Record victory and risks at the Route du Rhum, the sailing Olympics

America's Cup, but not only that. The charm of sailing, which is about to conquer Italy again thanks to the event scheduled for next year in Naples, is also closely linked to the great transoceanic regattas, from the Vandee Globe to the Transat, from the Ocean Race to the Route du Rhum, the solo crossing of the Atlantic which is taking place in recent days and which, despite withdrawals and storms, already has a winner, complete with a record.

Frenchman Tom Laperche, skipper of the sea racing car 'Svr Lazartigue' (Ultim Class), arrived last night at Pointe à Pitre, on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, six days, 13 hours and 27 minutes after departing from the Breton port of Saint Malo. The previous record, set by Charles Caudrelier in 2022, was more than six hours higher.

An undertaking made possible by the technical characteristics of the enormous trimaran, 32 meters long and 23 meters wide (as foreseen by the measurements of the very expensive and hyper-technological Ultim class) and capable of maintaining average speeds above 40 knots and peaks of 50, over 90kmh - very close to the peaks of the America's Cup Ac75s -, but also by the skills of the 29-year-old from Breton, making his debut in the regatta considered among the hardest and most fascinating and which has been held every four years since 1978 is defined as the Olympics of ocean sailing.

For days and days, sometimes two weeks, the solitary navigator has no respite, sleeps very few hours, eats when he can and is always at the mercy of the sea and the weather conditions. Two of the favorites of this edition have paid the price in recent days, Armel Le Cléac'h, whose boat capsized in the middle of the Atlantic and he was rescued by a Panamanian merchant ship, and Charles Caudrelier, who had to withdraw due to a broken foil on his high-tech vessel.

The weather conditions have suddenly worsened and if Laperche is now celebrating they remain a great threat for the over one hundred sailors still competing in the various classes (Ocean Fifty, Imoca, Class40, Vintage Mono and Vintage Multi), which take much longer than the Ultims to cover the over 6,500 kilometers of distance from Saint Malo to Guadeloupe.

In the middle of the Atlantic, some Italians are also fighting: Francesca Clapcich, Matteo Sericano, Andrea Fornaro, Marco Guerra and Luca Rosetti, while Ambrogio Beccaria was forced to withdraw after an accident on board his Imoca 60 'Allagrande Mapei'. The Milanese skipper fell into the cockpit causing a back injury which made it impossible for him to continue.

The Clapcich from Trieste advances with some difficulty, also due to the broken bowsprit, but remains fifth in the Imoca class. "Life on board is really hard, there is almost no sleep at all. I try to manage the boat and keep its accelerations under control - he says -. I spend almost all of my time below deck, where I am safe and I move as little as possible so as not to hurt myself". This is how the Route participants live, alone and sometimes scared, but determined, passionate and often far from the spotlight.