French skipper Laperche wins trans-Atlantic Route du Rhum in record time
AFP, POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe
French skipper Tom Laperche on Saturday won the Route du Rhum, posting a record time in his first attempt at the prestigious trans-Atlantic yacht race.
The 29-year-old took his Ultim multihull SVR-Lazartigue across the finish line in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, at 10:31pm local time after six days, 13 hours and 27 minutes at sea.
He beat the previous record, set by Charles Caudrelier in 2022, by about six hours.
French sailor Tom Laperche lights flares as he arrives at the finish line to win the 13th Route du Rhum solo sailing race from Saint-Malo, France, to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, on Saturday.
Photo: AFP
As he approached the finish buoy in the darkness, Laperche celebrated with a barefoot leap onto the trampoline net of his trimaran while waving to his technical team on a following craft.
Having headed the fleet alone for several days, he skillfully handled the perilous circumnavigation of Guadeloupe to glide to victory.
“This is a childhood dream come true,” Laperche said. “For decades, I’ve seen incredible footage of finishes here, footage featuring great champions. It was my dream to one day race in this multi-hull category and compete for the overall victory.”
“I’m deeply moved by the welcome I got. The noise, the atmosphere, I’m deeply touched by it all. It’s an incredibly emotional experience,” he added.
Laperche, a sailing prodigy from Morbihan who spent most of his teenage years on the water, had never before competed in the solo race, which set sail from Saint-Malo on Nov. 1 in its 13th edition.
Competitive sailing runs in his family. His father, a dentist by profession, finished fourth in the race in the Multi 50 category in 2010.
Laperche started as favorite at the helm of SVR-Lazartigue, a boat designed in the yard of Charente sailor Francois Gabart.
Launched in 2021 and winner of the Transat Cafe L’Or last year, the big blue trimaran was considered, along with Armel Le Cleac’h’s Banque Populaire, to be the best-prepared Ultim in the fleet.
Le Cleac’h was on Laperche’s heels through the first third of the crossing, but he capsized and was rescued “in good health” several hours later by a Panamanian cargo ship. Dramatic video showed him standing on the capsized hull of his boat as the waves washed around him.
Laperche received a 1-hour, 2-minute time bonus for temporarily diverting towards Le Cleac’h, who had activated his distress beacon.
Caudrelier, the winner in 2022, had to abandon his race two days after the start because of a broken foil on his high-tech boat.
“After the accident, the shape of the race changed a little. Risk management became much more important, relegating performance management a bit further down the list of priorities,” said Franck Cammas, who won the Route du Rhum in 2010 and was a member of Laperche’s backup team this year.
Laperche’s significant lead “made it possible to ease off in the face of the tricky obstacles still to be overcome: tropical lows, violent squalls, thunderstorms and gusts causing instantaneous jumps of 10 knots [18.52kph],” Cammas added.
From the start Laperche sailed an almost perfect race, taking the lead in the first few kilometers and holding it all the way to the finish.
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