Two capsizes in a night as the Route du Rhum casualty list grows

Two days ago, The Foil totted up the damage 24 hours into the Route du Rhum: a collision off Bréhat that has sent Violette Dorange back to Lorient, still hoping to restart, a rudder that snagged an object and sent Anthony Marchand’s Actual Ultim 4 to Galway, Quentin Le Nabour’s dismasting off the Isles of Scilly and a leaking Class40 for Marco Guerra. Then, that same afternoon, Francis Joyon capsized Océans while leading the Vintage Multi class, and was picked up by the cargo ship Maersk Columbus that night.

Seventy-two hours in, the list is getting longer by the hour. Sidney Gavignet, then leading the Vintage Mono class on Le Cigare Rouge, summed it up after the second night: “The line between ‘everything is going well’ and ‘everything is falling apart’ is a very thin one.”

The biggest blow landed in the small hours of this morning. At around 05:30, Armel Le Cléac’h capsized Maxi Banque Populaire XI some 550 miles north-west of the Azores while running second in the Ultim class, having spent the night chipping away at Tom Laperche’s lead.

The race organisers were quick to confirm that “Armel is safe inside the boat and is unharmed. He was able to activate the distress beacon and is in contact with the technical team on land.” CROSS Jobourg, the French rescue centre, and MRCC Boston are coordinating the rescue with race management.

Team Banque Populaire manager Erwan Steff said the first sign of trouble was the boat’s position vanishing at 05:30, with the telemetry pointing to a capsize that was later confirmed. “We’ve heard from Armel – everything’s fine on board, and he’s inside the boat. He’s dry, he has food, he has water. Race management has told us that a tanker is heading towards him, which could take a few hours. But in any case, we’re reassured about Armel’s health and about being able to reach him.”

On Tuesday morning, Le Cléac’h had described the ride as he crossed the first front: “We’re sailing downwind at around 30–35 knots, with a chaotic, multidirectional sea state. It’s not exactly comfortable!”

For the 2016–17 Vendée Globe winner, this is horribly familiar. In April 2018 he capsized the brand-new Maxi Banque Populaire IX off Morocco at night with two others aboard, and the boat was towed to Casablanca and rebuilt. Seven months later, on the third day of the 2018 Route du Rhum – almost eight years ago to the week – its port float broke away in 30–35 knots around 340 miles north-east of the Azores. He was picked up by a fishing boat, but the trimaran broke up during a 10-day tow to Vigo and was written off.

Banque Populaire XI had never been over before today. It’s Le Cléac’h’s third Ultim capsize.

Le Cléac’h wasn’t the first trimaran to go over in the night. At 21:05 UTC on Tuesday, Matthieu Perraut capsized the Ocean Fifty Elvest 400 miles north of the Azores. Perraut, who led the class at the 24-hour mark, raised the alarm with race control straight away. The organisers say he is doing well and awaiting rescue, in constant contact with them and his technical team.

It has rattled the rest of the 50ft trimaran fleet. Class leader Basile Bourgnon (Edenred), who clocked 43.1 knots on the first night, admits the skippers have been asking themselves hard questions:

“We text each other. Sometimes we wonder if we’re pushing things a bit too close to the limit. You have to push hard to build a lead, but whenever possible, we try to rest and ease off the accelerator.”

Of that 43-knot burst, Bourgnon added: “To give those on land an idea, it feels like driving over gravel. It’s moving so fast that everything vibrates.”

Charles Caudrelier’s title defence is over almost before it began. Having fought back into the top four after a sluggish start, the 2022 winner noticed shortly before 05:00 on Tuesday that the brand-new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was refusing to lift off, despite good foiling conditions. Inspecting the Y-shaped foils in darkness, in a three-metre swell and 20–25 knots, he found the composite layers along the trailing edge of the port foil shaft torn away – taking the foil’s hydraulic hoses with them.

The damage was too high on the shaft to fix at sea. Caudrelier isolated the hydraulics from inside the float, and the team chose the 1,500-mile trip back to Lorient over a 400-mile hop to the Azores. They hope to welcome him home next weekend. It’s a bitter end to Gitana 18’s first major race, just eight months after launch.

Gitana Team general manager Cyril Dardashti was clear on one point: “What we can confirm at this stage is that the damage was not caused by a collision with an external object. These appendages are innovative, and the systems that accompany them are unprecedented on this type of offshore multihull. Sometimes that’s part of innovation.”

He signed off: “This is only the beginning of Gitana 18’s life at sea.”

READ MORE: Things that go bump in the night: Gitana 18 skipper Caudrelier on risk at 40 knots

The IMOCA fleet lost one of its heavyweights on Tuesday afternoon. Running second, around 500 miles north of the Azores, Jérémie Beyou retired Charal 2 for medical reasons after talking it through with the race doctor and race management. The organisers said only that his health no longer allowed him to keep sailing in race conditions, and no further details have been given. He is now heading for the Azores.

It’s a sad way to close a chapter. This was to be Beyou’s final race with Charal, ending a ten-year partnership that took in two IMOCAs, two Vendée Globes and, last year, victory in the Transat Café L’Or. The Route du Rhum has rarely been kind to him, with three retirements in five attempts. Finishing second in 2014, he retired with steering trouble on the first Charal in 2018, before taking third on Charal 2 four years ago.

Class40 lost one of its pre-race favourites on Tuesday morning. At around 06:00, in 25 knots and very rough seas, Fabien Delahaye twisted his ankle dropping the spinnaker on the foredeck of Legallais. In intense pain and unable to put weight on the foot – and with a deep low brewing near the Azores – he chose to retire from his first Route du Rhum. He isn’t asking for assistance and is sailing 350 miles to A Coruña, a 36–48-hour trip, for medical checks.

“After a major crash, I took down the spinnaker. My ankle twisted to the side and I immediately felt a sharp pain,” Delahaye said. “The upcoming wind conditions are dreadful, and unfortunately, I’m not fit enough to face them. It wouldn’t be sensible to continue… I should gybe now to avoid sailing upwind, but I’m unable to.”

Armel Tripon’s race unravelled on Monday night. Running downwind at more than 20 knots, around 650 miles north-east of the Azores in 20–25 knots and manageable seas, his IMOCA Les P’tits Doudous suddenly rounded up – one of its two rudders damaged. Tripon raised the blade and carried on at reduced speed while the team looked for a fix.

There wasn’t one. The rudder couldn’t be reached without risking losing it altogether, and four-metre waves and a short, steep sea near the Azores ruled out a stop there. On Tuesday the team withdrew, and Tripon – who won the Multi50 class in 2018 – is heading for La Trinité-sur-Mer.

The team’s statement: “It is inevitably a huge disappointment not to be able to take the Doudous all the way to Guadeloupe. But setbacks are part and parcel of offshore racing.”

The project, built around a community of healthcare professionals supporting children undergoing surgery, says that work carries on regardless.

UPDATE: The Class40 fleet lost another contender shortly after noon today. Alexis Loison, running seventh on Groupe Reel, struck something in the water – an unidentified object, or possibly an animal – around 350 miles north-east of the Azores, in 15–20 knots and a confused sea. The impact tore off the starboard rudder, which had already been damaged on the first night.

It’s a first Route du Rhum to forget for the 2025 Solitaire du Figaro winner, racing a brand-new Lift V3 launched only on 1 July. In September, Loison and Pierrick Letouzé won the 40 Malouine by just 54 seconds from Quentin Le Nabour’s crew – now both skippers are out. Loison is heading for Port-la-Forêt, where he’s due on Monday.

Anthony Marchand also confirmed today that he and Actual Ultim 4 are out, after diverting to Galway. That makes ten official retirements as of 17:30 CET, with Violette Dorange and Romain Pilliard still in port trying to repair their boats.

With Le Cléac’h, Caudrelier and Marchand all out, the Ultim race has a new pecking order. At time of publishing, Tom Laperche (SVR-Lazartigue) leads Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3) by around 50 miles. Coville, who won the Jules Verne Trophy in January, briefly snatched the lead this morning on a more southerly route – despite having had to stop on Tuesday and cut loose a headsail that had fallen into the water. Louis Burton (Ultim Armand Thiery) is third on his Ultim debut.

Laperche on a frantic night: “We went from zero knots to 30 knots – with full sail up! The wind was incredibly unstable, making it impossible to maintain a strong average speed.”

In the IMOCAs, Corentin Horeau (MACSF) was the only skipper to slip through the trough north of the Azores before it closed behind him, and now leads by more than 200 miles from Boris Herrmann (Malizia 4) and Francesca Clapcich (11th Hour Racing). Jérémie Beyou’s exit removes another big name from the chase, while Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Mapei) and Sam Goodchild (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) are stranded north of the front after setting the early pace.

Horeau: “When I see the standings, I can hardly believe it! This is what you dream of as a sailor – making gains like this. I really thought I wouldn’t make it through, but then I found a little patch of wind that got me moving again. After that, it was full throttle!”

It has been a sharp reversal. Beccaria grabbed the IMOCA lead on the first night by staying closer to the shore, and still held it at the 24-hour mark, 3.5 miles clear of Goodchild after a flat-out duel through Monday. By Tuesday morning Horeau had edged in front, with Beccaria second and Goodchild third, 20 miles back.

Worried they were too far south, both rivals then made a 30-mile hitch north to cross the front – only for the ageing system to stall and retreat west, trapping them while Horeau slipped through on the southern side.

Goodchild, on Tuesday, before the trap closed: “I’ve picked a northerly route, Corentin’s southerly and Ambrogio something in between… It could be a rich get richer sort of situation. We definitely don’t want to be left out the back.”

Beccaria: “This sport can be truly cruel sometimes… Like an idiot, I let him go south. It was a disastrous decision.”

For Horeau, it could soon get quicker still. Thomas Ruyant, who won the IMOCA class four years ago and has been glued to the tracker since the start, expects the leaders to work through a narrow corridor and a ridge of high pressure before picking up a strong downwind breeze: “I think we’ll be looking at record-breaking conditions… things could get incredibly fast.”

Basile Bourgnon (Edenred) leads the Ocean Fiftys from Pierre Quiroga (Wewise), who lost his gennaker overboard, and Baptiste Hulin (Viabilis Oceans).

In Class40, Robin Follin (Solano) leads Guillaume Pirouelle (Sogestran – Seafrigo) by just a mile, with Pierre Leboucher (Institut Imagine) not too far behind. Pirouelle and Leboucher were both in Coville’s Jules Verne crew. A major low near the Azores is next.

Some rivals have headed north to get round it – “quite bold”, says Pirouelle, pointing out that the routing software assumes manoeuvres that might not be feasible in such extreme conditions. As for his own route: “The idea of sailing downwind, solo, in massive seas with 40 knots of wind – or even more – just didn’t feel right to me.”

Éric Péron (French Touch – Oceania Hôtels) has taken the Vintage Multi lead from Damien Seguin (Arkéa – Handicap International), sailing with a broken spinnaker pole, though Péron’s big gennaker is torn. In Vintage Mono, Tanguy Caradec (Eurvad), Sidney Gavignet (Le Cigare Rouge) – nursing bruised ribs after an autopilot failure – and Kieran Le Borgne (Armor-Lux – Le Finistère Assurance) are separated by around 15 miles at the last check.

Caradec, on his first transatlantic: “You have to strike the right balance between pushing hard, getting enough rest, and taking care of the boat.”

And the Atlantic isn’t done with them yet. A deep, complex low is forming near the Azores, due to bite from Thursday, and the weather models still can’t agree on what it will do. The IMOCAs need to slip round its western side – go east, says Clapcich, and you’re in for “quite a beating” – while the Class40s must decide how far north they dare to go.

As Le Cléac’h said on Tuesday, less than a day before his own race ended: “It won’t be a straight line to Guadeloupe.” Nothing about this mad old race has been straightforward so far. Don’t expect that to change.

Follow the fleet on the official tracker, or check out the weather routing map below, courtesy of our Route du Rhum partners, Telltale.