After 6 hours of suspense, it is finally Francis Joyon (Idec Sport) who won on his trimaran Idec Sport . A tour of Guadeloupe in light airs euros only 60 miles but which gave rise to an incredible duel since the passage of the Tête à l'Anglaiseuros 60 miles out of the 3542 of the course. 1.7% of the distance to decide a victoryeuros 7 minutes and 8 seconds over 7 days and a few hours of racingeuros
François Gabart, who had been leading the fleet since November 5, 2018, could have gone much faster without his damage: amputated foil and rudder. He will have once again led his blue trimaran through the Atlantic Ocean with a masterful hand.
Here are their statements upon arrival in Guadeloupe:
The victory
Francis Joyon: "It has the flavor of the Guadeloupe Rum and it is true that after all my participations, I savor it all the more! It was an extraordinary race".
The last few miles
Francis Joyon: "I realized that I could gain 1 minute 30 seconds before the finish. But before that, I thought François was going to pass me because he was going much faster with his code zero. It's true that it was a moment of great anxiety because I saw him coming back like a plane. I had the impression that I was repeating a little bit the arrival of Mike Birch for whom I have a lot of admiration."
François Gabart : "When he turns me in front, I say to myself that it's dead and then I come back, I come back, I come back and then I say to myself "we're going to end up together on the line, a boat length away" And that's how it ends, but it's only a detail. It's an important detail, because it comes at the end of the race, but it's only a small moment compared to a race that lasted a little over a week!"
©Yvan Zedda #RDR2018
Francis' congratulations to François
Francis Joyon:" I learned of François' problems at the last moment, but I suspected that he had an extremely fast boat and that if I managed to catch up with him, he was handicapped in some way. I thought it was more a problem with the forestay or something like that that was bothering him, I didn't imagine the damage was that bad. He deserves a lot of credit for continuing at such a high pace even though he was missing a rudder and a foil. These are still big handicaps and François managed on the one hand to take it in his stride and not say anything, and on the other hand to make a very brave and committed race".
DIY on board
François Gabart : "I thought it was going to be easy on a transatlantic race and in fact I spent a lot of time tinkering and adapting my sailing to all the problems I had on the boat. I spent my time on that, as soon as there was a transition phase. It started as soon as we passed Ushant and ended up on the last tack where we had to pump in the foil well that was filling up with water."
Francis Joyon: "I did almost no tinkering: only a little bit of electronics because of the very violent shocks. I had to fix the pilot sensor. And I spent a lot of time at the helm. Apart from that problem, I only broke two daggerboard blockers, which is very little."
The difficulty of the race
Francis Joyon: "I feel like I went further than usual. There I found strategies of sleep where I managed to recover in a few moments from time to time and so I did not put myself in the red completely. But it's true that the first two days were very, very wild. And I understand that there were a lot of broken boats because we had to get through without breaking the boat and I almost broke the boat myself several times (euros). The route was difficult, even if we thought we had good weather in the trade winds, we had some pretty violent squalls. The sail changes were difficult, the boat was rough, it was sporting. That's what we were looking for, but they were still tricky moments. I was de-zipped in terms of my hearing, because the boat was constantly vibrating and whistling."
François Gabart : "If I'm as fit as he is at 62, it will be good. It's proof that sailing keeps you in shape. Having said that, when you look at what we've done, I haven't slept much and sometimes you go a bit too far in the extreme physically and mentally, so you shouldn't do it too often. Once a year is enough."
alexis Courcoux #RDR2018
The beauty of the race, beyond the result
Francis: "I'm happy with the race. This race could have ended earlier, it's not a big deal. I'm still here in Guadeloupe and I'm happy to have had a good run. It's true that I am second. Is victory really what I'm always looking for? These last few years, I've been lucky enough to experience some crazy races. What you remember at the end is that. I will remember that I was afraid, that I was tense when I saw Francis coming back, that it was unbearable. And that last trip on board at night in the calm. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a hangover and it will hurt that I didn't win, but I think I'll remember this race for the rest of my life, because it was beautiful until the end. And I learned a lot of things ."
