The Race
History of the Route du Rhum
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.
1978 : the rankings
| Position | Skipper | Boat | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Birch | Olympus photo | 23d 06h59'35" |
| 2 | Michel Malinovski | Kriter V | 23d 07h01'13" |
| 3 | Philip S. Weld | Rogue Wave | 23d 15h51'32" |
| 4 | Olivier de Kersauson | Kriter IV | 24d 06h27'20" |
| 5 | Joël Charpentier | Wild Rocket | 24d 20h37'20" |
| 6 | Jacques Timsit | Arauna IV | 26d 05h09'25" |
| 7 | Philippe Poupon | Saint-Malo - Pointe-a-Pitre | 26d 12h52'22" |
| 8 | Jean-Claude Parisis | Petrouchka | 26d 16h23'29" |
| 9 | Guy Delage | Salamandre | 27d 01h49'25" |
| 10 | Daniel Gilard | Via Assurances | 27d 21h17'10" |
| 11 | Florence Arthaud | X.Périmental | 27d 21h46'56" |
| 12 | Jacquin Coello | Gudrun IV | 28d 01h01'13" |
| 13 | Yves Olivaux | Quart Kriter | 28d 05h02'59" |
| 14 | Klaus Schrodt | Bestevaer | 29d 04h38'00" |
| 15 | Yann Nedellec | Damnation | 29d 12h07'07" |
| 16 | Jean-Jacques | Vuylsteker Jeremi | 29d 14h29'40" |
| 17 | Pierre Riboulet | Mutuelles Unies | 30d 02h30'36" |
| 18 | Paolo Martinoni | Bluamnesya | 30d 04h36'15" |
| 19 | Yves Parent | Saint-Marguerite | 30d 12h29'45" |
| 20 | Herman Brinks | Lady of Sailomat | 31d 17h30'51" |
| 21 | Jean-Pierre Barrault | Barbados | 31d 17h27'45" |
| 22 | Yves Le Cornec | Journal de Mickey | 31d 21h30'00" |
| 23 | Aline Marchand | Logo | 31d 08h30'00" |
| 24 | Jacques Palasset | Champagne Delafon | 34d 08h30'00" |