France's Tom Laperche has won the Ultim class of the Route du Rhum at the first attempt, and set a race record doing it, Reuters reported from Paris.
The 29-year-old crossed the line at Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe at 10.31pm on Saturday local time, 0231 GMT on Sunday, aboard SVR-Lazartigue. The 3,542-nautical-mile course from Saint-Malo took him 6 days, 13 hours, 27 minutes and 40 seconds.
That beats the mark of 6 days, 19 hours, 47 minutes and 25 seconds set by Charles Caudrelier in 2022, by 6 hours, 19 minutes and 45 seconds.
Laperche was locked into an intense early duel with Armel Le Cleac'h, the winner of the 2016-17 Vendee Globe, whose Maxi Banque Populaire XI capsized off the Azores on Wednesday morning, three days after the start. Le Cleac'h was picked up by a Panamanian cargo ship.
He was not the only skipper to come out of the Ultim class. The defending champion, Caudrelier, was forced out on Tuesday with foil damage to his new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, Gitana 18, and Anthony Marchand retired Actual Ultim 4 on Wednesday, two days after a major problem with his central rudder.
The Ultims are the largest boats in the fleet and the fastest: trimarans 32 metres long and 23 metres wide, or 105 feet by 75. They were the first class home. The IMOCAs, 60-foot monohulls of the kind used in the Vendee Globe and the Ocean Race, are expected in Guadeloupe on Tuesday, with Corentin Horeau leading that fleet aboard MACSF.
Laperche arrives with a record that was already strong. He won both the Fastnet Race and the Transat Cafe L'Or last year, and he has been mentored by Francois Gabart, the winner of the 2012-13 Vendee Globe.
It is at this point that the statistics become difficult to argue with, and this newspaper proposes to let them speak.
Laperche has entered one Route du Rhum and won it. His record in the event therefore stands at one start, one victory, one race record and no finishes outside the podium, which is to say no finishes outside first place. His average finishing position in the race is 1.00, and his standard deviation is zero.
No skipper in the history of the event has a better one. It is a record that cannot be beaten, only equalled, and only by someone who has also just started.
Our analysts note that the record is unusually exposed. A second start would, at best, hold the average at 1.00 and, at worst, double it. There is no outcome in which racing again improves it.
The Department of Unnecessary Research has therefore written to the organisers with a proposal for the 2030 edition, in which Laperche would be entered, scored and left ashore. He would retain a perfect record, the fleet would gain a place, and the only cost would be the Atlantic.