Tom Laperche is set to cross the finish line at Pointe-à-Pitre tonight from 9pm local time, closing out an extraordinary run aboard SVR Lazartigue that began at Cap Fréhel last Sunday. For the 99 sailors still at sea, though, the race is far from settled. Some are fighting rivals. Others are fighting the Atlantic itself.
An Azores low keeps churning away mid-ocean, while a tropical depression refuses to budge north of the Caribbean. Nobody out there gets to relax.
Boats range from 12 to 32 metres and were built between 1978 and 2026, so the spread across the fleet is enormous. Barely a week into the race, competitors are scattered so widely across the tracker that it is hard to believe they are all racing toward the same finish.
Laperche is closing in on the Caribbean on a solid southerly, while Charlie Capelle (ACapella-Proludic-La Chaîne de l'espoir) has swung toward the Moroccan coast to dodge foul weather. Further north, Mathieu Claveau (Inherent Phare 40) will need to find some south in his course, or risk making landfall in American territory.
Laperche, at 29, is sailing his first Route du Rhum and looks set for an outright win and a new race record. He is expected off northern Guadeloupe late this afternoon, though his exact approach remains unclear. Most competitors arrive from the west, skirting the small islet of Tête à l'Anglais. Laperche is coming from the north, and depending on wind and localised storms, he may swing wide around Guadeloupe before reaching the Basse Terre buoy, the first mandatory landfall under the race's sailing instructions, ahead of an ETA at Pointe-à-Pitre between 9pm and midnight local time.
Behind him, roughly 450 miles back, Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3) and Louis Burton (Armand Thiéry) are pushing through the same tropical depression from the west, close to its centre, and should pick up strong downwind speed before hitting a light patch late tomorrow night. The gap to Laperche barely matters now; the podium order is what counts. Just 25 miles separate Coville and Burton, a duel being cast as teacher and student among the Ultims. Guirec Soudée (Liamm), who started slowly but has found real pace in his archimedean trimaran, might have joined that fight with a stronger start.
"The only certainty is instability." That's race director Francis Le Goff's blunt read on the tropical system churning in the Atlantic. Basile Bourgnon (Edenred), 120 miles clear in Ocean Fifty, is tackling the same depression upwind, in tough conditions race management is watching closely. Waves up to four metres, violent squalls, wild swings in wind strength and direction: none of it ideal for multihulls.
"It's a risky phase, especially coming at the end of a week that has already worn down both boats and bodies," Le Goff said. He will be relieved once the eight Ocean Fifty boats, spread over more than 500 miles, clear the system.
Further back, the third Class40 group is also causing concern, from Spain's Aina Bauza Roig (Alice Miliat Foundation) in 34th to Christophe Rateau (Gustave Roussy) in last. "The leaders are through it, the second group is sailing downwind to the west, but these stragglers are going to see the Azores depression fire up again with new fronts and worsening seas," said Le Goff. Sasha Lanièce (Alderan), dismasted and forced to retire yesterday, remains on everyone's mind. She is drifting south and will need to rig a jury mast, as her diesel reserves aren't enough to motor to the Azores: spare battens, a dismantled mainsail track, whatever can be used to raise a makeshift spar and fly a storm jib.
Corentin Horeau (MACSF) is less than 900 miles from the finish with more than 300 miles in hand, methodically closing on his dream result. Barring a major technical failure, victory looks beyond reach of his rivals, a remarkable result for a sailor who only started solo IMOCA racing in 2026. The real question is whether Boris Herrmann (Malizia 4) can hold off Sam Goodchild (Macif Santé Prévoyance), the pair just five miles apart. The podium could well turn female too, with Elodie Bonafous (Association Petits Princes Queguiner) only 30 miles back and Francesca Clapcich 50 miles off the pace.
Who still has clean sails and full potential left? That's the question shaping the Class40 finish too, where seven boats have broken clear in the depression, led by Achille Nebout (Amarris), with conditions set to ease markedly tomorrow night after 48 rough hours. The northern group, led by Ian Lipinski, failed to convert their latitude advantage into a westward gain, likely because seas behind the front were too rough to allow them to point up. They've since fallen back in line with the southern boats, paying for their gamble.
In the Rhum Multi and Rhum Mono classes, the leading monohulls remain locked in a tight battle, four boats within 50 miles of each other. Among the multihulls, Damien Seguin (Arkea-Handicap International) has built a handy 120-mile cushion over Eric Péron (French Touch Oceania Hotel), a lead likely to grow further since Seguin will reach the new easterly flow off the tropical depression first, this evening.
Meanwhile, Romain Pilliard (Use It Again) is back at sea from Roscoff after repairing damage from his start-line collision with Initiatives Coeur. He still has 3450 miles to Pointe-à-Pitre. When you love it, you don't count the cost.
