Goodbye Mike Birch. He won the first Route du Rhum by 98 seconds!

As preparations are in full swing for the 12th Route du Rhum
(the 3,562-mile solo transatalent, with a course from Saint-Malo to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, starting next Nov. 6) Gone at age 90 is his first hero. Mike Birch, winner of the first edition that achieved one of the most epic and adventurous feats in the history of sailing.

Mike Birch’s incredible feat

Against all odds, aboard the small 11-and-a-half-foot yellow trimaran Olympus Photo (dubbed the “David of multihulls” by the Journal of Sailing at the time) the 47-year-old won the 1978 race against boats much larger than his own .

This is not the only reason that consigned Birch’s feat to history. Michael Birch, Mike, a Canadian, taught the undisputed gods of the ocean, the French, a lesson. And he did so by winning by only 98 seconds over Michel Malinowski, aboard the giant Kriter V (21 meters). Behind Birch, “sacred monsters” such as Olivier de Kersauson, Phil Weld (who would go on to win the 1980 Ostar), Marc Pajot, Bruno Peyron, Chay Blyth, Philippe Poupon, and Alain Colas (who tragically lost his life in that edition) to name a few.

Mike Birch’s feat in the Sailing Newspaper

This is what the Journal of Sailing wrote about Birch’s last miles, which, precisely because of the exceptional nature of the Canadian sailor’s feat, dedicated the cover of its December 1978 issue to him.

November 26, 1978 – “A man comes out of the Atlantic like a devil!” It is Mike Birch on Olympus Photo, who is located 330 miles off the coast of Guadeloupe, running at 7 knots. At that moment Malinowski, ahead of the Canadian by 48 miles is still waiting for a depression from the north to find inside…

November 27, 1978 – Malinowski and Birch are sailing by sight with about 140 miles to go, Kriter V and Olympus Photo running edge-to-edge: an exercise in which the speedboat has an advantage, although Birch can rely on the last edge offshore. At 4:10 p.m. the yellow shredder is ahead by about two miles….

November 28, 1978 – Since the early morning hours Milanese has been in the lead. But at 6:53 p.m. he was joined by Birch, who outpaced him by sailing at 18 knots. At 6:59 p.m. Mike Birch on Olympus Photo crosses the finish line: he is the winner of the Route du Rhum. Ninety-eight seconds later Michel Malinowski on Kriter V finished the race.

Loick Peyron’s tribute to Mike Birch

A feat carved in history, celebrated 40 years later by one of France’s greatest sailors, Loick Peyron, who paid tribute to Birch by participating in the 2018 Route du Rhum aboard Happy, Olympus Photo’s sister ship.