The meeting with Happy
In 2014, Loïck Peyron must run on the Route du Rhum the old fashioned way. He chose Happy, a small yellow trimaran he found in England, sistership of Olympus-Photo, the "little yellow one" on board which Mike Birch won the first edition in 1978. This is how the legend of the Route du Rhum was born. While Olympus-Photo disappeared in the Atlantic at the end of 1978, Walter Greene, owner and builder, built a second one (Loïck Peyron's) and a third, "always made of molded wood, except for the polyester floats" explains the sailor from La Baule.
The sailor undertakes a complete refit of the boat to give it back its original appearance euros it is blue, covered with panels and portholes, has a furler, rails, its bow is cuteuros euros at the yard Multiplast aeuros Vannes. After four months of work between friends, he puts the boat back in the water in the summer of 2014. "I name it 'Happy' because it's cute, because it makes you smile."
Replacement at short notice for Armel le Cléac'h
As he was leaving for his qualification for the Route du Rhum euros, his 7th participation in 2014 euros, he received a phone call from Ronan Lucas, manager of the Banque Populaire team. Armel le Cléac'h has injured his hand and cannot take the start of the race. "We have a problem... And I have a dishonest proposal for you."
Loïck Peyron at age 54 and refuses. "I said no right away. I can't do it. Because I'm 54 years old, because I'm involved in another story with Happy, because there's the America's Cup and I'm under contract with Artemis. I can't because, physically, this boat is crazy." Before adding "It's been 12 years since I've sailed a multihull single-handed and in a race, it was actually in the Route du Rhum in 2002 when "Fujifilm" went off Cape Finisterre."
Finally, after the validation of Artemis, the validation of the navigation tests and its qualification accomplished on Happy euros the three sine qua non conditions Loïck Peyron accepts the challenge .
In 2014, he lined up at the starting line in Saint-Malo aboard a giant trimaran 31.50 meters long and 22.50 meters wide. And above all, he offers himself his first victory of the race (he participated in all the editions, except the first one, for which he was part of the public) and obtained a new reference time: 7 d 15 h 8' 32".
A beautiful finale
He returns in 2018 for the race's 40th anniversary and likely his last participation. " at some point, you have to stop the nonsense, don't you think (laughs)? I think this is my last sip. Finishing the Rum like this is not bad. To finish in the slowest way possible (editor's note: he expects 22 days with Happy) and in a race on a symbolic boat, it completes 40 years of ocean racing. I was at the start of the first one, but I didn't do it, I was 18 and I'm on the start line 40 years later, so it's okay."
An old-fashioned loner
It is thus on this anniversary edition that Loïck Peyron will truly set off in the old fashioned way: sextant, without receiving weather files and without furling the headsails.
"This is the second part of a story, the first one having been written during the English Transat two years ago. This Rhum, if it will not be a walk in the park, will obviously be a tribute to all the pioneers, these sailors and these architects thanks to whom we are now "Loïck Peyron, who has already sailed four transatlantic races without modern instruments, explains.
"I wanted to relive my first emotions. Forty years ago, I had no experience, which allowed me to go into the unknown while being unconscious. It is besides all the difference with today..."
