Route du Rhum: Sébastien Simon: "It's Alex the fastest, there is no picture"

Since the start of the Route du Rhum, a skipper of the Imoca category, not participating in the race offers us his analysis. Today, Sébastien Simon, who will spend in Imoca in the coming months, when his boat, a Kouyoumdjian plan built at CDK in Port-la-Forêt, will come out of the yard. The young skipper, winner of the Solitaire Urgo 2018, is also impressed by Alex Thomson.

"Alex Thomson is doing an incredible race. He is the fastest, there is no picture. He had in the trade winds an impeccable trajectory, super tense. With the grain and the trade winds, his pursuers have however been forced to jibe many times. This is a scenario that I have already met on the Transat AG2R: a few miles some of them manage to make beautiful trajectories while others undergo in the grains. To win a race, you need different ingredients: good preparation, speed, success ... If one of these ingredients is missing, it does not pass. Alex makes his boat run well, we feel he knows it on his fingertips. Hugo Boss has been made reliable. Alex is the one who slowed the slowest in the big depression in the west of Portugal. He knows the limits of his machine. He trains a little in his corner, he does RP operations everywhere. Finally, it makes him navigate a lot and he has a good approach. If he wins, he will deserve it completely. "Alex Thomson has time to see" Now, Alex Thomson just has to control his lead to the finish. Except material damage, it's won for him. He will approach the tour of Guadeloupe next night. At night, the winds do not pass on the other side of the island, as we saw with the Ultimate. The only way to move forward is to recover the little air that wants to get off the cliff. So you really have to stick to the coast. Alex will probably have to take his trouble in patience but given the advance available to him, he can make a fairly serene approach. He has time to see coming. The IMOCA are very fast but they are not boats that accelerate to 30 knots. It's not like in Ultimes where the advance can melt in an hour or two. "Nothing is played for the podium"

The scenario between Paul Meilhat and Yann Elies is much more uncertain. Nothing is played. I see them arrive tomorrow late afternoon (Guadeloupe time). I think that in the light wind around the island Paul will be more comfortable with his IMOCA with straight fins. But it is enough that Yann always has a little more wind, like Joyon face Gabart, so that the situation changes. It will also take into account the state of fatigue of the sailors, and their lucidity. Vincent Riou can possibly come back in the match for the podium even if it will be difficult. It has more air since almost the beginning of the race so it has a degraded pilot mode. On the IMOCA, a really efficient pilot brings a real gain, the boat is able to follow the wind with precision, to take surfing. This is no longer the case of Vincent's pilot because he misses the wind data. When Vincent goes to sleep, the boat makes straight trajectories while the wind continues to move. Yesterday, huge grains have passed, Vincent was caught, he found himself full downwind, the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay. It would not have happened if his pilot was working properly because he would have luffed with the wind. In the story Vincent lost his spinnaker, a useful sail when one wants to go downwind VMG in 18-20 knots of wind. "I'd like to be in their shoes ..." I admire the way the first ones sailed. They held a very steady pace, without ever really being able to rest. It was necessary to manage the depressions, then the bypass of the anticyclonic ridge and then not so stable trade winds. They are sprinting. The Route du Rhum is of course an offshore race but with a similar pace to that of stages of the Solitaire du Figaro. You have to constantly adjust, maneuver, analyze the weather ... I can not wait to see their heads on arrival, in my opinion they will be well tired. Their performances remind me that I have a lot to learn. I would like to be in their place rather than on the other side of the fence. It's very rewarding because I communicate with the PRB team. I would have liked Charal to go to the end. I know Jérémie Beyou, an extraordinary sailor who has won the Solitaire three times. I am disappointed for him but we know that the new IMOCA require time for reliability. I trust Jérémie to bounce back quickly enough, it's a relentless one! "