Comme Ellen une journée plus tôt, Michel met le feu à la Guadeloupe

Photo : G.Martin-Raget/Promovoile

Michel, left Saint Malo on Sunday 10 November at 1245 GMT and cut the finish line today, Saturday 23 November at 2038:00 GMT.

His arrival time according to local time in Guadeloupe was 1638 hours.

His race time from Saint-Malo / Pointe-à-Pitre is 13 days, 7 hours, 53 minutes and 0 seconds.

Michel Desjoyeaux will have covered a distance across the water of 4555 nautical miles at an average speed of 14.24 knots. As for the orthodromic course (the shortest distance following the curve of the earth), which is 3 551 miles, he will have covered additional miles.

The reference time for Route du Rhum Route du Rhum #RouteDuRhum in the 60 foot Multihull Class is that established in 1998 of 12 days, 8 hours 41 minutes and 6 seconds.

Michel Desjoyeaux has achieved two of the greatest solo victories, the round the world Vendée Globe, and the transatlantic sprint Route du Rhum Route du Rhum #RouteDuRhum .

Figures to remember :
 Start : Saturday 10 November 2002 at 1245 GMT
 Finish : Saturday 23 November 2002 at 2038:00 GMT
 Race Time : 13 days, 7 hours, and 53 minutes
 Distance covered over water : 4555 nautical miles
 Average speed on water : 14.24 knots
 Average speed on orthodromy : 11.1 knots

Un peu de Champagne...

Photo : G.Martin-Raget/Promovoile

First statements after crossing the finish line :

The Rhum on a trimaran : "Much harder than the Vendée Globe"

First impressions… « It is really excellent to finish at 30 knots (!) in the bay of Pointe à Pitre. Solo, it’s full on, but I wanted to give this moment to all the people who came out here to greet me. These boats are really fantastic ! »

On the damage of the trimaran fleet… « We have known for long that to win in mechanical sports you first have to finish. And my ambition, already from the start was to cross the finish line. We should not forget that on a unfortunate mistake another competitor gave away his position. Stève was two days ahead of the rest of us and charged harder and it is true that I could have had a faster pace, but the essential was first to arrive in Guadeloupe. And to be at the startline ! I want to credit the whole team. If we hadn’t worked like mad for months, I would not have been here today. »

As regards the different levels of racing … « The Route du Rhum in a trimaran, is harder than the Vendée Globe. And this isn’t down to the fact that 15 boats have been wiped out. The competitors in the smaller categories will also be proud to finish, to have succeeded in surmounting all the difficulties of the race. »

The Michel Desjoyeaux Story

Michel Desjoyeaux just completed his first solo race on a mulithull, and finishing winning the seventh edition of the Route du Rhum ! The talented Frenchman has an envious track record Record #sailingrecord  : At the age of 18 he joined Eric Tabarly on Pen-Duick VI to follow La Solitaire du Figaro Solitaire du Figaro #LaSolitaire . He gained the captain’s confidence and Tabarly kept him on as crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race. From then on, Mich’ Desj’ took part in one race after another, multiplying his experience offshore and round the cans : Tour de l’Europe Tour de l'Europe #RDP13 , two-handed transatlantic race, Formula 40, Tour de France à la Voile. In 1991, he competed in the Mini-Transat Mini-Transat #MiniTransat and innovated by fitting the first canting keel on his 6.50 metre boat, a system which is now found on almost all 50- and 60-foot monohulls. Michel is very curious about technology and a great handyman. After his second Figaro win and the build of PRB with which he won the Vendée Globe 2000/2001, he joined the multihull circuit on Brocéliande alongside Alain Gautier. His multihull career is in full flow.

La lumière tombe, le trimaran remonte vers Pointe à Pitre

Photo : G.Martin-Raget/Promovoile

Michel’s Route du Rhum

 9 August : Géant dismasted off the coast of Brittany. The race against time has started.
 27 October : Michel is the last competitor to complete his 1000 mile qualification run, in very rough conditions. The trimaran suffers damage from the storm and needs to be taken out of the water for repair work.
 4 November : Géant is the last boat to arrive in the Vauban Basin in Saint Malo.
 10 November, 12h45 GMT : The 18 strong 60-foot trimaran fleet starts the Route du Rhum in moderate conditions.
 11 November : A few hours after the start Desjoyeaux decides to carry out a pitstop in Bertheaume, close to Brest Brest #brest , due to electronic problems handicapping the autopilot, and changing the broken battens in the main sail. He arrived at 0115 GMT and left at 0330 GMT.
 12 November : Géant headed far west. Routed by Vincent Riou, Michel decided at any cost to avoid the depression "Sylvia" moving rapidly southeast toward Spain, and deeply marking the Route du Rhum 2002.
 13 November : The northerly that Géant took is proving to be advantageous : while Loïck Peyron, Philippe Monnet or Yvan Bourgnon are having a veritable cyclone (80 knots of wind !) - we know sadly what happened next - Michel only suffers 40/45 knots. Boosted into fourth place, the skipper of Géant is persistent but is careful not to take risks with the boat. While a second depression is announced slightly weaker than Sylvia, Michel decides to sail bare poled to avoid it.
 14 November : The wind continues to blow strongly : 40 knots of northwesterly and very big seas. In the early morning, Michel sees the attachment which holds the starboard foil Foil #foil break. The foil Foil #foil drops and impedes the movement of the rudder blade. With his inability to check the state of his float and learning that two boats similar to his had suffered serious structural damage - Sodébo and Foncia - Michel decides to make a pitstop in Porto Santo, a little island situated North-East of Madeira.
 15 November : Michel arrives in Porto Santo at 1730 GMT. He leaves the following day at 0930 GMT. The stopover costs him 15 additional hours. But the intuition of Géant’s skipper was right. In the port, besides the batten problems, Hubert Desjoyeaux, constructor of the boat, and the shore crew coordinated by Denis Juhel, repair damage from the impact of a wave on the fore beam, catching it before it could cause real harm…
 16 November : Géant is sailing in the trade winds as Banque Populaire is caught in the Azores High and Biscuits la Trinitaine in on stopover in the archipelago of that name with float worries. In front, seemingly out of reach, Steve Ravussin drops down towards Guadeloupe.
 19 November : Under gennaker and one-reefed mainsail, Technomarine capsizes. Géant takes the lead of the multihull rankings, retaining it until the end.
 23 November : An elated Michel Desjoyeaux wins the 60-foot multihull class of the Route du Rhum 2002, at 2038:00 GMT. And as he crossed the finish line at around 20 knots, virtually swallowed up by an appreciative welcoming committee of little boats, it seemed that either Desjoyeaux or his boat, or both, wanted to keep on racing as the boat sped off at 30 knots and had to have its sails whipped down to regain control, as Ellen MacArthur stepped aboard.