Storm Austen, the first major weather system of the season, is bearing down on Saint-Malo tonight with gusts forecast up to 140km/h. Technical teams across the Route du Rhum village spent the whole day battening down boats and infrastructure to stop the coming blow from wrecking the race village before the start. The system was flagged days out, with forecasters warning the depression was on course to collide with the start area just as the fleet looked to get away.
Out on the water, skippers know how to handle a storm. Tied up at the dock, it is a different kind of risk altogether.
Most sailors in the basins remained fairly calm, though nobody was taking chances. "We've doubled the mooring lines, we're pretty well sheltered anyway," said Romain Pilliard (Use it again, Vintage Multi). Basile Bourgnon (Edenred, Ocean Fifty) agreed: "We've got the advantage of being at the back of the basin with two locks in front of us. It's pulling a bit on the moorings but we've doubled the safety lines. If we really need to, some of us will sleep aboard tonight."
In the IMOCA fleet, the whole layout had to be rearranged. Floating walkways were pulled out and several boats shifted. "With strong wind forecast from the side, we repositioned the boats to face into it," explained Arnaud Boissières (APRIL Marine, seeking co-partner). "We'll tighten the sails and mostly just need patience, and help our mates out if they run into trouble," the skipper continued, sounding a little uneasy. "This boat is part of me, so we'll run night watches aboard with the crew just like we're at sea. As Sartre said, hell is other people."
Every class applied the same discipline. The Class40 fleet, sheltered between the ramparts and the Bajoyer quay, still remembers Storm Ciaran in 2023, which forced them out of Le Havre early during the Transat Jacques Vabre. "We're a notch below that here," reckoned Achille Nebout (Amarris, Class40). "If everyone's done their job properly it'll be fine. The real risk is one badly tied line letting go and a boat drifting into another."
At the far end of the village, the ULTIMs had already doubled their mooring lines two days ago after a blow the day before. "We've already doubled them, even tripled some," said Pierre-Emmanuel Hérissé, technical director of Maxi Banque Populaire XI. "We've also weighted down the float on the quay side with water to stop it tipping and riding up onto the pontoon. What worries me more is the shore infrastructure, things that could fly off and cause damage."
The village itself faces the same exposure. From first light, crews raced to secure walkways and clear away anything that might turn into a projectile in the wind. By evening, around thirty tip-trucks and heavy vehicles had been parked at key points to act as windbreaks around the stands. Like the sailors, the shore teams will be on watch all night, ready to move at the first sign of trouble. This is not the first time weather has forced the village to shut its gates this fortnight: organisers earlier closed the site before reopening once conditions eased.
Away from the storm prep, the day still had its moments. There was a parade of traditional sailing boats, a sea survival demonstration, and a disabled sailing challenge in the morning. Ocean Fifty skippers Matthieu Perraut (Elvest), Pierre Quiroga (Wewise) and Luke Berry (Le Rire Médecin Lamotte) signed autographs at the tourist office, while Armel Le Cléac'h appeared at the Banque Populaire Grand Ouest stand.
The We Explore team, led by François Guiffant, showed off their Planktoscope, an open-source microscope that continuously films plankton beneath the catamaran. The footage streams live and feeds into a phone app called "Play For Plankton", letting anyone contribute to ocean health research from their couch.
The IMOCA class also kicked off a round-table series on the issues of the moment. The first, held this morning, looked at practical uses of AI in offshore racing, featuring start-up Hatch System's real-time physiological sensors for sailors and Sea.AI's smart cameras for detecting unidentified floating objects. Paul Fleury, performance analyst at Paprec, was also on the panel.
Given the forecast, the village will not open at 10am on Friday as planned. Reopening times will be confirmed via official channels once the storm has passed.
