After a hard morning because of the showers, the docks, pontoons, and the booths filled up on Saturday in Saint-Malo.
The Route du Rhum is well launched to break records of affluence. The first visitors were somewhat cold-picked by the vigorous arrival of a north wind with the thermometer below ten degrees. The most timid ones had chosen to take refuge the aisles more and more congested stands of all kinds, transformed into good-natured oven. The most determined, equipped to face the external elements, braved the threatening sky, while walking slowly, but patiently, doing harvest image with their cameras and especially smartphones. The show, it is true, is still incredible in the main basins, Vauban and Duguay-Trouin. The Imoca monohulls are lined up between the casino and the fishing company, with their ultra-wide rear and open like the mouth of a monster, with their formidable appendages that make one think of a big shark fin. Two are real stars dressed in black, like Darth Vader: the latest Charal by Jérémie Beyou, and the impressive Hugo Boss by Alex Thompson, who was one of the first to stage, making the acrobat in on a foil.To have an idea precisely the levitation power of these appendages from the America's Cup, a catamaran Flying Phantom, and six windsurfing boards with foils have made the show in the afternoon, in front of the ramparts, along a true multihull boulevard.
Progressing from south to north, visitors could then see the forest of mats and pavilions of class 40, the largest with about fifty monohulls of 15 meters, sportingly very open by bringing together amateurs and professionals. With them, the pure amateurs with the two categories "Rum" open to pure amateurs, on projects and personal dreams, including the three twin boats of Birch's (François Corre, Loic Peyron, and Charlie Capelle, confronted with the long Kriter V. With budgets often difficult to close until the last minute, and an army of volunteer buddies who give their hand.
The lords of the race, the Ultimate, too wide to cross the lock, station in the outer harbor, at the foot of the ferry terminal. A little too far apart, and deprived of the additional attraction of the stands of the Village, they attract much less curious, while their excess is worth a look. The fact of being subjected to low tide, with a large coefficient, made them even less visible in the middle of the afternoon. Another possible explanation: the dominant family of the crowd, with many children, probably makes the long crossing Duguay-Trouin / Vauban is probably right of their craving for discovery.
Among them may be some champions tomorrow, as evidenced by the experienced Alain Gautier, the youngest Nils Boyer, or other skippers who are just the age of rum (40 years): it's the discovery of this race that made them want to be sailors. The road from Saint-Malo to Pointe à Pitre has not finished dreaming.