On a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon off Pointe-à-Pitre, the French sailing hero Loïck Peyron completed his personal tribute to transatlantic racing pioneers Mike Birch and Eric Tabarly when he brought his small yellow trimaran, Happy, through the finish line of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.
Forty years after Canadian Birch ignited the legend of the Route du Rhum when he won the inaugural race by just 98 seconds on the 12-metre yellow trimaran, Olympus, Peyron sailed his 37-year-old Olympus sistership, Happy, through the finish line to huge applause.
"It is perfect timing, coming in on a Sunday afternoon just after church. It is meant to be. What more could you want?" quipped 58-year-old Peyron who took fourth in the Multi Rhum class at the end of one of the most brutal transatlantics of recent years.
His time for the 3,542-nautical mile course was 21 days, three hours and 57 minutes which was well inside Birch's 23-day effort in 1978, although Peyron was quick to point out that his time is not a record.
"Don't forget she is for sale now," Peyron told the crowds who lined the pontoons and breakwaters at Pointe-à-Pitre's Memorial ACTe finish village.
"It was long and a bit tougher than I expected. I am glad it is over. That is the problem with small boats - you have to cross so many weather systems. I think I crossed five or six low pressure systems. But that is fine, that is for the memories. The thing is these small boats are so marvellous but really bouncy all the time, uncomfortable when you are racing with an alloy mast and dacron sails."
The diminutive Frenchman is adamant that this was his last Rhum. "I am done. I have done eight and that is plenty," he said. "The next challenge is a real one in La Solitaire in the new Figaro Beneteau 3; I have started each of the different iterations and I am looking forward to the new 3."
SSL Press Officer since 2015