Route du Rhum 2026 sets off from Saint-Malo for Guadeloupe

The 13th Route du Rhum–Destination Guadeloupe started from Saint-Malo, on the Brittany coast of western France, on Sunday 1 November 2026. The solo race crosses the Atlantic to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island, and is held every four years.

The fleet was split into classes by boat type. They included the giant Ultim trimarans, the Imoca monohulls used in the Vendée Globe round-the-world race, the multihull Ocean Fifty class and the smaller Class 40 boats. Well over a hundred skippers had been selected, making it one of the largest fields in the race's history.

The start followed more than a week of festivities in Saint-Malo, where crowds visited the pontoons and the race village to see the boats before departure. Each sailor races alone, with no crew and no outside help, so the first days in the Channel and the Bay of Biscay often shape the order of the fleet.

The start set up the contest in each class that later produced the Imoca and Ocean Fifty winners reported in this story.