Sliced on the form by justice in July, the dispute between François Gabart to the other skippers in the ultimate class poisons the 12ᵉ edition of the Route du Rhum whose departure must be given Wednesday in Saint-Malo.
by Jean-Louis Le Touzet (Saint-Malo, Special Envoy)
This is a tense climate that the Route du Rhum organizers would have gone to have gone, of which 138 boats must set sail on Wednesday, November 9, on Guadeloupe, from the City Corsaire de Saint-Malo (Ille-et -Ugly). The ultimate class – whose main sponsors are Sodebo (Thomas Coville), Gitana (Charles Caudrelier), Banque Populaire (Armel Le Cléac’h), Actual (Yves Le Blevec) – reproach François Gabart for months, skipper of the SVR Trimaran -Lazartigue, not to have respected the architectural compliance of the category.
The ultimate class is based on rule 3.11 of the RSO (offshore special regulations), which provides that “winchs [which are used to border the sails] must be installed in such a way that an operator does not need to be below the bridge “.
Justice has been seized. A decision was rendered in July in Paris, which was brought to the form and not on the merits, which allowed Mr. Gabart to run the Route du Rhum thanks to a derogation – the compliance or not of the maxi -Timaran steering wheel is still not settled. Since then, a polar cold has hit this closed and prestigious club of flying boats, singularity and pride of some rich French shipowners.
Suffice to say that such a conflict is a powerful rejecting for new investors. Never in the recent history of offshore racing the enmities have been so strong. Charles Caudrelier, Armel Le Cléac’h and Thomas Coville thus go as best as possible for bad speakers, at worst for “bastards”, as an observer explains. And live it very badly. We have rarely seen Charles Caudrelier so serious: “I recognize that it is an inexplicable story for the greatest number, but there is a rule. We suffer from a lack of courage of the referees. Today, he [François Gabart] has a more successful platform … “
The skipper of the Trimaran Maxi-Edmond-de-Rothschild made good figure, but is dismantled from the inside by this “schism”, as some call it. He talks about his competitor in the past, proof that the links are broken: “I was defamed by the opposing part, and it’s hard to collect”, he assures.
“we should be around a table “
that they are far away, the warm harmonies that prevailed at the launch of the ultimate class. Yves Le Blevec, Skipper of Trimaran Actual, former boat of François Gabart, is a sailor who speaks of gold. Neither mediator nor contemptator, he would have liked an armistice to be found before arriving at these ends: “I am delighted that Gabart is at the start. No Manichaeism, the important thing is to respect all the rules , but we all have in us this notion of orange fire [to play with the limits of the rule]. François does not have the possibility of defending ourselves. “
What the opposing part obviously refutes. “We should put ourselves around a table, but no one got started,” deplores Yves Le Blevec. So much so that some are already talking about fiasco in the ultimate class, which might not get up. François Gabart, for his part, is almost no longer expressed: “This boat was made for this race. For the rest, we do not have the cards in hand”, he elude.
The conflict brutally illuminates a governance of very amateur shipowners, crossed by conflicts of interest. Francis Joyon said that he would not have started the race if Gabart had not been present. He called for an immediate reform of governance that governs the ultimate class. We will see in a few days on the podium if the “flying skippers” are still able to shake hands.
An irrefutable fact: the mutual esteem which makes the cement of sport has passed through the substance. Not to imagine either that the rules of maritime solidarity, in case of shipwreck, do not apply.