The Route du Rhum is a single-handed transatlantic sailing race from Saint Malo (France) to Point-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe). Find the latest news and investigations from Tip & Shaft on this historic race.
At 58, Roland Jourdain will start his fourth Route du Rhum in a month’s time. He is a double winner in Imoca (2006 and 2010). He now devotes most of his time to his company Kaïros and to the Explore fund but is setting off this time in the Rhum Multi class on the We Explore catamaran, a variation of the Outremer 5X, built partly in flax fibre. Tip & Shaft spoke with “Bilou“.
The record field of 138 skippers who will take on the 12th edition of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe were presented at the official press conference which took place on Wednesday in Paris. And so it proved a good opportunity for Tip & Shaft to take look at the organisation of what after all is the biggest solo ocean race in the world
Thursday this week saw a hearing held in the Paris court to examine the action brought by the Kresk group against the Ultim 32/23 class, the two parties opposing on whether the SVR Lazartigue trimaran conforms to the exact rules of the class (see our article). During the process Samuel Tual, CEO of Actual, and Ronan Lucas, director of Team Banque Populaire, explained themselves during a telephone press briefing. Tip & Shaft looks back on the day.
Last Tuesday François Gabart arrived in Marseille at the helm of his trimaran SVR Lazartigue, which is making a tour of the Mediterranean to meet staff of the Kresk group. It seemed like a good opportunity for Tip & Shaft to talk with him about the performance of the trimaran and of course also the dispute between his team and the Ultim 32/23 class which is now bound for the courts.
As has become our norm before major ocean races Tip & Shaft have gathered a panel of experts to chose who they consider to be the podium favourites for the upcoming Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe. For this Part 1 our experts cast their eyes over the ULTIME and IMOCA classes. We invited Michel Desjoyeaux, race winner in 2002 in the ORMA multihull class, Jean-Pierre Dick, third in 2006 and fourth in 2010 in the IMOCA class, Yves Le Blévec fourth in 2014 in the Multi 50, Irish expert Marcus Hutchinson who has collaborated with several IMOCA skippers over the years, Xavier Gilbaud the designer from VPLP and leading French journalists Anouk Corge (L’Equipe) and Jacques Guyader (Ouest-France) to spill the beans.
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