Hard core The 40th Anniversary Route du Rhum starts today… more or less!
The Route du Rhum is about as hard core as offshore racing gets. Racing 3,500 miles singlehanded across the north Atlantic in early winter is tough going, arguably on a par with the major round-the-world races. Despite the challenge of racing from Saint- Malo to Guadeloupe in November, or perhaps because of that, the 40th edition of the Route du Rhum is booked to capacity. An all-time record 122 entries will be on the start line on 4 November, with an estimated crowd of two million predicted to descend on Saint-Malo for the massed start. Many of these solo adventurers will be wearing Musto clothing for the race. They won’t risk wearing anything else. Three of the better-known participants are Jérémie Beyou, Sam Davies and Sam Goodchild. Beyou’s new steed is Charal, a space-age IMOCA with the most outrageous set of foils yet seen on an IMOCA 60. Having finished runner-up in the last Route du Rhum four years ago and twice being forced out of the Vendée
68 SEAHORSE
Globe with gear damage, Beyou is determined to put in a good showing. That said, it’s early days on the water for Charal and the Route du Rhum will provide a severe test for this cutting-edge design.
Vendée and Volvo Ocean Race veteran Sam Davies is a rookie in the Route du Rhum, but has the experience to get to the front of the IMOCA fleet even if her boat, Initiatives Coeur, isn’t quite as quick on paper as the likes of Charal. Sam Goodchild is another Brit and another Rhum rookie who’s set to compete somewhere near the front of the 52-strong Class 40 entry. All three of these sailors have accrued enough sea miles to know that you can’t afford to cut corners with your clothing. Davies feels particularly strongly about this. ‘Clothing and comfort is as important as having a new set of sails. People don’t seem to understand the importance of a sailor who’s operating on top form. So many times I’ve seen a campaign
Above: having the right
clothing is as important as having a new suit of sails, says Vendée Globe veteran Sam Davies, pictured here on the bow of Initiatives Coeur. Solo ocean racers would once slow down dramatically (or in some cases even stop) during sail changes in the interests of safety;
those days are gone but some skippers may still allow the occasional wistful
reflection...
planned down to all the tiniest details, so much money ploughed into nutrition or the gym, personal training, and doing all the more obvious things to enhance your performance. But often these campaigns seem to forget the clothing, the need for comfort on board, and that you have to sleep at some point. Maybe there’s a bit of machismo, but people don’t seem to realise that when you get tired, and when people are miserable, how much it can affect the boat’s performance. I’ve seen it in solo and seen it in crewed situations. ‘We spend money on sails, foils, we do a whole heap of development, and when you’re going offshore in an extreme boat, there’s a big human element. If the human isn’t optimised, warm, dry, comfortable, if you’re not achieving those basic human needs, you’re failing in your performance. It frustrates me when people don’t understand that. That’s one of the reasons why I choose to
VINCENT CURUTCHET/INITIATIVES-COEUR
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102
