Although he is an engineer graduated from the University of Technology of Compiègne, Tom Laperche is not always a very orderly boy. “He is messy in some ways but very organized in others,” explains his wife Domitille. There are bags everywhere and sometimes things in all directions but on the other hand, he manages to be super organized and never late. His things are always ready before leaving. But it's okay. It’s not too bothersome.”
Tom Laperche is an undocumented immigrant of the seas and the land. He shouldn't have too many problems returning to mainland France in the coming days, but the skipper has neither his passport nor his identity card. This has expired since… 2020! As for the passport, mystery. “However, I turned the house around,” explains his wife. We are in a bit of a transition between the moment when his mother was still taking care of his papers and the moment when he has to grow up,” says his father Philippe kindly.
Tom Laperche is not a cordon bleu. Even if food has improved a lot in recent years on boats, gastronomy is not its strong point. The important thing is to recharge the body with calories. “He eats to live and not the other way around. He cooks pancakes in good Breton style but it’s really not his thing to spend time on that. »
In 2019, he refused a selection for the Challenge Espoirs Bretagne organized by Crédit Mutuel Bretagne, a high-level springboard for sailing. “He told us: “If I ever stop studying now, I will never go back. He really wanted to finish his course which brought him a lot of things,” explains his father, a dentist, obviously present in Guadeloupe to celebrate the victory.
We sometimes tend to believe that sailors are better at sea than on land. A cliché. And this is not necessarily the case with Tom Laperche. “He is in his element when he is on land as well as at sea. He loves the mountains when he goes hiking or paragliding. It adapts to all environments in fact, except when you put it in Paris on the metro or in big cities. There, he is afraid of everything. You want to travel around the world in an Ultim, but the metro scares you!”, whispers his wife.
The browser can sometimes give the impression of being in its own world, of suddenly switching off during a discussion. “It’s part of the character. I think at home he's less like that. He's not as perched even if I sometimes nudge him and say: "We're waking up." It’s true that he takes his time to explain things and sometimes, when there are big blanks, it can give the impression that he’s stalling.”
His father Philippe sailed with Laurent Bourgnon, double winner of the Route du Rhum (1994 and 1998). The two men were close. Little Tom, as tall as three apples at the age of 7 or 8, goes to meet the Swiss navigator: “You crossed the Atlantic in a hobie cat (a small beach catamaran, at the age of 20, Editor’s note). I’m going to do it as an optimist!” Bourgnon looked at the boy without breaking his dream but still trying to make him listen to reason, which was not easy.
Although he is ready to face the sometimes raging ocean, Tom Laperche is a particularly sensitive boy on land. “He is very emotional, but even in everyday life. A film, music, he can easily start crying,” says his wife, also present in the West Indies. An emotion that he feels especially at the start of races with his loved ones. “He realizes how lucky he is to be there and often tells me: “I’m going to experience something sick, it’s so wow.” It's so strong that he needs the emotions to come out before he goes back into his bubble. He is also capable of switching very quickly. He cries and two minutes later, he is on his boat without a tear, focused and ready.
Will Tom Laperche celebrate his victory with a few well-deserved glasses of ti-puch? Lip service perhaps, but Charles Caudrelier's successor on the Route du Rhum list doesn't drink alcohol at all.
Tom Laperche benefited from freedom at a very young age from his parents who trusted him with their eyes closed. “We put a lot of trust in the kids very quickly. When I was working (she is a pharmacist, Editor's note), he would call me and say: "Mom, I'm leaving with my Optimist and I'll be home in two hours." I checked a few things and he left. I was 30 kilometers away and his dad was at the office but he was very reasonable,” says his mother Sabine. “We let them do a lot of things. It’s true that we didn’t raise them in a jar,” adds his father.
