The storyline had the charismatic, famous French Vendée Globe and multihull racer Roland Jourdain returning to the Route du Rhum-Destination in the Multi Rhum class and winning his third class title. Victory at the age of 58 in the Rhum Multi class on his 60 foot VPLP designed We Explore - an initiative to further sustainable boatbuilding materials - would complement the back to back IMOCA class wins in 2006 and 2010.
And when he crossed the finish line off Pointe-à-Pitre at 19:06:00hrs UTC this Friday evening, concluding a drawn out tussle with rival Loic Escoffier (Logigroup), it looked like ‘Bilou’ – as he in universally known – it looked for all the world like the script was written. Jourdain’s hat trick would join him with Escoffier’s father Franck-Yves as the only skippers with three Route du Rhum class titles.
Escoffier, brother of IMOCA racer Kevin, crossed the line second on Lodigroup at 19:52:23hrs. Having had to be rescued by helicopter from his upturned catamaran in the Irish Sea 70 miles off the Fastnet Rock four months ago during the Drheam Cup Route du Rhum qualifier, then facing a battle against the clock to be ready on time for the mythical race which starts from his home town, then Escoffier was delighted to have finished so close behind Bilou.
Also on Escoffier’s mind were thoughts for long time Multi class leader, 60 year old Belgian skipper Gilles Buekenhout, who capsized on Wednesday and had to be rescued from his upturned 40 foot trimaran Jess at 250 miles from Guadeloupe. He had dominated the class and was over 140 nautical miles clear of second placed Escoffier at the time.
But minutes after crossing the line Escoffier got a call from Race Director Francis Le Goff to tell him that Roland Jourdain had been penalised the statutory 90 minutes for a broken engine seal and he was therefore winner of the Rhum Multi class.
Jourdain’s penalty leaves Escoffier as winner by 43 minutes and 37 seconds.
Loic Escoffier said on the dock, “Gilles had a great race. He was the one who clearly should have won. And I know what it is like as I capsized in the Irish Sea four months ago. So I know what that feels like and we always have it in the back of our mind. There are a lot of emotions right now because sailing like this is very stressful. When I learned of Gilles' capsize, it was not easy to deal with. And in this class of enlightened amateurs, we have shown that there is a race to be won. We push ourselves like everyone else and for longer. That is what makes the Route du Rhum so engaging. There are battled in all the classes. And I'm thinking of my brother Kevin (IMOCA - Holcim-PRB) who also arrived in a tight group, a ‘pocket handkerchief’.”
He added, “And I want to say a word for Etienne Hochédé who also capsized in the Irish Sea and who fixed his boat with no budget and he is currently out there at sea fighting against Philippe Poupon, it's wonderful. The Rum Multi is a class that we have not heard the last of.”
Of his own capsize and rescue Escoffier, whose well known family are Saint Malo fishermen and ocean racers, said, “Four months ago I didn't know if I would be able to make the start of this 12th Route du Rhum. I was airlifted off the boat in the Irish Sea. Luckily I have great sponsors who wanted to get there. But after what happened to me, I had no room for error. I managed this race with a lot more stress. I had the brakes on at first. At one point I released the brake and put the foot down but I slept with the sheet in my hand. As soon as there was an alarm, I was on it. It was nevertheless Jean-Yves Bernot and Tom Laperche who did my routing. Tom, he is young, he is too much in the Figaro, and Jean-Yves is the best on the planet in terms of routing. Them plus my preparateurs, these friends who prepared the boat. This is a great story. Here I am finding myself on the podium with guys whose hulls I cleaned when they did Le Solitaire du Figaro. It's nice though! Now I will go back to the fishing. But what I have done here cannot be taken away from me.”
Jourdain responded magnanimously saying the main thing for him was proving the sustainable flax fibre construction of his catamaran and finishing on the podium. "Never mind the bottle as long as you get drunk" he smiled.
On the pontoon he recalled, "Earlier, after the finish line, we saw that the plastic lead was broken. But really you wonder why we impose these bullshit ideas. It's pretty terrible. We manage to do a Vendée Globe with a sworn statement saying that we respect things. A little common sense wouldn't hurt, but hey…I'm super happy. I would never have imagined making a podium with my linen baby. The proof of concept is achieved. She is strong she is fine. We didn't break anything and we got along. I'm really super happy. First, second or third it doesn't matter the bottle as long as you get drunk. I had a great fight with Loïc. I didn't think I'd get into the match like I did anyway.”
“But it is nice to be able to say we ticked the boxes. The objective was to show that from a technical point of view, alternative materials have a future, potentially in the world of offshore racing as long as we want to ask questions ourselves and think differently. Ultimately I'm the 21st century homo sapiens trying to transform things and some things you can’t. You put me on a boat, I want to go faster than the others, just like my world before.”
“We Explore is about exploring solutions like this whether in terms of materials, limiting our environmental impact and increasing pleasure. And I had a lot of fun.”
He started with a penalty and finished with a penalty!
“I jumped the start gun which was against the philosophy of the project: carpe diem. But immediately I am caught up in the game, clack, bim. Four hour penalty. And then I said to myself I was going to take it easier. But it is super awesome to make the strategy game. And with this boat we got along really well. We talked: "are we going in the big waves my baby but not too much, a little more wind but not too much. But if we don't go there people will believe that the boat won’t last. So we talked a lot. I had a lot of fun doing strategy with my little flax friend.”
And win, lose or draw Bilou rails against indoor ocean racing
And for me there was the pleasure of being in the ‘old’ world. In today's boats you can no longer see outside. We race in locked up boxes. And on this boat here I have the panoramic view, I have real life. I came back to what I have always loved, to be in contact with the elements. But in the quest for speed at all costs, we begin to detach ourselves from the elements. It is extremely incredible that so much is done indoors. There was always a basic premise if we went on the water, it was because we wanted to be with the sea, clouds, wind. Now out of efficiency we protect ourselves from all that to go faster and I don't know if it's the right thing to go faster all the time. There were hours upon hours sitting mesmerised, watching this passage of this wave, and then another. But it's so nice, as long as you like it, to be in that kind of half communion, to know what the boat wants, to try to create our own small ecosystem that works well.”
Re-use, re-purpose, re-pair?
“For the sails I was not very happy to get new ones. I re-used a lot. The Vendée Globe gennaker had a sail loft session the day before yesterday where I reattached some patches to it. And my red spinnaker left me last night with a bang. That gave me two hours of work until my hands hurt. It's not all good. I never imagined making a podium. The concept was to get the boat across the Atlantic the to talk about the project. But I liked it and it's comfortable. It also has this panoramic view.”