Charles Caudrelier wins event by breaking record, “maturity victory” for skipper

On the “Maxi-Edmond-de-Rothschild”, the 48-year-old French skipper crossed in winner on Wednesday morning in Guadeloupe, the finish line of the 12th edition of the Transatlantic race.

by Jean-Louis Le Touzet

The truth about Charles Caudrelier, winner, Wednesday November 16 at 10:02 a.m. and 25 seconds – breaking the previous record -, from the Route du Rhum? “It is that of the Large Meritocracy: two rounds of the world in crew stages, one as a team member, the other as a skipper, in the most raised race in the world [Volvo Ocean Race], a victory in Figaro [2004 ], and two double victories in the transat Jacques Vabre [2009 and 2013] “, summarizes Christian Le Pape, the former director of the Finistère Pole offshore of Port-la-Forêt, a sort of normal School of the Régate On the high seas, in which for 32 years have passed the great Hauturières signatures, from Michel Desjoyeaux to François Gabart via Franck Cammas, the mentor of Caudrelier.

By winning this 12 edition in the ultimate category, Charles Caudrelier has become, in a way, a historic monument. Historians of the offshore race will later visit him and ask him to tell his race through anecdotes. Not sure he enjoyed making the guided tour.

The victory of Caudrelier, 48, is also that of age of age. “This exceptional journey propels him into the cenacle of very great sailors. Of course, he does not have the dazzling of Gabart, nor his precocity. It is the victory of maturity”, continues the Pope, who had both Skippers at the “boarding school” of the sea.

“a well -high man”

If you want to approach Caudrelier, you have to go well, as if you wanted to hit it. Otherwise he goes straight. The discussion with him always looks a little like a boxing match in which he awaits the ideas and the reasons for his interlocutor. He watches out the signals, or a fault, lets him come and strikes. Regarding the architectural intestine war which harshly opposes the class of the Ultimate to François Gabart, suspected of not having respected the rule, he launched, a few days before departure, full of a contained rage: “You tell me about schism , but you [journalists] have sanctified it [Gabart] to make it a sort of new martyrdom, a kind of Saint Francis pierced with arrows. “Understand: now, manage with your holy relic of the sea and your censer.

Caudrelier can strike but never gives a correction: “He is a well -raised man. Coming from a Catholic environment. Maintain, polished distance, chosen words”, explains the pope. From a Parisian strain, the Caudrelier family settled in Fouesnant (Finistère) when Charles was 2 years old.

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