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The race - History of the Route du Rhum

• 1978
• 1982
• 1986
• 1990
• 1994
• 1998
• 2002
• 2006

1978

Thirty eight competitors lined up for the first edition, including all the big names, sailing in 13 trimarans, 1 catamaran and 24 monohulls, but it was Eric Tabarly, who officially started the race on 5th November, as his foiler trimaran was not ready on time.
Many had to retire during the first few days of the race because of the bad weather and very quickly the fleet separated into two options: to the north Malinovsky, Colas and Charpentier, to the south Kersauson, Birch and Weld.

After seven days of racing, Colas and Malinovsky continued on their way to the north of the Azores, but due to the irregularity of communications, precise details about the boats’ positions were hard to come by. To the south, Olivier de Kersauson’s Kriter IV was closely followed by Birch.

While the low-pressure areas came along one after another on the northerly route, we remained without news and grew worried about Mike Birch with his Olympus trimaran, which was supposed to be the fastest in the fleet.

On 26th November two reconnaissance flights located Malinovsky to the north and Birch in the south at almost exactly the same distance from the finish.

On 28th November, the final sprint began in light airs as they approached Guadeloupe. After a series of changes at the front of the race, it was Mike Birch and his little yellow trimaran in the end that was to overtake Kriter V 500 metres from the finish to win the first edition by 98 seconds, which led Malinovsky to say that “there’s nothing like winning”. Phil Weld and his Rogue Wave trimaran took third place followed by Olivier de Kersauson, and in all 24 competitors would finish this edition.

Thanks to an exciting race and amazing finish, this first edition really made the race famous, enabling it to compete with its British equivalent the Ostar; it also confirmed the supremacy of multihulls in ocean racing.

However, the race was also sadly to be remembered for the loss of Alain Colas and his Manureva trimaran.

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