Ninety eight seconds. That's how the first Route du Rhum was won, in 1978, after 23 days at sea. Forty eight years on, the race still hasn't learned to behave.
Born out of a size limit and a volcano
The race grew out of two ideas that came together at the right time. Guadeloupe's rum producers had been looking for a way to promote the industry since 1975, while controversy followed the 1976 OSTAR (Original Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (originally the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race)), where Alain Colas raced the 72m Club Méditerranée against Éric Tabarly's winning Pen Duick VI. When the British moved to restrict the size of boats eligible for future races, French organisers saw room for something different. Parisian advertising man Michel Etevenon helped bring the two sides together around a solo transatlantic with no size limit, running from Saint-Malo to Pointe-à-Pitre. The first Route du Rhum finally left Saint-Malo on 5 November 1978.
1978, the inaugural event
Mike Birch should not have won the first Route du Rhum. His 12m trimaran Olympus Photo was tiny beside Michel Malinovsky's 21m monohull Kriter V, and with the finish approaching Malinovsky still appeared to have the race under control. But in the light winds around Guadeloupe, Birch kept coming. After more than 23 days and 3,500 nautical miles, the two boats reached Pointe-à-Pitre just 98 seconds apart. Birch had won the first Route du Rhum by less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee.
Not everyone made it to Guadeloupe. Alain Colas disappeared aboard Manureva after reporting that he was caught in the centre of a typhoon. An extensive search found nothing. Neither Colas nor the 21m trimaran was ever seen again.
1986 and a Caradec returns 40 years later
Eight years later, the Route du Rhum lost another sailor. The boats had grown enormous by 1986, with 13 of the 33 starters measuring more than 23 metres, and a succession of Atlantic depressions tore through the fleet. Loïc Caradec disappeared aboard the 22.6m trimaran Royale II. Florence Arthaud diverted to his last known position and found the boat upside down, but there was no sign of Caradec. He was never found. Philippe Poupon went on to win aboard Fleury Michon VIII, finishing 48 hours clear and dedicating the victory to his friend.
Forty years later, the Caradec name will be back on the start line. Loïc's son Tanguy is entered in the 2026 Route du Rhum aboard the Vintage Mono Eurvad.
2018 and a race that had everything
Two days into the race, Sébastien Josse was leading aboard Gitana 17 when nearly eight metres of the bow of her starboard float broke away. He got the boat safely into La Coruña and retired. The damage was substantial, but Gitana 17 was repaired and back racing the following year. Four years later, the same boat returned to the Route du Rhum with Charles Caudrelier and won it, setting a new race record.
Armel Le Cléac'h wasn't so lucky. That same day, Banque Populaire IX capsized 340 nautical miles northeast of the Azores after its port float failed in 30 to 35-knot winds and five-metre seas. Le Cléac'h was rescued by a fishing boat that evening, but Banque Populaire IX remained at sea. By the time the recovery operation reached her, the trimaran had been broken apart by the Atlantic. Only pieces of the boat could be recovered.
428 seconds after 3,542 miles
The two failures had taken Gitana 17 and Banque Populaire IX out of the fight, but there was still an Ultim race to win. François Gabart looked to have it. MACIF had led Francis Joyon by more than 160 nautical miles despite carrying plenty of damage of her own: a hydraulic failure off Brittany, a foil lost off Spain and then a broken rudder blade.
The lead didn't last. With Guadeloupe ahead, the wind eased and Joyon began taking miles out of Gabart. He was 30 miles behind with a day to go, 15 by morning and four by 1am. They rounded the final mark 17 minutes apart. At Pointe-à-Pitre, just 7 minutes and 8 seconds separated them. After 3,542 nautical miles, Joyon had won by 428 seconds and broken the Route du Rhum record.
Asleep 70 miles from an IMOCA win
While Joyon and Gabart were fighting over the outright victory, Alex Thomson had built a very different sort of lead in IMOCA. Hugo Boss was more than 140 nautical miles clear of the fleet as Thomson approached Guadeloupe.
Then he fell asleep.
Around 70 nautical miles from the finish, the battery in the wristwatch designed to shock him awake had run flat, and the backup alarm didn't wake him either. Hugo Boss ran onto the rocks at the northern end of Grande-Terre. Thomson got the boat free, but doing so meant starting the engine.
He still crossed the finish line first in IMOCA. The jury gave him a 24-hour penalty for using the engine, dropping him to third and handing victory to Paul Meilhat. “This sport is about detail,” Thomson said afterwards, “and in the final last minutes, I didn't get the detail right.”
2026 and Gitana 17 comes back again
The record now stands at 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds, set by Charles Caudrelier aboard Gitana 17 in 2022. In November, Caudrelier returns to defend it aboard the completely new Gitana 18.
But Gitana 17 is coming back too. The boat that lost nearly eight metres of a float in 2018, then returned four years later to win the race, has been sold to Actual, renamed Actual Ultim 4 and is now sailed by Anthony Marchand. On 1 November, the old boat and its former skipper will line up against each other in Saint-Malo.
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