This time, the weather did not act up.
While the start was to be given on Sunday, the Route du rhum finally started this Wednesday at 2:15 p.m., from the bay of Saint-Malo.
The 138 competitors registered this season, for the 12th edition of this most prestigious solo race, thus set off with the objective of Guadeloupe, within a week.
Despite this postponement in the middle of the week, hundreds of people flocked at the end of the morning to the pink sandstone rocks of Cap Fréhel (Côtes d'Armor), to attend one of the greatest spectacles of ocean racing, as the fleet headed for the start area in glorious sunshine.
⛵️ The start of the Route du Rhum 2022 has just been given!
Live on the L'Équipe channel: https://t.co/mkGPqSJA3L #lequipeVOILE pic.twitter.com/FC5kEUJnnP
— L'Équipe channel (@lachainelequipe) November 9, 2022
If the weather promises to be mild, "we must not believe that it will be quiet," said British sailor Samantha Davies (Initiatives-Coeur).
"There will always be 138 boats to tack and cross along the coast, with also fishermen, traps... We will have to be very careful," she warns.
Read alsoRoute du rhum: after the storm, the record in sight?
Especially since, on the water, all sailboats do not start out equal.
The fleet, a mixture of professionals and amateurs, is made up of six categories of boats: from the small monohulls that took part in the first edition, to the latest generation flying multihulls.
It is the latter, the Ultim, giant trimarans reaching more than 90 km/h on the water, which will be the first to escape to sea.
Helmed by the best skippers on the planet, these giants of the seas can hope to make the crossing in six days, when the slowest sailboats will take almost a month to reach Pointe-à-Pitre.
