Transat Café L'OR: Thomas Ruyant of France aims for a three-peat in the IMOCA Class
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 15 Oct 2025 02:10 AEDT
26 October 2025
Allagrande Mapei Racing © Pierre Bouras / Allagrande Mapei Racing
The Transat Café L'OR from Le Havre to Martinique, which forms the finale of the 2025 IMOCA season, is now just 12 days away and it's a classic course that has attracted a stellar field.
There will be 18 two-handed IMOCAs on the startline on October 26 facing a 4,350-nautical mile sprint across the Atlantic, and among them are many of the top performing skippers and boats of the last three years.
They include the IMOCA Globe Series leader Sam Goodchild sailing with Loïs Berrehar on MACIF Santé Prévoyance, Elodie Bonafous and Yann Eliès on Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner, Yoann Richomme and Corentin Horeau on Paprec Arkéa, and Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière on board Charal.
On their day, any of those pairings could win the 17th edition of this, the most famous two-handed transatlantic of them all which was formerly known as the Transat Jacques Vabre (TJV). But standing in their way will be the formidable presence of the 44-year-old Frenchman Thomas Ruyant, who is sailing with the Italian skipper Ambrogio Beccaria on board Allagrande MAPEI Racing.
The Transat Café l'OR will be Ruyant's last race on board his old Koch/Finot-Conq boat (formerly Vulnerable) before he hands it over to Beccaria, and there is nothing Ruyant would like more than to win this contest in which he has a remarkable record.
Sailing with Lagravière, Ruyant won it in 2021 on board LinkedOut. Then, after winning the solo Route du Rhum the following year, Ruyant returned to the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2023 and won it again with Lagraviére, this time on board For People. Now the two-time Vendée Globe top-10 finisher is eyeing an unprecedented "three-peat" in the Transat Café L'OR alongside Beccaria, with whom he sailed in both the Course des Caps and The Ocean Race Europe.
"I'm pretty convinced that we make a really, really good pair to go for a third victory," Ruyant told the Class this week, as he prepared to deliver the boat to Le Havre for the start. "We've got quite a few miles together and we're starting to really find each other, to understand one another and to grasp each other's strengths. And that's what we're going to rely on for this transat."
The quality in Beccari - known as Bogi - that Ruyant highlights is his competitive intensity and in this race, he believes, winning is all about applying a relentless work ethic to what is a full-on sprint from one side of the Atlantic to the other.
"I love the feeling Bogi has," explained Ruyant. "He's an excellent helmsman, a great trimmer and he brings a huge amount of energy on board. That's the key in the end, on a transat or shorter races: to have that level of intensity that we already had with Morgan. And now I feel it again, with someone who has such a strong personality and so much commitment."
This pairing has not had the easiest time this season. They retired with mast damage from the Course des Caps while in contention for the podium, and then fought back to score a leg win in The Ocean Race Europe after a collision at the start of that race. But Ruyant believes these experiences have toughened his partnership with Beccaria and strengthened the team overall.
"I know we've got a very good boat for this race - the right team, a good boat," he said. "We've sailed a lot this year, even if the results haven't been that conclusive. In our projections, we expected to do a bit better but, at the same time, we also showed that the team knows how to bounce back...so we're full of confidence going into the Transat."
This year's Transat Café L'OR fleet will be dominated by the latest foiling designs at the front end. But it also includes five daggerboard boats, among them the fastest hull in this division, the old VPLP-Verdier-designed MACIF from 2010, now being raced under the Café Joyeux colours by Nico D'Estais and Simon Koster.
Among those taking them on will be the New Zealand-American skipper Conrad Colman sailing with Mathieu Blanchard on board MSIG Europe, another well-travelled VPLP-Verdier design from 2007. Now this pairing is quite something because the 37-year-old French-Canadian Blanchard is an ultra-trail runner with very little sailing experience other than a couple of weeks training with Colman in the build-up to this race.
But Colman is relishing the chance to share the transatlantic challenge with a newcomer and to learn from Blanchard's own athletic career, which will continue in Martinique where he will run the 134-kilometre TransMartinique trail run once he gets there.
In this venture, Colman is taking on a big responsibility because he will not be able to rely on Blanchard to sail the boat on his own. "It's exciting, it's challenging," said the sailor who has completed two Vendée Globes without using fossil fuels, "because it's me running a double-handed campaign essentially solo because Mathieu doesn't have the expertise that will allow me to split the job list or share the responsibility."
But Colman loves nothing more than a seemingly impossible challenge. "It's quite exciting actually," he added. "It's cool to be able to sail with somebody who is so capable and such an expert in another discipline and the goal is not to put him on the back foot, but to show him a new experience - that's quite cool."
Added to his lack of experience, Blanchard is vulnerable to sea-sickness and Colman has warned him that the first few days of the Transat Cafe L'OR may well feature a rough and violent ride towards Cape Finisterre and beyond. "I'm prepared and actually fully expecting it to be blowing a hoolie coming out of the Channel. And I've been telling Mathieu to be careful buddy because the first three or four days are potentially going to be pretty rock and roll," said Colman.
"So it's going to be complex, but you don't grow by doing the same thing that you've always done, both for him and for me. So I'm excited by the challenge and the opportunity to do things differently and he's up for the ride," he added.