Romain Attanasio, the French skipper of Fortinet- Best Western finished the 12th Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe in tenth place in the IMOCA class when he crossed the finish line off Pointe-à-Pitre at 20:55:20hrs UTC (16:55:20 local). His elapsed time is 13d 07hrs 40m 20s He finishes 1d 14h 3m 55 secs after the class winner Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut). Attanasio sailed an actual course of 4041 miles at 12.64kts. The 45 year old skipper who has finished successive Vendée Globe races in 15th (2016) and 14th (2020) overtook Briton Pip Hare (Medallia) just before the Basse Terre mark to take 10th, his best solo Transat result of his career and improving on his 13th on the 2018 Route du Rhum achieved from a smaller, less competitive fleet.
Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western)
“Before the start I said that I wanted to be in the right group. I am very happy because a week ago I had no more internet, no communication. I no longer had any weather forecast, nor any rankings. The day before yesterday, I had to make a choice of tack, I only had a three-day-old file. And finally the wind was perfectly in the right direction and I found everyone. I managed to pass Lazare (Tanguy Le Turquais) who has a rudder problem, then I found Pip (Hare). The Basse Terre buoy is in an area with no wind, and I managed to negotiate it well, to make the right tacks to get out of it and so overtook Pip.
The race was super hard, it's the first time I've done a transatlantic where I don't wash. I didn't eat anything, we didn't have time to do anything. It was intense, the wind was not easy, we almost had a Doldrums in the Atlantic. It wasn't a ridge, it was a Doldrums with squalls and rain. I also had a problem from the Azores: no more generator to charge the engine! I only had the solar panels and the hydrogenerators. At night, I was steering, I had no light, I was in complete darkness. During the day, it was OK as I was powered by solar panels. I raced to save energy. In the Azores, I almost quit and finally I held up to the end.
I am very happy with my boat and my team. It has not been an easy year, they have taken charge of a lot of things. They took care of everything, they took care of the boat and me. I'm very happy to be here. I spent the last mile thinking about the drama, I know Alex (Picot) well (OC Pen Duick staff member who was killed in an accident at the first Ultim finish ed note), I'm sad, I suppose it is part of the dramas at sea.