Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe Video Preview
by Mark Jardine 30 Oct 04:03 AEDT
1 November 2026
A large fleet of 138 boats crossed the start line of the Route du Rhum race on 9 November 2022 © Pierre Bouras
115 solo sailors will be starting the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe on Sunday 1st November from St. Malo, France.
The fleets taking part are the mighty Ultim trimarans, the IMOCA 60 foot yachts we saw in the Vendee Globe, the Ocean50 trimarans, Class 40 monohulls, and vintage multi and monohulls.
The course is a theoretical 3,542 nautical miles, with a single start for all the fleets from Saint Malo at 1:02 pm French time, heading to a gate off Cap Fréhel, past the Ushant headland and out in the north Atlantic.
The fleet will then dive south, using the weather systems to their best advantage, past the Azores for the stretch across to Guadeloupe in the south Caribbean Sea for the finish line.
The outright record is held by Charles Caudrelier on Gitana 17, his previous Ultim trimaran, at 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds, while the IMOCA record was set by François Gabart in 2014 and stands at 12 days, 4 hours, 38 minutes, 55 seconds.
Race Village
The Race Village in Saint Malo is huge, the biggest ever seen for an offshore sailing event, and has seen tens of thousands of people flock to the port city in Brittany to see the boats and meet the skippers.
With 115 boats taking part there is a lot to take in, with the 8 Ultims, the leviathans of the sea, being the star attractions. These trimarans are up to 32 metres long and 23 metres wide and the fleet has seen some major upgrades.
Anthony Marchand's Actual Ultim 3 has a new mast, Armel Le Cléac'h's Maxi Banque Populaire XI has a new daggerboard, Thomas Coville's Sodebo Ultim 3 has a new set of foils and Tom Laperche's SVR-Lazartigue has new foils and rudders.
But all eyes are on Charles Caudrelier’s Gitana 18, the radical new Ultim with T-foils and unique U foil rudders so we take a look at just what this amazing yacht can do.
IMOCA
Franco-Brit Sam Goodchild has an incredible record in the IMOCA since he took the helm of Macif in 2025. This is the yacht which the late, great Charlie Dalin won the Vendee Globe 2024-25 edition in, and is clearly still the reference in the fleet, despite a host of new yachts being launched.
As always, Goodchild is pragmatic about his chances and said, "I'm proud to be labelled a favourite, but I also know that doesn't mean anything. There is still a race to be run, and as we all know, a great deal can happen between the start and the finish line."
Class 40
Of the 115 solo skippers taking part, 49 are in the Class40 fleet. This is the proving ground for those who are looking to step up to the IMOCA’s to campaign for the Vendee Globe and has some of the best up and coming offshore sailors, which makes it one of the hardest to call a favourite.
Storms
Just a week ago the Brittany coast was being battered by storms, and the yachts were secured well to the docks, and it was a case of batten down the hatches for the race village, and some of the surrounding building in Saint Malo.
Thankfully conditions are looking considerably more benign on race day, with the start on Sunday 1st November looking like it will have sunshine and a 10 to 15 knot north easterly breeze to help power the fleet down the French coast.
Find out more at www.routedurhum.com