‘Gitana’ and Francis Joyon out of Route du Rhum

The high-wattage Route du Rhum fleet electrified the crowds and bolted out of St. Malo, France, to race across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe. While the fleet departed in comfortable North Atlantic conditions for November, this didn’t prevent the event from quickly losing several of its high-profile participants in the first couple of days.

Charles Caudrelier, sailing the recently launched 105-ft Ultime trimaran Gitana 18, got off to a slow start but was rapidly gaining on the leaders when his port foil failed. Anthony Marchand, skipper of Actual Ultim 4, has also dropped out after something struck his main rudder while he was traveling at 40 knots. Then, Armel Le Cléac’h on the 100-ft Ultime Maxi Banque Populaire XI capsized this morning around 0530 (UTC) while sailing 550 miles northwest of the Azores. Le Cléac’h is safely inside, awaiting rescue operations to begin.

Earlier in the race, French superstar Francis Joyon, sailing an older trimaran, Oceans, in the Classic Multihull class, capsized his boat and was rescued by a nearby tanker. And last night the Ocean 50 trimaran Elvest capsized.

They’re navigating unusual conditions, with most boats passing to the north of the Azores for this year’s every-four-year event. Typically, the boats would be sailing south looking for the trade winds. But this year’s conditions (impacted by El Niño?) are creating a more complicated path for the weather routers and skippers.

These boats are all meant to be pushing the limits, and the carnage so far demonstrates they are at the extreme end and sometimes over those limits. Meanwhile, the remaining boats in the seven fleets continue on this singlehanded challenge across the Atlantic.