A Masterful Race

Capsizes, Crashes, And An Incredible Finish – This Year’s Route Du Rhum Saw Skill Defeat Technology. Helen Fretter Reports

The legend of the Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race is built on hair-raising mid-Atlantic escapades and dramatic denouements.

Leaving St Malo in early November every four years, the fleet plunges into the Bay of Biscay en route to the island of Guadaloupe, and the ride is rarely smooth. Over ten previous runnings there have been spectacular capsizes, tragic losses, and heroes made.

Forty years ago, Mike Birch’s little plywood trimaran Olympus Photo slipped past the leading monohull Kriter V right on the finish line of the very first Route du Rhum. The victory, by a winning margin of 98s, was a true David and Goliath result. It made Canadian skipper Birch a superstar in France (huge crowds still clamoured to see him in St Malo).

Four decades and light years of development later, this year’s Route du Rhum result was once again decided in the final metres.

The 2018 race was expected to be a showcase for latest design, headlined by the brand new foiling Ultimes and latest generation foil-assisted IMOCAs. But a different epic tale was told when the wily Francis Joyon overcame the wunderkinds of the Ultime class on his 12-year-old IDEC, winning with just minutes to go.

In the IMOCAs, Alex Thomson dramatically crashed out after a near-faultless Atlantic crossing to hand victory to Paul Meilhat, who had driven his 2010-designed non-foilingIMOCA so hard he was able to take the win ahead of many newer, technically faster boats. Giants were being slain again.

Technological failures and human error lost the 2018 Route du Rhum, the Ultimes fracturing mid-Atlantic one after another, and Thomson smashing Hugo Boss into cliffs after a smartwatch alarm failed. But for Joyon and Meilhat to be ready in positions to win required faultless seamanship and nerves of steel.

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