Route du Rhum
The Route du Rhum (French for " rum - Route") is a transatlantic single-handed yacht race ( that is, a competition for single sailing athletes), which has been held since 1978 every four years in October / November. The race route takes you from the Grouin Headland (north of Cancale ) before the French Saint- Malo to 3,540 nautical miles ( 6,500 km) away, Pointe -à- Pitre, on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe; as with all races who actually sailed range of participants can be significantly higher than this shortest possible route.
Although since the first edition mitsegelten Regatta 1978 Multihull, the sailing time was reduced from event to event. From 1978 to 2006, the time the winner was divided into three. This is expected to fall mainly through material improvements and better weather forecasting and routing systems.
The participants of the Route du Rhum come mainly from France. There, the Regatta enjoys a very good reputation and is almost as legendary. At each orientation ( every four years ), a large part of the highly revered in France French sailing professionals is launched. Among the winners were repeated but also other nationalities. After the first Frenchman Alain Colas leading total was lost on 16 September with his ship Manureva in a cyclone won the Canadian Mike Birch already at the first orientation of the race after 23 days with 98 seconds ahead of Frenchman Michel Malinovsky. Birch Malinovski had overtaken just before the finish, prevailed in the light winds. The Franco-Swiss sailor Laurent Bourgnon succeeded as yet the only sailor to win twice the overall rating of the Route du Rhum (1994 and 1998). Already in 1990, the then 24 -year-old had already won the third place. In 1990, the first time a woman won in the Route du Rhum. The Frenchwoman Florence Arthaud presented with her victory even the fastest and crossed her trimaran Groupe Pierre 1er the finish line after only 14 days and 10 hours. The well-known British and Rekordsegelerin Ellen MacArthur won in the Route du Rhum in 1998 in the class of 50 - foot boats and 2002 in the IMOCA 60 class. With their victory in 2002, she had less than 6 hours behind the fastest trimaran.
Participating classes
For the Route du Rhum today different classes are allowed. The Regatta edition in 2006 there were eight for example: The five monohull classes ranged from 60-foot boats of the international IMOCA class (International Monohull Open Classes Association) up to 40-foot ( 12-meter ) boats of Class 40 Class. The remaining three classes were advertised for multihulls ( catamarans and trimarans ), which - traditionally represent the overall winner of the Route du Rhum - as in other regattas.
By 2010, the largest multi-hull boats were the 59 and 60 feet (about 18 meters) long boats of the now-defunct Ocean Racing Multihull Association ( ORMA ). This class was criticized, as only three of the 18 competitors in the class achieved the goal in the race of 2002; the other had the ride and partly give up their boat. One reason was said to be that the extremely lightweight and built for ultimate speed, always on the limit sailed multihulls were particularly susceptible to damage in the harsh ocean conditions. This damage sensitivity apparently arose through lack of stability (the ability of the boat not to capsize ) in favor of a higher speed potential. This was - similar to dinghy sailing - actually a constant watch on the sails necessary to the case of strong gusts of wind to be able to respond immediately. For long -distance single-handed races which is inherently impossible. There was therefore for the ORMA trimarans of the class is always a high risk of capsizing.
For regattas edition 2010 five classes were held, including the ultime class, which established no more size limitations. The regatta organizers wanted so to return to their own statements to the origins of the regatta and they also hold for the general public, which have interest in such sailing giants, interesting. Despite the relatively short-term authorization of the big boats finally reported nine sailors, including the eventual winner Franck Cammas with the trimaran Groupama III for slightly shortened (previously approximately 9 man crew sailed ) and Francis Joyon IDEC.