The Route du Rhum destination Guadeloupe is the second most famous French offshore race after the Vendée Globe. Organized every 4 years, it brings together at least 120 skippers who set off from Saint-Malo in the direction of the West Indies, single-handed, divided among 6 classes of boats. On average, depending on the performance of the different boats, the crossing time varies from one week to one month. A period during which the race organization is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, the Route du Rhum destination Guadeloupe is prepared well in advance as Francis le Goff explains.
What is the role of a race director, before the start of the Route du Rhum destination Guadeloupeeuros?
There are several missions, all of which are very administrative at the beginning. Between two years and a year before the start, we work on the rules and eligibility. We provide explanations to the skippers who want to enter, especially those who don't have any specific ideas yet. We help them to have as few disappointments as possible.
As time goes on, the race notice is written. It is a contract between the runner and the organization. It communicates the number of places, the places of departure and arrival, the organization or not of a parade, the day of arrival in Saint-Malo, the various obligatory briefings, the rules, the stopovers, the cases which entail to remain with the carrier
Each skipper will then decide whether or not to sign up based on all these conditions. This document must be published before the summer of 2021 (Editor's note: 16 months before the start). This is the big job at the beginning of the year.
There are also a lot of technical missions. We meet with our local partners in the departure and arrival cities to organize the reception of skippers and the public. In Saint-Malo, there are many interlocutors in the management of the port : the Chamber of Commerce, the Region of Brittany, etc. We have to move the boaters, welcome the pontoon renters, choose the right service providers. We have to set up a temporary port to be able to welcome everyone in good conditions.
For this edition, they will probably be between 125 and 130 runners selected. They will have to follow their qualification and validate it, which is easier during the race. Outside the race, they will be asked to wear a tracker.
Then we have to manage the 60 semi-rigid boats that will ensure safety at the start of the race, manage the declaration of nautical event with the maritime prefecture and organize a coordination meeting with the State. The maritime police and the customs will help us to secure all the areas during the start. Many people are following it from land, especially from Cap Fréhel, but there are also many people on the water. There are many more pleasure boats and professional boats than racing boats on the water. In the race area, if there are 130 participants, in total, there are double or even triple the number of boats, because they are accompanied by semi-rigid boats for safety. For the Ultimates, for example, which are very fast, 3 semi-rigids ensure safety. For the IMOCA boats, it's one boat. That's a lot of people and we have to anticipate that. We also work in collaboration with the SNSM.
In this sense, we never fill the passenger boats completely. We keep 10% of the space available in case we need to take people on board if things go wrong on the water.
How is a euro race director organized? What are the different roles of the euro?
Fortunately, I'm not alone in managing this. I have several assistants who all have a great mission.
Pierre Hays coordinates the start and finish areas. He is in contact with the different institutions and writes the declaration of the nautical event.
Yann Château is in charge of the eligibility of the registrations, the weather monitoring, the qualification course and the sports documents (notice of race, appendices, endorsements).
Guillaume Rottée and Guillaume Evrard manage all the harbor organization: the development of the lock for the entry and exit of the boats, the space necessary to welcome all the participants. For the departure, we sometimes arrange with the city of Dinard to welcome boats the day before or the day before. We have to be sure that all the boats can leave before the lock closes. The Ultimates leave the port on Friday, others on Saturday so that all the boats are out on Sunday.
Amélie Juvien is in charge of the management of the sailors (registrations, files), I manage the technical requests. We must also add all the missions carried out by OC Sport.
