The Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe begins, J/70 North American Championship, Stars
by David Schmidt 3 Nov 10:00 PST
November 3, 2026
A fleet of 115 boats in six classes at the start of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe © Loïc Venance / AFP / Route du Rhum
While mainstream news in North America is dominated by the U.S. mid-term elections, news from the sailing world is being driven by the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe, which began on Sunday (November 1), and which is taking 115 singlehanded sailors across roughly 3,542 nautical miles of North Atlantic brine. The race began off of Saint-Malo, on France's Brittany coast, and will take the fleet to a finishing line off of Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. The Route du Rhum was first contested in 1978 and is run on a quadrennial basis, making the race, which is open to Ultims, Ocean Fifties, Class40s, IMOCAs, vintage monohulls and vintage multihulls, one of the world's most prestigious singlehanded events.
Given the race's singlehanded nature, it's perhaps not surprising to see the vast majority of skippers with French flags next to their names, however North American interests are being well represented in the IMOCA class by Francesca "Frankie" Clapcich, who is contesting her first Route du Rhum aboard the foiling IMOCA 11th Hour Racing.
As of this writing (Monday morning, U.S. West Coast time), Frankie was sitting in sixth place (out of 22 boats), some 66 nautical miles astern of skipper Ambrogio Beccaria, who is leading the hunt in the IMOCA class aboard Allagrande Mapai.
"Life onboard overnight is OK - definitely quite up and down," Frankie said in an official team communication that was published on her website. "I struggled quite a lot to find a good pace - a quite consistent pace - and that was a bit of a bummer because I lost a few miles with the group I had...they are just a little bit faster."
While Frankie reported winds in the 18-22 knot range, she also reported that she has been settling into the rhythm of her first solo transatlantic race.
Weather-wise, a big test will come as the fleet crosses a weather front near the Azores, and each skipper choices where he or she wants to cross its north-south axis.
"It's about a little bit of timing and the position of when to cross the front," Frankie reported in her team's official communication. "The European model gets us just across, whereas the GFS has some gybes to stay in some winds still going kind of south. So, at the moment I really want to focus on this next gybe...and then find the right spot to cut the front."
While a race as big as the Route du Rhum features many interesting storylines, one of the most spectacular involves the mighty Ultim class of trimarans, which are hands-down the world's fastest offshore boats.
Impressively, this year's Route du Rhum features eight of these mighty creatures, including skipper Charles Caudrelier's brand-new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (AKA Gitana 18), which was launched earlier this year, and which represents the absolute state-of-the-art in this state-of-the-art class.
Aa of this writing, Caudrelier is sitting in fourth place, roughly 60 nautical miles astern of skipper Tom Laperche, who is racing aboard SVR-Lazartique.
But, with over 2,660 nautical miles separating SVR-Lazartique's bows from the fishing, there's plenty of racetrack left for pole-position upsets. Teething a beast like Maxi Edmond de Rothschild takes time, of course, and it's important to note that this year's Route du Rhum is Caudrelier' first solo Transatlantic race with the boat, so it will be interesting to see if the race will ultimately be defined by bleeding-edge innovations or by time-tested systems and configurations.
As mentioned, there are many different and fascinating threads to follow in the Route du Rhum, so be sure to pay close attention to this high-level event as the fleet wends its way towards the Caribbean's warmth and sunshine.
Meanwhile, much closer to home, the 2026 J/70 North American Championship (October 27 to November 1) took place on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, near the mouth of the Severn River. The championship event, which was hosted by the Annapolis Yacht Club, attracted 54 teams from six countries.
After eight races, Annapolis native James Golden and his Sagara squad, which included his father, Jim, plus Willem van Waay and Steve Hunt, took top honors. They were joined on the winner's podium by Haroldo Solberg's (BRA) OceanPact crew, who took second place, and by Per Roman's (SWE) Garm crew, who took third place.
"We're a new team and couldn't be happier to come away with first place and the North American title," Golden said in an official report. "We had just the right package with the right team."
The keys to his team's win, he said, involved boathandling, communication, and the always-critical racecourse currency known as speed.
"We got a lot better each day with our boat handling," Golden said. "We made a lot of small changes to get a little bit of boat speed. I think that really helped us on the third day of the regatta."
Amongst the Corinthean teams, skipper Alec Cutler's Hedgehog was the team to beat, followed by Ryan Cox's DJ crew and Adam Burns' What? NoooWaaay! team.
"We really focused on our communications and letting Keith get us around the course," Cutler said in a regatta communication, referring to Keith Davids, the team's tactician. "I think we all did a better job than we have in the past at giving him the information he needs. It was a really good process regatta for us, and the result wasn't bad either."
Speaking of East Coast one-design racing, the Star Class North American Championship (October 27-30), which was hosted by the Davis Island Yacht Club, in Tampa, Florida, recently unfurled on the waters of Hillsborough Sound.
After eight races that were contested in range of conditions, Jack Jennings and Phil Trinter collected the event's top trophy, followed by John Loe and Shane Zwingelberg, and by George Szabo and Guy Avellon.
Next up, the Star class will contest its 2026 World Championship title from November 5-14 on the waters off of Miami, Florida. As of this writing, 97 teams, representing 17 nations, are registered to compete. This includes Paul Cayard (USA) and Frithjof Kleen (GER), who are defending their 2025 world-championship title, plus other previous Star world champions, making this one of the year's most competitive regattas.
Sail-World wishes all competitors in the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe, and at the upcoming Star Worlds good luck, and we strongly encourage all American readers to make their voices heard in tomorrow's mid-term elections.
May the four winds blow you safely home.
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor