Route du Rhum: Transat king Ruyant rocks the Imoca duel with a new record
Tatjana Pokorny
· 21.11.2022
Thomas Ruyant is the big Imoca winner of the 12th Route du Rhum. The 43-year-old "LinkedOut" skipper prevailed over the top favourite Charlie Dalin on "Apivia" after a highly exciting transatlantic duel in the premier class. Dalin had previously dominated the sailing year. In the most important competition of the season, however, Ruyant won the race after overtaking the long-time leader Charlie Dalin on 18 November and never relinquishing his top position. The all-French Imoca podium is expected to be completed shortly by Charlie Dalin on "Apivia" in second place and "Charal 2" skipper Jérémie Beyou in third.
Thomas Ruyant completed the 3,500 nautical mile classic in a new record time of 11 days, 17 hours, 36 minutes and 25 seconds. The old record was set by François Gabart at the 20th edition of the Route du Rhum in 2014 with 12 days, 4 hours, 38 minutes and 55 seconds and held for eight years.
Thomas Ruyant is the Transat king of the Imoca sailors
The duel between the two mature Verdier designs of Thomas Ruyant and Charlie Dalin from 2019 has kept France's sailing fans on the edge of their seats. This is Ruyant's second victory in the Route du Rhum: twelve years ago, he won the transatlantic race at the first attempt in the Class 40. Now the winner of the 2021 Transat Jacques Vabre has followed up with his second coup.
With this triumph, Ruyant also cemented his reputation as the king of the Transatlantic: he won an incredible five times in five starts in major Transat races! The winning streak began with the mini-Transat victory in 2009, followed by the first Route du Rhum coup in 2010, victory in the Transat AG2R La Mondiale, success in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021 and now the battle victory in the 12th Route du Rhum.
Isabelle Joschke raves: "The fight between Thomas and Charlie is fantastic!"
The other sailors in the fleet shared the celebrity protagonists' excitement. The German-French Isabelle Joschke, who is heading for the finish line in a strong ninth place, said the day before: "I think it's fantastic! The battle between Thomas and Charlie is incredible. I'm happy that it's going like this all the way to the finish. It's also nice to see the leading group with Justine (ed.: Mettraux) in the middle. That's great."
The Swiss Justine Mettraux also defended her seventh place as the best skipper in the field on Monday in the first formidable Imoca race to Guadeloupe. Boris Herrmann, in 24th place, still had a good 800 nautical miles to go to the finish line off Pointe-à-Pitre on Monday morning. Following the withdrawals of Kojiro Shiraishi ("DMG Mori Global One"), Damien Seguin ("Groupe Apicil"), Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallée") and Fabrice Amedeo ("Nexans - Art & Fenêtres"), 34 of the 38 Imocas that had originally started remained in the race.
