Guillaume Pirouelle – From RORC Caribbean 600 to Quebec St Malo
After the 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre, Guillaume and his team decided to leave the boat in Martinique to participate in the RORC Caribbean 600 in mid-February. After 10 days of preparation at Le Marin in Martinique, they sailed to Antigua for the race start. With a great crew from Normandy, including Alexis Loison, Valentin Sipan, and Pierrick Letouzé, they completed two days of intensive training on-site.
DEPARTURE OF THE COURSE
The race, with 11 Class40 boats at the start, including 6 new scow boats, was lively, with a fast start to St. Martin, rounding the islands. The Class40 fleet was very close together, and we could once again observe the strengths and weaknesses of our Mach40.5.
However, they encountered their biggest challenge of the race: passing leeward of Guadeloupe with the notorious wind shadow of La Soufrière, they emerged in 2nd place by early morning.
The race ended in increasingly weakening wind and a very close finish, with the top 4 boats arriving within less than 15 minutes after more than 3 days of racing. Despite this tight finish, Guillaume’s team won the race, managing to overtake the Tequila team and benefiting from a penalty given to the Nesteen crew for entering a restricted area.
Guillaume: “Super happy to have done and won this beautiful race. We learned a lot about our new boat and gathered a lot of data. The crew was very motivated and gave their all throughout the race. The Karver products on board work perfectly, and we are constantly working on improving and ensuring the reliability of the products. I am very pleased with everything we have developed for the Class40, and there are new products coming, which is very exciting.”
AFTER
AFTER THE Caribbean 600
Guillaume Pirouelle and his team aimed to bring their Class40 back to the mainland after the Caribbean 600 to quickly carry out an optimization project before tackling a busy program for the 2024 season, including The Transat CIC, the Transat Québec-St Malo, and the NCR. Unfortunately, during the return passage, their boat was struck by lightning in the middle of the Atlantic after more than a week at sea. On the night of March 3rd to 4th, a violent storm surprised the two-person crew, one of whom had already participated in the Caribbean 600. After the lightning strike, a significant water ingress occurred due to the explosion of a thru-hull fitting, forcing them to activate the EPIRB distress beacon. The rescue teams quickly mobilized throughout the night.
The crew, though slightly traumatized, was evacuated by a Russian cargo ship that came to their aid after securing the Class40 and stopping the water ingress. Once the crew was safe, Guillaume and his team launched a salvage operation to recover the boat, which was then equidistant from the Antilles, Bermuda, and the Azores. A few days later, a team left Martinique aboard a 45-foot catamaran to retrieve the drifting Class40, following the YellowBrick beacon providing the boat’s position. After five days at sea, they reached the boat and took seven days to return to Martinique with the Class40 in tow. During the tow, the team began cleaning and tidying the boat while assessing the extent of the damage.
Guillaume Pirouelle and his team arranged for the repatriation of the Class40 to the mainland by cargo ship to repair it, hoping to participate in the end-of-season races. Although there is still a lot of work to be done before the boat can be relaunched, they are determined and confident that the Class40 will sail again.
A WORD FROM KARVER
Guillaume remains an active and highly talented member of our Design Office, and he is actively working on improvements and new products for Class 40 boats and other sailboats. We reiterate our full support for him in the coming months. A few challenges will make the victory even sweeter, and there is no doubt about this happy ending. Guillaume, we are very proud to have you with us.