The truth about Charles Caudrelier, winner, Wednesday, November 16 at 10:02 a.m. and 25 seconds – beating the previous record – of the Route du rhum ? “It’s that of offshore meritocracy: two round the world rounds in stages with a crew, one as crew member, the other as skipper, in the toughest race in the world [Volvo Ocean Race]a victory in Figaro [2004]and two double-handed victories in the Transat Jacques Vabre [2009 et 2013] »summarizes Christian Le Pape, the former director of the Pôle Finistère course off Port-la-Forêt, a sort of higher normal school for offshore regattas, in which the major offshore companies have passed for 32 years, from Michel Desjoyeaux to François Gabart via Franck Cammas, Caudrelier’s mentor.
By winning this 12e edition in the Ultimate category, Charles Caudrelier has become, in a way, a historical monument. Ocean racing historians would later come to visit him and ask him to tell his race through anecdotes. Not sure he enjoys doing the guided tour.
The victory of Caudrelier, 48, is also that of the strength of age. “This exceptional career propels him into the inner circle of very great sailors. Of course, he doesn’t have Gabart’s brilliance, nor his precocity. It is the victory of maturity”continues Le Pape, who had the two skippers at the “boarding school” from the wide.
“A well-mannered man”
If you want to approach Caudrelier, you have to go head-on, as if you wanted to hit him. Otherwise it goes straight. The discussion with him always resembles a bit of a boxing match in which he waits for the ideas and reasons of his interlocutor. He watches for signals, or a fault, lets him come and strikes. On the subject of the internal architectural war which pits the Classe des Ultimes against François Gabart, suspected of not having respected the rule, he launches, a few days before the departure, full of contained rage: “You speak to me of schism, but you [les journalistes] sanctified him [Gabart] to make it a kind of new martyrdom, a kind of Saint Francis pierced with arrows. » Understand: now, get by with your holy sea relic and your censer.
Caudrelier can hit but never gives a correction: “He’s a well-bred man. Coming from a Catholic background. Maintaining, polite distance, chosen words”, explains the Pope. Originally from Paris, the Caudrelier family settled in Fouesnant (Finistère) when Charles was 2 years old.
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