A 27-year-old Catalan with a physics degree from New York is about to tackle his first Route du Rhum, and he reckons the unconventional road he took to get here has left him better prepared than most.
Pep Costa will steer the Class40 VSF Sports out of Saint-Malo in the solo transatlantic classic, a race he has watched from the outside since he was eight, when the first Barcelona World Race fired his imagination. Now based in Lorient, he arrives at the start line with six transatlantic crossings already behind him. This will be his seventh Atlantic crossing overall, even though it's his first Rhum.
His route to the start line wasn't the usual one. Costa studied physics and mathematics in New York before shifting fully into ocean racing, working his way through the Mini 6.50 and Figaro circuits, including three editions of La Solitaire du Figaro. In 2024 he joined the routing team for SVR-Lazartigue during the Arkéa Ultim Challenge-Brest, an experience he says taught him as much about decision-making as it did about weather.
"Working alongside extremely experienced people taught me a lot about weather, but also about how to structure a decision," he says.
VSF Sports then backed him for a three-season Class40 campaign, giving him, for the first time, a properly structured project built around time, a team and a genuinely competitive boat.
As the start approaches, Costa says the dreaming has given way to graft. Months of sailing have gone into fine-tuning VSF Sports and understanding its quirks, its noises, when it can be pushed and when it needs protecting.
"I really feel we've done everything necessary to arrive ready," he says.
Physical preparation runs year-round, built around gym work, cycling and running, adjusted depending on the racing calendar. He also works with a Spanish mental coach by video call, focused on building decision-making routines for the long solo stretches at sea.
His ambitions are pointed but measured. He wants a strong result, certainly, and the Class40 fleet is deep this year, with VSF Sports having shown it can race at the sharp end.
But he's wary of reducing the Rhum to a single number.
"The race won't be won in the first hours, but it can be ruined there," he says, pointing to the heavy traffic and demanding conditions expected early on. He knows too that the finish around Guadeloupe can reshuffle the standings in a matter of hours, undoing days of hard-won gains.
What he's chasing, more than anything, is a feeling. "There are moments at sea when everything seems to flow naturally," he says. "If I manage to find that flow during the race, I'll know I've done something good."
