The 2022 vintage of the transatlantic race, contested every four years since 1978, between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre, will not fail to confirm this indisputable status. Next Sunday, November 6, there will be 138 women and men setting sail for the 3,542 nautical miles of a course that has remained unchanged for 12 editions: 120 professionals and amateurs, young guns in the wind or true monuments of ocean racing, whose names are announced today, to which OC Sport Pen Duick, organizer of the event, will add 18 sailors benefiting from wild cards. The 2022 edition is set to break all records!
Historical affluence
Announced as the major sporting event in France in 2022, La Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe confirms that this status is not exaggerated when it comes to revealing the first 120 names in the field for the 2022 edition. 1978, the year of its creation, and its 38 sailors at the start, never have there been so many solo sailors to apply. Thus, since the opening of registrations in July 2021, OC Sport Pen Duick, the organizing company of the event, has received 149 applications... for an initial number of registrants set at 120 by the notice of race. In recent months, the organizational teams have worked to find the best solutions to push the needle further and welcome more sailors, in consultation with the City of Saint-Malo, the Brittany region and the Guadeloupe region. An equation far from simple to solve, as it was necessary to respect the commitment to bring all the boats into the Saint-Malo basins and naturally take into account the monitoring of a fleet made up half of professionals and half of amateurs. A challenge that pushes OC Sport Pen Duick to announce today 120 sailors at the start and the allocation of 18 wild cards by April 30, 2022. This fleet of 138 sailors will offer La Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe enter a little further into the legend of ocean racing by being the first to line up so many solo sailors on one and the same starting line... on one and the same course.
Amateurs, headliners and title holders
Since the publication of the notice of race and the opening of registrations last July, applications have continued to arrive at OC Sport Pen Duick, revealing certain hotly contested categories among the 6 in the race*, starting with the IMOCAs and the Class40s. Apart from the Ocean Fifty of which we already know that there will be 8 at the start, this quota corresponding to the number of boats on the circuit, we will have to wait for the famous 18 wild cards to be allocated to reveal the exact distribution by fleet . One thing is certain, of the 138 solo sailors announced, as many stories of breadth, passions and ambitions will be to be discovered. This five-star casting will bring together a subtle mix of professionals and amateurs and will shine in particular with the remarkable presence of four title holders in their categories: Francis Joyon (Idec Sport) in ultimate trimarans, Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) in IMOCA, Armel Tripon (Les P'tits Doudous) in Ocean Fifty, Yoann Richomme (Paprec – Arkea) in Class40.
This fleet of 120 first sailors, already very rich, will be reinforced, between now and the end of April, by 18 sailors benefiting from a wild card who will then complete the final list of registrants. The 138 competitors selected to constitute this 2022 field will then have to endeavor to complete all the formalities imposed by the notice of race (qualifying course, participation in other races of the season, gauge checks for new boats, etc.) in order to definitively validate their presence from October 25 in Saint-Malo.
They said :
Hervé Favre, President of OC Sport Pen Duick: “We are pleased to announce today a first list of 120 solo sailors who have made La Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe the major meeting of their season and sometimes even the dream of a lifetime. For an organizer, it is a real source of pride to see that the race is ever more attractive for 44 years. The list that we are making official today responds perfectly to what was written in the notice of race last summer. But the number of applications received in recent months has pushed us to look for a solution to accommodate even more sailors and allow them to take part in the most famous solo transatlantic race, while respecting our commitment to include everyone in the pools in Saint-Malo. We are going to open up to 18 additional competitors by granting them wild cards and thus bring the number of registered participants to 138, a record figure for a solo race which would make the event a little more in history.”
*OC Sport Pen Duick leaves itself until the end of April 2022 to decide on the admission of giant trimarans within a class (like the Ocean Fifty, the Imoca and the Class40) or a category (like the Rhum Multi and Mono Rum).