Who’s hurting and who’s leading 24 hours into the Route du Rhum

The Route du Rhum doesn’t hang about. Barely 24 hours after 115 solo skippers left Saint-Malo for Pointe-à-Pitre, the 13th edition has already claimed a string of casualties – a collision, a broken rudder and a dismasting among them – while Tom Laperche charges away at the head of the Ultim fleet on SVR-Lazartigue.

Sunday’s 13:02 start came in sunshine and a north-easterly of 8–11 knots, the race’s first downwind start since 2010. As the breeze built through the afternoon, six classes sharing one start line found themselves sharing the same crowded patch of water at very different speeds. Before the start, Team Banque Populaire’s technical director Sébastien Josse had predicted “close encounters with the others”. He was right.

By Monday morning the fleet was into fast, physical racing with little chance to sleep. Laperche, who had gybed at around 03:00 UTC south-west of Ireland, led Armel Le Cléac’h (Maxi Banque Populaire XI) by around 35 miles, with the Ultims running at about 35 knots.

The closest of those encounters came off Île de Bréhat at around 15:15 on Sunday, a little over two hours into the race. Romain Pilliard, racing Ellen MacArthur’s former record-breaking trimaran B&Q – now Use It Again! – in the Vintage Multi class, bore away hard to drop his gennaker as the breeze built. That put him in the path of Violette Dorange’s IMOCA, Initiatives-Cœur. The IMOCA’s starboard foil struck the trimaran’s port float and tore away its upper deck.

Neither skipper was hurt, but both boats headed for Roscoff. “I was doing 28 knots and everything suddenly stopped,” Dorange said after the impact. “I was thrown across the boat.”

Pilliard said in a team statement that Dorange hadn’t seen him, adding that “these things happen”, and he has not lodged a protest. Dorange initially said she didn’t know who was at fault before calling it a racing incident. “Romain had to make a manoeuvre that put Use It Again in front of Initiatives-Cœur’s path,” she said. “I did not have the time needed to adjust my settings and avoid the collision.”

The inspection of Initiatives-Cœur in Roscoff found a damaged foil, a crack in the hull plating and a leak in the forward compartment. The team will seal the leak and take the boat to its Lorient base. “The impact was violent. In this condition, crossing the Atlantic is impossible,” Dorange said – but she hasn’t retired. “My objective remains to reach Guadeloupe: as soon as the repairs are finished, I will set off again to finish my first Route du Rhum.”

The clock is ticking, with the finish line closing on 3 December. It’s a cruel blow for a skipper who had been running third in the early IMOCA standings, on a 2022-built scow she took over this year with the 2028 Vendée Globe in mind. Pilliard, on his third Rhum, also needs repairs before he can cross the Atlantic, and Dorange’s shore team is lending his crew a hand.

Anthony Marchand’s race stalled at 06:52 UTC on Monday when the race organisation reported a major fault with the central rudder on Actual Ultim 4. Marchand is safe and has secured the boat, while his technical team works out what happens next.

He had been among the three boats chasing Laperche. By 09:00 Actual Ultim 4 still hadn’t moved, and a later position report had Marchand down to sixth and more than 110 miles adrift, with the leaders still clocking around 35 knots.

It’s a frustrating turn for a boat with serious pedigree. Actual Ultim 4 is the former Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, which won the 2022 Route du Rhum under Charles Caudrelier in a record of 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds, then won the 2024 Arkéa Ultim Challenge. Actual group bought it in January 2025, fitted a new mast this season with this race as the main target, and this is Marchand’s first solo transatlantic on board. Whether he contends now depends on whether the steering can be fixed at sea.

The race’s first dismasting came at around 08:00 on Monday, roughly 45 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly. Quentin Le Nabour was running in the Class40 top five on Bleu Blanc Planète Location when the rig came down. He is unhurt and securing the boat before heading for the nearest port.

It’s a cruel end to a promising first Rhum for the 37-year-old from Saint-Malo, a professional skipper since 2007. His 2024 Sam Manuard-designed Mach40.6 scow looked like a contender after the double-handed 40 Malouine in September, where he and Thierry Chabagny finished second, just 54 seconds behind Alexis Loison and Pierrick Letouzé after more than 23 hours of racing. The organiser hasn’t yet confirmed his destination port or formally announced his retirement.

Marco Guerra is the latest to divert. The skipper of Class40 No.207 IMAGIN’ACT–SOCOMEC called his technical team at 09:20 on Monday with a leak, unusual movement in his keel and electronic problems he hasn’t been able to fix since leaving Saint-Malo. He is due in Port-la-Forêt at around 22:00, where his team will assess the boat with the aim of repairing it and rejoining the race.

For those still racing, the opening blast was the easy part. With the trade winds not set in, every class is expected to pass north of the Azores. Ambrogio Beccaria, who this morning was leading the IMOCAs on Allagrande Mapei, put it simply: “There is the little gift of the weather at the start, but after that, no gifts!”

The Ultims face their first big call on Tuesday at a ridge near the Azores – stay east and gybe south, or cross it and chase stronger wind off a Newfoundland depression, with boat speeds approaching 40 knots on Wednesday. Further back, a depression forming near the Azores from Wednesday will push the IMOCAs and Ocean Fiftys into an upwind phase, while the Class40s lose their breeze on Thursday. Race meteorologist Yann Château gives only a 15% chance of the first boats finishing inside a week.

Laperche versus Le Cléac’h is the Ultim duel to follow, but keep an eye on Charles Caudrelier. In this first proper test of Gitana 18, the 2022-winning skipper is fourth and has clawed back from more than 60 nautical miles behind Laperche to around 50.

In the IMOCAs, Beccaria leads Sam Goodchild (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) by just 3.5 miles, with Corentin Horeau (MACSF), Jérémie Beyou, Boris Herrmann (Malizia 4) and Francesca Clapcich (11th Hour Racing) in the mix. Luca Rosetti and Pierre Leboucher are swapping the Class40 lead, Matthieu Perraut (Elvest) heads the Ocean Fiftys, and Francis Joyon – who else? – leads the Vintage Multi.

Follow the fleet on the official tracker.