Route du Rhum, Gabart is the strongest of all

And that’s three with his Macif. François Gabart on Friday, November 14 at 18:38:55 the finish line in Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, first among the Imoca 60s. After the BtoB and Vendée Globe, the blond French sailor also conquered the Route du Rhum among the Imoca 60s with a record time of 12 days, 4 hours and 38 minutes, improving by more than 7 hours Roland Jourdain’s previous record, set in 2006. Gabart covered the 3,542-mile course (starting from Saint Malo) at an average speed of 12.1 knots.

A ROUTE DU RHUM ALWAYS IN THE LEAD
Always in the lead from the start, he kept his opponent Jeremie Beyou in check, who with his Maitre Coq tried everything to beat the young skipper (31 years old), finishing in second place. Gabart, an engineer who graduated from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon, began collecting successes at an early age: French Optimist champion in 1997 and Moth champion in 1999, world youth Tornado champion, triumphant at the 2005 Tour de France à la Voile, first place at the 2008 Solitaire du Figaro among rookies. Then the Transats, the relationship/sodality with a great one, “professor” Michel Desjoyeaux.

NOW BEGINS THE ADVENTURE OF THE 100-FOOT TRIMARAN
Now Gabart will leave Imoca: he won everything there was to win. “It is the conclusion of my journey on this boat,” he said, “In four years I will be back here again, but in a multihull. A new challenge awaits the skipper of Macif, a 100-foot trimaran.

A WORTHY CONCLUSION TO MY CAREER AMONG THE IMOCA
Says Gabart (taken from Agenparl): “It is a tremendous satisfaction. This is the Route du Rhum, and I spent as much effort as ever to win it. I am happy with the result and how I got there. The project was launched four years ago. I’ve been around the world, and I couldn’t have finished better today with my Macif. I knew it was the end of a part of my life. I experienced good things with this boat and I wanted to experience a Route du Rhum with the same emotions as the Vendée Globe. I had a lot of fun because it is a beautiful race to do solo. I learned more.”

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HUMILITY: TIMES CHANGE, THE RECORD IS WORTH WHAT IT’S WORTH
Then on the record: “Times change, time passes, and I don’t know if it makes sense to compare crossing times. But it is true that if someone had told me this four years ago I would not have believed them. It is not because you are in the lead that it is easy, on the contrary. I fought to stay in front to lead the race from start to finish. It’s a very personal thing, it’s not to compare myself with rivals, but I set my personal bar very high and asked a lot of myself. When Vincent (Riou) broke, I should have been happy, but instead I was disappointed, because I knew we would have a good fight to be able to pull the group. I stopped for ten seconds and already Jérémie was behind me. I disconnected it only three days ago. It was a good ending, although it is sad to leave this boat. But in four years I will be back among the Multi.”