Marie Boscher (Martinique la 1ère) reports that start of the Route du Rhum is postponed to Tuesday or Wednesday due to the unfavorable weather conditions announced for Sunday, November 6. It was an unprecedented decision but well understood by the contestants. The skippers of this transatlantic event deemed it a “wise decision.”

The management of the Route du Rhum, OC Sport Pen Duick, announced this Saturday, November 5, the postponement of the start of the race, initially scheduled for Sunday at 1:02 p.m. An unprecedented decision in the history of the race, taken due to very unfavorable weather conditions in the English Channel, where troughs of 7 meters and gusts of up to more than 50 knots are expected.

This major upheaval is relatively well understood by the skippers, along with the ten ultramarines involved. “The Route du Rhum is not just about the trade winds downwind, where the weather is fine, we have a wonderful welcome, recalls Thibaut Vauchel-Camus. It starts by leaving the Channel in autumn, facing the Atlantic and its depressions, it was wiser to postpone. Everyone wants to go to Guadeloupe, we understand them, so we have to give ourselves the chance that there are as many people as possible who go there and benefit from the magic of this arrival.”

A difficult but wise decision

“It’s true that it’s not easy for the organization, given the village, the partners, the racers, adds Rodolphe Sepho. It’s 138 projects to reorganize today. It’s a decision that’s heavy with consequences, but wise, because the conditions became clearerly technical”.

Ary Chalus, president of the Guadeloupe region, explains that on arrival, “arrangements” have already been made to “welcome the skippers”. “What matters to me is that there is maximum safety and that should come before pleasure.”

[Photo above by Marie Boscher: The Ocean Fifty in Duguay-Trouin, Saint-Malo, on November 5, 2022, before the start of the Route du Rhum regatta.]

Translated by Ivette Romero. For original article (in French), see https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/report-de-la-route-du-rhum-une-sage-decision-saluee-par-les-skippers-ultramarins-1337464.html