The Ocean Fifty fleet has turned the opening stages of the Route du Rhum into a full-throttle sprint, the ten 50-foot multihulls clocking speeds that have left skippers running on fumes. Bodies and minds are tiring fast, and holding that pace without a slip-up is proving the real challenge. It is a far cry from the near-perfect send-off out of Saint-Malo, before freshening wind and a harder sea swallowed the fleet within a day.
A brief lull in conditions allowed race organisers to reach several skippers during this morning's radio check-in, catching them between manoeuvres and sail trims. Léonard Legrand, aboard Sodebo Fifty, kept it brief: "I'm in the front!" Racing and boat handling came first, but a few of his rivals found a moment to speak, tired but still fighting down the line.
"We're in Figaro mode right now," said Pierre Quiroga of Wewise. It is a preview of sorts for the solo Figaro race the class will contest in 2028, this early going run flat out. "We went off in Figaro mode with Basile and the others behind us," Quiroga explained. "We pushed maximum pace, pushed the boats hard, took micro-naps of five to ten minutes, when we weren't too stressed by the speed, because we're often hitting 30 knots rather than five."
After two punishing days, the Wewise skipper eased off slightly. "I ended up making a mistake with my sail changes, my gennaker went in the water, so I've had a lot of naps to recover since. It did me good."
One drama follows another out there. The fleet now has a weather front to negotiate, and it is not proving straightforward. Basile Bourgnon, on Edenred, found a way through. Others are still hunting for the gap. "The front doesn't seem to want to leave the door open for us," Quiroga said. "There's no wind, there are waves against us, it's not pleasant at all," added Anne-Claire Le Berre of UpWind by Merconcept.
"The pace went out hard the first night, as we expected. It's a bit quieter now because there's less wind. Which makes it even more complicated!" Le Berre, ever the optimist, managed a laugh despite the fatigue in her voice. "Either way, we're going to have to head south eventually."
Further back in the fleet, some have already committed to the southern route. "It doesn't look anything like what we had before," said Luke Berry of Le Rire Médecin Lamotte. Berry followed advice from his routers, the shore team permitted to guide skippers on weather and strategy, after a rough night at sea.
"I managed to get back in touch with the pack a bit. I had good speed, found good settings, but it was fast. We were crossing paths with IMOCAs everywhere. I had a couple of pretty hot crossings with Charal."
Erwan Le Draoulec, aboard Lazare x Hellio, and Laurent Bourgues, on La French Fab, are following a similar path back toward the direct route, crossing the front further south through a light-wind zone expected to last longer. Whether that gamble pays off should become clear within hours. The same stalled front off the Azores has already reshaped fortunes elsewhere in the fleet, handing IMOCA skipper Corentin Horeau an 80 mile escape his rivals never saw coming.
