Martin Lange, edited by Yanis Darras
Faced with the weather conditions at sea, the departure of the 138 skippers taking part in the Route du Rhum will not take place this Sunday. The organization preferred to postpone it to Wednesday. In Saint-Malo, at the start of the race, the many visitors who came to see the start of the sailors, admitted to being disappointed.
Saint-Malo looks gray this Sunday. The weather, unleashed at sea a few tens of kilometers from the city, postponed the start of the famous Route du Rhum to Wednesday, to the chagrin of visitors who came to admire the ships before their departure. On the pontoons, the visitors were all there to see the boats set off for the sea. Many of them took advantage of the end of the school holidays or even of their weekend, to come to Saint-Malo. “We had taken our weekend on purpose to see the start of the Route du Rhum and it’s been postponed. Obviously, we are very disappointed”, explains Jimmy, accompanied by his companion.
On the side of the skippers too, some are struggling to hide their frustration. This is the case of Guirec Soudée, first participation in the road and which does not hold any more in place. “I’m bound to be disappointed. Me, I’ll be gone (this Sunday, editor’s note) and I won’t have been the only one. We have resistant boats”, explains the skippers.
“We should have left the choice”
“We are here to qualify for the Vendée Globe and the Vendée Globe when we are in the Pacific, in the Indian Ocean, in the South Atlantic, and well, unfortunately, we may have to encounter conditions like that”, he continues at the microphone of Europe 1. “I find that it would have been necessary to leave the choice”.
Problem, the 138 boats taking part in the race are not all Imoca like that Guirec Soudée, used around the world. An important point which must have tipped the balance towards a postponement of the race, next Wednesday at 2:15 p.m.