Route du Rhum: Caudrelier’s record-breaking victory, but there’s a tragic denouement

It was supposed to be a celebration at Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe, the arrival of the first Route du Rhum competitor , Charles Caudrelier on the maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild, but a bad accident completely changed the atmosphere of the arrival. A motor boat, carrying members of the organization’s staff and some journalists, in the stages near Caudrelier’s arrival, capsized and two people lost their lives.

The communiqué from the Route du Rhum

With a few lines released to the media, the regatta organization broke the tragic news:

“This Wednesday, November 16, in the bay of Pointe-à-Pitre, during the arrival of the winner of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, a motor boat capsized with eleven people on board. The conditions of the accident are yet to be ascertained, but it resulted in the tragic death of two passengers, two members of the OC Sport Pen Duick company, which organizes the transatlantic race. “Our thoughts are with the families of our two employees and all our teams who have been deeply affected by this accident,” said Hervé Favre, President of OC Sport Pen Duick.”

Caudrelier’s record-breaking victory

A tragic event that obviously takes away the festive flavor of Caudrelier’s victory, which nevertheless has great technical and sporting value. The Edmond de Rothschild skipper, already a Volvo Ocean Race winner as skipper of Dongfeng, dominated the race by staying in the lead for most of the time. And speaking of time, there is eye-rolling to read the stopwatch set by the Frenchman: 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds. The benchmark time was crumbled, improving by 19 hours the record of 7 days and 14 hours that belonged to Francis Joyon from 2018. About two hours later François Gabart on SVR Lazartigue also crossed the finish line, so he too was under the benchmark time.

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The words of the Route du Rhum winner among the Ultim

“This Route du Rhum was a permanent speed race. At first it was tiring and after five hours of the race my muscles were tense, I felt like my biceps were going to burst. And eventually the pain went away, the body gets used to everything! I remember the passage to the Azores where I was in contact with François (Gabart ed.). I called him on the VHF and asked him if he was okay. He said, “I am very happy to be here,” which meant in contact. So I pushed hard, thinking he would not follow me, because I told myself that his boat is lighter, finer and perhaps less durable than mine. We went beyond the limits of what was reasonable. We were going 40-45 knots in heavy seas and I was a little scared. I was very tired and at one point I wanted to fall asleep. There were 20 knots of wind, the boat was doing 40, and the pilot stalled. I was just in time to jump on the rudder and narrowly avoided a gybe. I saw the anemometer screen and the wind had actually increased to 33 knots, I didn’t even notice. The race could have ended there. I was approaching Guadeloupe and had the memory of how it had gone for François last time (he lost the race due to a technical problem in 2018 a few miles from the finish line ed.). I was very afraid that it would go wrong.”

Mauro Giuffrè