The largest fleet in the Route du Rhum 2018 – the solo transatlantic race that starts from St Malo on November 4th – is the Class 40 monohull division with 53 sailors taking part that includes Nicolas Troussel, the French entrant in this Summer's Round Ireland Race from Wicklow.
This record entry, that makes up almost half the total 123-strong fleet in this four-yearly classic, includes men and women from 10 nations sailing a variety of boats designed within the parameters of what has become an extremely successful class rule.
The Class 40 record for the 3,542-nautical mile course to Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean was set by the Spanish yachtsman Alex Pella with a time of 16 days, 17 hours and 47 minutes in 2014. The best in the class this time will be looking to challenge that, though only the very latest designs sailed by experienced solo ocean racers are likely to do so.
With the exception of the Mini-Transat – a solo transatlantic race sailed in smaller boats - no single ocean race has seen so many entries in one class as this Class 40 fleet for this, the eleventh staging and 40th anniversary edition of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.
The 53 contenders who will take the same startline on November 4th, include no less than three former winners of La Solitaire du Figaro (Kito de Pavant, Nicolas Troussel, Yoann Richomme), not to mention sailors who have already participated in the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe (Sam Goodchild, Nicolas Jossier, Claire Pruvot, Halvard Mabire) or those who have raced in the Transat Jacques Vabre or The Transat (Maxime Sorel, Antoine Carpentier, Louis Duc, Arthur Le Vaillant, Aymeric Chapellier, Bertrand Delesne, Loic Fequet, Arthur Hubert, Hiroshi Kitada, Robin Swamp, Miranda Merron, Olivier Roussey, Phil Sharp).
