If you’re based in Northwest Europe and want to give your new long-distance super-boat the best chance of success, then it’s a fact of life beyond superstition that - as soon as possible - you sail out to southwest Ireland and pay your respects to the Fastnet, the Rock of Rocks, the sacred home of the Spirit of Ocean Racing
It’s a line of thinking and deep belief that was demonstrated by empire-building warriors way back in the mists of time. They wouldn’t have even dreamt of going on campaign in some plan to knock spots off some distant innocent folk, or perhaps more legitimately to annihilate an invader, without first visiting the neighbourhood shrine in full battle regalia, and in a respectful frame of mind too.
So in searching for an image which best captures the no-nonsense image conveyed by Route du Rhum 2026’s current overall leader, the Ultim trimaran SVR-Lazartigue raced by 29-year-old Tom Laperche, a classic Kurt Arrigo image of the Fastnet Rock with the “Boat of the Moment” popped up.
Tom Laperche (29) is currently Route du Rhum overall leader
THE CAMINO TO THE FASTNET
Though the photo will have emerged from last year’s Rolex Fastnet Centenary Race, there’s no escaping the fact that the Lazartigue team have made the Camino to the Fastnet. This has left the omens in as favourable a position as possible for a successful tilt at the Route du Rhum: Destination Guadeloupe, and SVR-Lazartigue has looked like a front-runner ever since the race got under way last Sunday (November 1 st ).
Not least of the psychological problems faced by solo sailors in the big races is the sudden change to being alone after dealing with packed shoreside crowds – this is the St Malo quayside a week ago.
FRANK CAMMAS IN CHARGE
Admittedly the fact that the legendary Frank Cammas heads the 40-strong team that keeps the Laperche show on the road is also a significant element in stacking the pre-race odds in the boat’s favour. But either way, the well-tested yet elementally fast SVR-Lazartigue definitely has all her ducks in a row.
For the North Atlantic weather has been in a distinctly odd mood. Thanks to the unseasonably powerful high pressure area north of France (1042 hPa at one stage) the usually steady progress of Autumnal lows heading eastward has been held at bay, such that the favoured boats were those that had sufficient speed for sinuous sailing north of almost-stationary lows, and south or east of highs.
KNIFE-EDGE SPEED MAINTENANCE
But as the capsizing of the mighty Banque Populaire (Armel Le Cléac’h) some 550 nautical miles northwest of the Azores demonstrated, maintaining the required high speed is a knife edge business. And it becomes even more so when you’re into a confused sea, in which the slim lee float can dig itself into a pinnacle wave with such determination that it keeps on going down, and eventually spirals the entire caboodle upside down on top of it.
“ An awful lot of boat to be upside down” – Banque Populaire has undergone inversion therapy in the Atlantic.
“ What on earth do we do now?” The heads of departments in Banque Populaire’s shore team in conference after news of the capsize comes through
Heaven knows, but it’s difficult enough in fairly smooth water - and with a full crew at that – to assess that a sudden capsize is imminent. Jean-Pierre Dick (who was honoured with co-skipper Damien Foxall up at the Park after they’d won the two-handed non-stop Round the World race from Barcelona in 2009) was subsequently testing the limits with his MOD 70 in 2013, and over she went.
SPOOKY
It’s spooky to watch, as you’d expect it to be like Ernest Hemingway’s description of experiencing bankruptcy: “Slowly at first, then suddenly”. Hemingway possibly wrote this from observing the financial downfall of his own father, but the fact is that the inversion of Paprec seems to have started suddenly and quickly, and then slows down such that for a tantalising moment you think the big tri might change her mind, but she’s already through the point of no return.
Quickly then slowly – the capsize of Paprec Virbac.
SAFER DOWN BELOW
When it occurs, if the crew happens to be on the weather float they have to avoid falling the considerable drop to hull or lee float. When a MOD 70 capsized in Dublin Bay (also in 2013), one of the crew fell the entire way across the whole super-wide outfit onto the lee float, sustaining multiple fractures of the pelvis which required a long but eventually successful stay in the Mater Hospital.
Disaster in Dublin Bay – the MOD 70 Spindrift is over-powered by a sudden gust.
This suggests the message that, if your trimaran is on an inevitable course towards capsize, it’s much better to be below - as was Armel Le Cléac’h with Banque Populaire – and then exit through the emergency hatch when help arrives.
SHIPS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MERCHANT MARINE
This business of ships of the international merchant marine having to alter course and give valuable time to rescuing crashed Route du Rhum 2026 participants is big enough to be racing up the global news agenda, now that other stories of international interest have achieved closure of some sort. But we assume that in time the Good Samaritans of the Sea will receive insurance compensation for their ship’s helpful work.
SCHEDULE DISRUPTED
That said, it’s difficult to see how the rescuing crew can be appropriately compensated for their personal loss of time, and the sometime total upset of personal plans made on the assumption that they were going to arrive in port as scheduled.
Certainly one western seaboard-dwelling retired ship’s officer of my acquaintance was quite angry as he contemplated the disruption of shipping when several vessels had to make time-consuming course alterations in order to rescue an intrepid lone seafarer who also happened to be from the Atlantic seaboard.
If you have to be rescued far at sea, having it done by a modern cruise liner will provide much entertainment for the thousands of passengers, and absolutely every comfort and entertainment for the rescued sailor once on board.
That said, maybe the best ship to be rescued by is one of those modern eternally-wandering cruise liners. The passengers in their thousands will see your rescue as the high point of their time on board, ensuring that your battered image goes viral. Yet if you get yourself hauled aboard one of those floating fun palaces, you’ll find every possible need that a ship-wrecked sailor might dream of is being very generously catered for.
ULTIMATE LEGALITY?
Then too, there’s the question of the ultimate legality of it all under International Maritime Law, which requires that a proper human lookout be maintained at all times. One of the features of the solo-sailed Route du Rhum is that it starts and finishes in France, as the finish at Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe is regarded as being in a Department of France every bit as much as the start at St Malo.
Guadeloupe Island thinks itself to be even more French than St Malo.
Or arguably even more so, for as we pointed out last week, the folk of St Malo do not regard themselves as Breton or Norman or French, but as Malouine all down the line, whereas in Guadeloupe they’ll tell you they’re French almost before you step ashore.
Be that as it may, it’s officially an all-French race, and the French maritime authorities permit it to proceed. Yet if we were being pedantic about it, we could assert that if a Route du Rhum contestant sustains damage that requires a diversion to Ireland, then at the moment the limping vessel enters Irish territorial waters, she should take on extra crew to comply with our non-solo sailing regulations.
CLASS 40 DISAPPOINTMENTS
Meanwhile both the boats of special interest to us in Class40 have had their problems, with Fastnet and Hobart Race overall winner Alexis Loison having to abandon racing with his very new Groupe REEL with complete rudder failure, while Pamela Lee of Greystones, having been at 27 th in the Class40 fleet of 49 boats, has diverted – hopefully temporarily – into the Azores for repairs.
Winner of both the Fastnet and Sydney-Hobart races, Alexis Loison had hoped to make his debut with this new Lombard-designed Class40 Groupe REEL in the Round Ireland Race from Wicklow in June. But the boat wasn’t ready in time and now he has had to retire from the Route du Rhum with serious rudder problems. Photo: Class40
Out in the ocean, there’s quite a vicious low-pressure area northwest of the Azores, but for overall leader Tom Laperche at around 500 miles from the finish mid Friday afternoon, the wind is light and he’s only making 12.6 knots, but has a 450 mile lead over the faster-at-the-moment Thomas Coville in second.
THE TIME TO BEAT
Thus a weekend finish is on the cards, but they’ll need livelier winds towards the finish if they’re going to challenge Charles Caudrelier’s 2022 record of 6d 19h 47m 25s set on the Ultim Edmond de Rothschild.
Gallant campaigner. Pam Lee of Greystones has had to divert into the Azores for repairs to her Class40 EmpowHer.
