Class40 is once again the biggest fleet at the Route du Rhum, Destination Guadeloupe, and it remains the class that best captures what the race is really about. Big names race alongside weekend sailors, scows line up next to older "pointu" hulls, and all of them share the same hope: to survive whatever the Atlantic throws at them late in the year, and to catch that first sight of Guadeloupe on the horizon. With Yoann Richomme having won the last two editions, the battle to succeed him looks wide open.
Four years ago the fleet sat waiting in Saint-Malo for three extra days before a weather window finally opened. When it did, the racing was ferocious. The first seven boats across the Atlantic arrived within 20 hours of each other.
This year's Class40 fleet is again the largest on the start line, 49 boats deep, spanning everything from seasoned professionals to determined amateurs. That mix is the whole point of the Route du Rhum. And as usual in this class, there is no shortage of genuine contenders for the win.
The stakes feel higher this time. With Richomme having taken the 2018 and 2022 editions, the succession battle is properly open. Two names keep coming up: Guillaume Pirouelle (Sogestran Seafrigo) and Corentin Douguet (SNSM, Faites un don!). "They've shared the biggest wins between them for two seasons now, I see them as the clear favourites," says Alexis Loison (Groupe Réel).
Pirouelle has had a strong season, winning the Transat Café L'Or, the Trin40 and the CIC Normandy Channel Race. Douguet has matched him with wins at the CIC Normandy Channel Race, the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Dhream Cup.
Behind them sits a long list of outsiders. Loison rates the depth highly: "There's a really substantial number of outsiders." Names on that list include Pep Costa (VSF Sports, Round Ireland winner), Quentin Le Nabour (Bleu Blanc Planète Location, runner-up at the 40 Malouine) and Fabien Delahaye (Legallais, winner of the Sables Horta). Ian Lipinski (Crédit Mutuel), Axel Tréhin, Achille Nebout (Amarris) and Loison himself, fresh off winning the 40 Malouine, are all in the mix as well. "It's going to be a proper scrap and I love that," Loison adds. "The standard in this class is genuinely high. Quantity and quality both."
Beyond the outright race, regulars will be watching the sub-plot between the traditional pointu-bowed boats and the newer scow-bowed designs that now dominate the fleet. Around ten boats are racing pointus this year, among them Mathieu Claveau (Phare 40), who sails out of the Mediterranean. "I really like the accessibility that pointus offer," he says. "It's brilliant to be able to race something as prestigious as the Route du Rhum on our boats." He draws a comparison with IMOCA, where older daggerboard boats still race alongside foilers. "We don't have the same budgets as the scows, but we've got good boats capable of good racing," Claveau says. Loïc Féquet and Djamila Tassin (Magenta) are expected to push him hard.
The fleet includes a past Vendée Globe winner, Vincent Riou (Pierreval-Fondation GoodPlanet), and sailors from a wide range of countries. For the first time a Czech skipper, Milan Koláček, will start the race. Also on the line are Italians Andrea Fornaro (Influence2), Luca Rosetti (Maccaferri Futura) and Marco Guerra (Influence), Australian Henry Rupert, Spaniards Aina Bauza and Pep Costa (VSF Sports), Irish sailor Pamela Lee and Belgian Jonas Gerkens (Belgium Ocean Racing, Curium).
Class40 also carries most of the Guadeloupean skippers in the fleet, among them Kéni Piperol, Ulysse Pozzoli (Earwen), Rodolphe Sepho (Rêve de large) and Yannick Rebuffat (Mussolo40). They will be closely watched from the other side of the Atlantic, where there is one shared wish above all: a proper celebration when the fleet finally arrives in Guadeloupe.
