Route du Rhum: Saint-Malo is preparing for the departure of the 138 boats

Parades, larger pontoons and above all an exceptional armada of 138 boats: the city of Saint-Malo is on deck to welcome the start of the 12th edition of the Route du Rhum at the end of the year and more than a million of visitors.

Never seen! Since the first edition of the Route du Rhum in 1978, the port of Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) had not allowed more than 123 boats to enter its docks. For the new quadrennial meeting of the most famous single-handed transatlantic race, 138 sailboats will be moored before the start on November 6.

"It's a mess! A beautiful mess! ”, has fun with AFP the skipper Loïc Escoffier (Lodigroup), pure Malouin from a distinguished family of sailors who will be at the start in five months, sixteen years after his first participation. "It's going to be wonderful. We already feel the enthusiasm, we are only talking about the Route du Rhum here. It's going to be a great party."

The transatlantic race, which has always linked Saint-Malo to Guadeloupe, recorded a record number of requests for participation this year, i.e. 160 according to Anthony Guézennec, project manager for the race within OC Sport, the organizing company, specifying that he had had to refuse people for the first time.

“It's a puzzle. We have this desire to support the organization but there comes a time when it's always a bit complicated because the pools are not extendable. Every year, we are told that we may not go any further. Quite frankly, there we are not very far from what we are able to accommodate on the basins, it is a question of positioning”, explains to AFP Nicolas Belouard, deputy mayor in charge of finances. and head of the Route du Rhum steering committee.

The Saint-Malo city allocates a budget of 2.2 to 2.4 million euros for the event, indicates Belouard, in search of novelties at each edition.

This year, the challenge is to bring the entire fleet and in particular the largest boats, the Ultim, the last elite class of flying sailboats, away from the great popular celebration in 2018.

“The real novelty is the Ultim boats. They will be able to enter if the conditions (weather) allow it. The Ultims will be in the pools, it's great for everyone, ”rejoices the deputy mayor.

For this, the giants of the seas 32 meters long and 23 meters wide will use the lock. A daring passage while the width of the lock is 25 meters. Conclusive tests were carried out between December and February and a full-scale test with an Ultim will take place in July, explains Anthony Guézennec.

According to the figures communicated by the organizers, 2.2 million visitors - start and finish villages and start sites - gathered in 2018, including 1.350 million in Saint-Malo.

"We can't do more, but we can do better," says Guézennec. “The village is going to be completely reorganized. We are going to increase the area of ​​the village by 15%, with larger pontoons to allow traffic flows, which was our big black spot in 2018. There will be many opportunities to see the boats.

There will also be parades according to the classes of boats, a novelty intended to script their arrivals.

The village will open on October 25 for a period of 13 days, one day more than the previous edition. In 2018, 250,000 spectators gathered the day before the start; they were 200,000 on the coast and 15,000 on the water on the day of departure, according to the organization.