The 13th Route du Rhum left Saint-Malo on Sunday with giant trimarans, the biggest Class40 fleet in the race and sailors aged from 20 to 71.
Every four years since 1978, solo sailors have gathered in Saint-Malo to race across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe. On Sunday at 13:02 the 13th Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe began, and 115 skippers set out on a 3,542 nautical mile course to Pointe-à-Pitre, each of them alone on board.
The start was sunny and gentle, with 8 to 11 knots from the northeast. The only passing mark, off Cap Fréhel, came 16 miles in. After that there is nothing between the fleet and the Caribbean but open ocean.
The race brings six classes together on one start line. Eight Ultim trimarans, around 32 metres long, are the fastest boats in the fleet. Behind them come the Ocean Fifty trimarans, the foiling IMOCA monohulls, the Class40s and two Vintage classes made up of older monohulls and multihulls that once raced at the top of the sport.
The largest group by far is the Class40. Forty-nine of the 115 boats are 12.19 metre monohulls built to the class rules, and professionals with full programmes race alongside amateurs. According to the French magazine Mers et Bateaux, a Class40 campaign costs €500,000 to €1 million a year, against €2 million to €5 million in the IMOCA class.
“When you’re a Class40 skipper, the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe is our Olympic Games!” said Vincent Riou.
Guillaume Pirouelle led the Class40s past Cap Fréhel aboard Sogestran Seafrigo, on his first Route du Rhum. Quentin Le Nabour (Bleu Blanc Planète Location) was about half a mile behind. Pirouelle won the 2025 Transat Café L’Or with Cédric Chateau, finishing ahead of Corentin Douguet (SNSM, Faites un don!), and the organisers name the two of them as the class favourites. In 2022 the first seven Class40s finished within 20 hours of each other.
“I even think I’m capable of taking the win, but I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself,” Pirouelle said before the start.
Four of the Class40 skippers come from Guadeloupe: Kéni Piperol, Ulysse Pozzoli, Rodolphe Sepho and Yannick Rebuffat. Damien Seguin, who races in the Vintage Multi class, grew up on the island. “I grew up in Guadeloupe, I was 10 years old when Florence Arthaud won,” he said.
In the Ultim class, Charles Caudrelier is racing against his own past. He won the 2022 race and set the course record of 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds aboard Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. That boat now sails as Actual Ultim 4 under Anthony Marchand, while Caudrelier starts on the new Gitana 18, launched in February. According to the organisers, the new trimaran struggled to build speed at every course change in the light opening breeze. Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue) led the Ultims at Cap Fréhel, narrowly ahead of Armel Le Cléac’h (Maxi Banque Populaire XI).
Alexia Barrier, 46, is the first woman to start the Route du Rhum in the Ultim class. Her trimaran, IDEC SPORT CIC, was launched in 2006 and has raced as Groupama 3 under Franck Cammas, Banque Populaire VII under Loïck Peyron and IDEC SPORT under Francis Joyon. “I just see myself as a sailor on an Ultim,” she said.
In the IMOCA fleet, Britain’s Sam Goodchild (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) led at Cap Fréhel, 1.3 miles ahead of Italy’s Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Mapei). Violette Dorange, 25, was third aboard Initiatives Cœur.
The Vintage classes carry their own history. The youngest skipper in the race, 20-year-old Titouan Pilliard, sails a Finot-Conq monohull that won the Rhum Mono class in 2018. Charlie Capelle is 71. Kieran Le Borgne sails Aito, the former PRB, the only IMOCA to have won the Vendée Globe twice. Jean Le Cam is racing a Swan 59 he spent four years restoring. “I wanted to compete in it by writing a different story aboard boats that are slower,” he said.
Two of the 2022 class winners are missing. Thomas Ruyant (IMOCA) and Erwan Le Roux (Ocean Fifty) withdrew after failing to close their budgets. “I lived on credit for the whole season,” Le Roux told 20 Minutes.
The first nights will be cold. The northeasterly sent the fleet west towards the Isles of Scilly instead of the usual route past Ushant. Boris Herrmann (Malizia 4) told the German broadcaster NDR that the leaders would head far north and west before turning south. “So it’s going to be a cold route,” he said.
Leave a Reply