6 NOVEMBER

The start is confirmed for Wednesday at 2:15 pm.

The Class40 will leave port early Wednesday.

The 12^th Route du Rhum will start on Wednesday, November 9, at 2:15pm. This was communicated by the organisers in their press conference, this morning at 10:00 am. So, mark the appointment on your calendar, because it’s the new and historic start date of the Route du Rhum. 

“I think it’s the right decision”, stated Alberto Bona. “I would have found it hard to understand the reason why to start a race in these conditions, above all because it would have been a test of survival, and not a regatta. Now we have to take a breath, because the weather has put the whole IBSA team under stress. I was ready for a very difficult test; now adrenaline drops, regrouping is not that easy, as it’s not easy to stay here for two days, waiting. We await the next official information, and in the meantime we organise the restart”. 

Today in Saint-Malo weather forecasts were spot on: it’s one of those days when, regardless of how you dress, you will end up getting wet! We are in Brittany, so complaining is forbidden: downpours of rain are part of the menu, like cheese instead of dessert, rum, cider to drink in a cup, curry everywhere (even with mussels).

The Ultims, the big trimarans, did not go back beyond the lock yesterday: they spent the night anchored in the bay of Alet, on the left outside the port, sheltered from the low tide that here “gives air” to oysters, reveals hidden roads that connect the islets in the harbour, and continues to surprise every day for its ability to change, sudden and silent, the landscape.

This morning Alberto Bona scheduled a new weather session at 10:00 am: models still show changes, a fluid situation, perhaps slightly improved, which on Wednesday “will reopen the door” to the south, after passing the island of Ouessant, opposite Brest. 

Meanwhile, yesterday we all learned an important lesson: resilience, which made Alberto say “ok, now I’m reprogramming myself”. As soon as he felt the tension due to the delay subsiding, the Turin skipper silently started walking, and in half an hour he was ready again, with a new list of things to do, the team already acting to move the boat from the quay where she was located, for visibility reasons, to a more sheltered spot, should the strong gusts extend as far as the port. His is a great example.

Then, in the afternoon, another session with journalists for summary considerations before retiring, while in Saint-Malo the celebrations went wild: rivers of tourists, pubs and shops at the limit of their capacity, oysters and rum directly in the street, while walking in the village was impossible and many great navigators – not involved in the regatta, but there for communication purposes – arrived in the press room: from the great Le Cam to Alex Thompson, all ready to take a bath with the crowd.