Route du Rhum 2018: Race On
Photos above by Yvan Zedda / Route du Rhum 2018. Maxi foiling Tris gong for the record and Loick Peyron racing vintage “Happy”, which was one of his special pending projects.
Videos & text sent by Icarus Sports / Route du Rhum 2018
Official race web routedurhum.com
Leaderboard routedurhum.com/en/leaderboard
Tracking (viewable in Firefox) routedurhum.com/en/cartography
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Sunday, 4th November 2018
The 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe gets underway in spectacular fashion
The 11th edition and 40th anniversary staging of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race got underway in spectacular style today off the Brittany port of Saint Malo, as a record entry of 123 skippers set sail for Guadeloupe.
Conditions could not have been better for spectators and sailors alike, as the fleet revelled in 20 knots of breeze coming off the land on a beautiful autumn afternoon.
After a very conservative start with no one wanting to be over the line early at the beginning of a 3,542-nautical mile course, the fastest boats quickly opened up the throttle.
At the front of the fleet the awesome ULTIME trimarans, led by Seb Josse on Maxi Solo Edmond de Rothschild, were hitting 30 knots of boatspeed.
The fastest racing yachts on the planet were soon flying their windward hulls as they rampaged towards the mandatory gate off Cap Fréhel – 17 miles from the start – where thousands of spectators were gathered on the headland.
Among those in their wake were the leading IMOCA monohulls showing their paces with foils lifting the boats from the water as they sped westwards led by France’s Vincent Riou on PRB.
In their wake came the huge 53-strong Class40 monohull fleet at the start of what will be the most competitive race in that class’s history.
Near the back, holding ninth place in the Rhum Multi fleet, was the hugely popular French sailor Loïck Peyron at the helm of the bright yellow Happy. This is a sistership of the small trimaran, sailed by Canadian yachtsman Mike Birch when he won the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978.
Four years ago in this race Peyron set a new outright record of seven days and 15 hours on the maxi trimaran Banque Populaire and the routing predictions for this race suggest that that benchmark could be lowered by as much as two days by the leading ULTIMES.
But before they can enjoy a fast ride to the Caribbean in the trade winds, all the sailors will have to face some very rough weather that is coming their way on Tuesday.
The predictions are for big seas, 35-knot winds gusting to 55 knots and a weather picture showing very unstable conditions for most of the rest of the week.
Read the full news story here: www.routedurhum.com/en/news
Text Credits: Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe
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