More and more technological boats
The IMOCA class has come a long way since the last edition of the race! Today, foils are commonplace on these 18.26 m monohulls designed to sail around the world single-handed and without assistance, the Vendée Globe. The boats are increasingly technological, but above all harder and more uncomfortable. If the Vendée Globe is about distance, the Route du Rhum is a sprint that should be completed after 8 to 11 days of racing. The record set by François Gabart in 2014 still stands: 12 days, 4 hours and 38 minutes.
The return of the former winner and seven new boats to discover
It will also be an opportunity to meet again with Paul Meilhat he was the last winner on SMA, an IMOCA dinghy. Four years later, he has found a sponsor and built a new foiler, Biotherm. If he puts his title back on the line, he is aware that the late launch of his boat did not allow him to train properly .
Since the last Vendée Globe, no less than seven boats have been launched. Among them, there are four sisterships âeuros V and B âeuros Monbana âeuros Mayenne, sistership of APIVIA, for Maxime Sorel biotherm, sistership of LinkedOut, for Paul Meilhat maitre Coq V, sistership of 11th Hour Racing-Mâlama, for Yannick Bestaven and Initiatives C?ur 4, sistership of L'Occitane en Provence, for Samantha Davies . The other three are brand new plans: Holcim âeuros PRB of Kevin Escoffier charal2 from Jérémie Beyou and Malizia âeuros Sea Explorer from Boris Herrmann . It will be a great confrontation, even if some of them have already crossed paths on the Azimuth Challenge.
Charlie Dalin, the indestructible
However, few new boats manage to win their first race... Even if we are in the 3rd generation of foilers and the handling is reduced, these boats require long reliability improvements... However, this is the challenge that Charlie Dalin in the 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre on Apivia! And since then, he has been winning and taking podiums on the IMOCA circuit. He will start his first Route du Rhum, the last race he will do on his current Apivia, and he intends to finish this cycle in style: " I would like to see this four-year cycle with Apivia 1 is ending as well as it started. My first race with this boat was the Transat Jacques Vabre 2019, with Yann Eliès . We won it and I would like to finish with a nice victory. "
It will also be necessary to count on Thomas Ruyant who will also do his last race on his current LinkedOut and who knows his boat by heart. Even though it is a brand new boat, Charal 2 has already been on the podium of the Azimuth Challenge... Will it be the same on this Route du Rhum? Still, this new foiler with a radical look has been talked about with its pinched bow and its extremely close rudders.
IMOCAS drifters and rookies to watch
But as the 2018 Route du Rhum showed, victory can also go to an IMOCA with daggerboards. Because only the weather will decide the fate of the participants. Thus, as proven by Benjamin Ferré, Monnoyeur âeuros Duo for a Job, Guirec Soudée freelance and Éric Bellion as a result of the success of Commeunseulhomme powered by Altavia last June in the Vendée Arctique, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
This 12th edition of the race will also be the opportunity for 13 newcomers to make the big jump, like Switzerland Justine Mettraux on board the former Charal, renamed Teamwork.net, Oliver Heer, Oliver Heer Ocean Racing, former boat-captain of Alex Thomson, the Chinese Jingkun Xu on China Dream-Haikou or the British James Harayda on Gento.
