultimes may be able to escape the worst, but the IMOCAs will also have to go through 40-knot north-westerlies.

“Not immediately, but I think days three to five we will get hit pretty hard,” Trigger explained. “I think we might see 50 knots, and it’s going upwind and it’s about the predicted sea state. So we’ll get it in the middle of Biscay.” Predicted waves are up to 11 metres.

“It’s so changeable, there are multiple low pressures and secondary lows moving about, so we’ll just see what happens,’ Trigger added. “So we’ll end up coming down through Biscay, tacking across one front where we’ll see 50, then tacking back, then tacking through a second [front] where we’ll probably see the same again.” Was he worried about it? “I’m excited!”

St Malo in the sunshine has a carnival atmosphere, enormous crowds rammed 20-deep along the docks, their excitement heightened by an endless barrage of drums, pipes, light shows and no small quantities of alcohol. The Route du Rhum pre-start does not share the sombre intensity of a Vendée departure, but this race, with its November North Atlantic course, does have a reputation as something of a demolition derby and there was a definite air of nervousness.

“The thought of tacking one of these boats in 10m waves and 40 knots of winds is not something anyone looks forward to,” said Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson before the start, adding that he “doesn’t have any idea how an Ultime handles that kind of situation.”

All eyes will be on the Ultime class. The three magnificent new foilers – Armel Le Cleac’h’s Banque Populaire IX, Francois Gabart’s modified Macif, and the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild – have never seriously competed against one another. Some brief line-ups out of Port la Foret last month suggested Seb Josse’s Edmond de Rothschild might have the edge, but nobody really knows.

I asked Vincent Laurent Prevost for VPLP, designers of Banque Populaire and Macif, what he expected from the fleet. Ditto Loick Peyron, the current Route du Rhum course record holder (on the previous generation Banque Pop), and legendary multihull sailor. Neither would be drawn on the topic, but it’s not wholly down to being evasive. It’s partly down to the fact that even the skippers can’t predict how this will shake down, so relatively short are they of race time and solo flight time.

Two days before the start I asked Seb Josse, skipper of the Edmond de Rotschild Ultime, how far in advance he had planned his race in detail. “No, wrong question!” he laughed ruefully.

Photo ©Thierry Martinez/Sea & Co

“The boat touched the water last year, and we had a lot of technical things to sort out. At the beginning of this year, each time after we sailed for 24 hours we’d be on the dock for two weeks.

“So it takes a lot of time to really know how to sail this boat in singlehanded mode. In some conditions I’m really confident – 20-25 knots of wind, it’s not easy but I know what I’ll do. After that, in more wind… we’ll see! We’ve never sailed this boat in these types of conditions before.

“Armel and Francois don’t sail one day alone yet in these flying boats, Francois knows how to go fast for 42 days, for definite, but we don’t know how to sail fast for five days. So the first thing we need to do is manage the boats, not capsize, and go fast and fly when we can.”

Unlike the Imoca and Class 40 fleets, the Ultimes (and Rhum Multi class) are allowed external routing, which removes some of the decision-making factor from the solo skippers and is intended to help keep them away from dangerous sea states. As foil controls and onboard telemetry have become increasingly advanced, those race rules have been clarified this year to ensure that any ‘remote control’ developments are outlawed.

The IMOCA class, with 20 entries, is another incredibly high quality fleet. There is much curiosity about how the show-stopping Charal, another unknown quantity, will perform. The VPLP-design is the first of the latest generation foilers, launched just weeks ago. It is aggressive and impressive, but as yet unproven. Alex Thomson, who has a VPLP designed IMOCA 60 currently in build, said it was hard to predict how Charal would be sailed in the Route du Rhum.

“It’s difficult to get a boat this new properly up to speed yet, and it’s difficult to be confident because you don’t know what its reliability is yet. But if they are competitive in this, then I tip my hat to their team because I know how hard it is to do.”

By contrast, Stewart Hosford, managing director of Alex Thomson Racing, said that he was very relaxed about their preparation of Hugo Boss for what will be Thomson’s last race on the boat that took him to 2^nd in the Vendée Globe. “We know the boat so well, Alex knows it so well, there are no unknowns,” said Hosford.

“So for us it’s a really nice race start because we’re at the end of a cycle with this boat and everything’s ticked off. But we also want this boat to be successful, and deliver on all the love and attention that went into it – it becomes very personal to us!”

While the hull platform for Thomson’s new Boss has already come out of the moulds, Hosford said he will be among those watching Charal for information that might inform the design of the foils for the new Boss – particularly the second set of foils that is likely to be developed before the 2020 Vendée Globe.

“It’s kind of a mixed thing for us – we want to beat them and we hope the boat’s not too fast in this race, but at the same time it is the same designer and it will be our generation of that boat, so we’d hate to think it wasn’t fast. That would be more concerning.”

Alex put it more forcefully: “On one hand I want them to do well, because it’s another VPLP boat and that’s where ours is coming from. On the other hand, I want to kick their arse!”

Photo © Mark Lloyd

Besides the two black boats, the likely favourites in the IMOCA class are Yann Elies, who won the last major transatlantic, the 2017 TJV, in the same yacht, and Vincent Riou. Riou has re-optimised PRB with new foils, and has been consistently quick during the Port La Foret training races. Thomson said his team would also be watching Riou’s performance particularly closely for clues as to what the next generation of Juan Kouyoumdjian foils might look like.

In a fleet packed with talent there are plenty of others who cannot be discounted. Among them Sam Davies, who has been able to put in plenty of training hours on Initiatives Coeur, leading many in St Malo to tip her for a podium finish.

The Class 40 fleet, with a staggering 53 entries, would make an impressive event all on its own. The level varies hugely. There are skippers like Yoann Richome, a former Figaro champion with a highly covetable CV, who has built a brand new Lombard-designed latest generation Lift 40 with the single intention of winning the Route du Rhum. There are amateur sailors, often highly successful individuals who have chosen the 40 class to fulfil a dream of racing against the pros.

There are plenty of young French sailors on some of the class’s more vintage designs. And there is a strong cohort of British sailors – Phil Sharp, Sam Goodchild and Jack Trigger – all of whom will be hoping they can survive the potentially boat-breaking conditions and make the right routing decisions to stay in touch for a podium finish.

Even the two ‘Rhum’ classes, which in many events you could be forgiven for assuming is a selection of also-rans and enthusiasts, here sees sailors of the calibre of Sydney Gavignet and Sebastien Destremau line up against first-timers in classic ketches in the monohulls.

Meanwhile in the multihulls there are three yellow Walter Greene trimarans, each sisterships to the 39ft plywood tri that won the first Route du Rhum back in 1978 for Canadian skipper Mike Birch (Birch, now 87, was there to wish his friend Charlie Capelle in Acapella good luck and treated like a true celebrity by the gathered crowds).

Among the skippers racing a little yellow is Loick Peyron, holder of the current seven-day race record, who was preparing for a 22 day crossing on his ‘little bicycle’, the bright yellow Water Greene tri Happy. For Loick, who has nothing to prove, this race is about nostalgia and a pure love of ocean sailing.

“It is about capturing that feeling of my first transatlantic, when I was just 19, on a Mini Transat with a sextant and alone for long periods. That feeling of being a bit lost was attractive to me.”

Photo ©Thierry Martinez/Sea & Co

He has refitted Happy to be as authentic to her time as  possible, with a simple deck layout, no furlers, and minimal electronic aids – he will be mostly using a custom yellow sextant, complete with a smiley face.

Although he is taking a box of books to read, the Route du Rhum will still present a challenge to even masters like Peyron. “A boat like this is much more stable the wrong way up. I am the old fighter, the old combatant, who has never capsized. And I would like to stay like that for a long time.”

You can follow the fleet at https://www.routedurhum.com/en/cartography

The post Record fleet sets off for 40th Route du Rhum, with 40-knot conditions forecast appeared first on Yachting World.