The 17th edition of the Transat Café L’Or Le Havre Normandie finished in thrilling style this week, with Baptiste Hulin and Thomas Rouxel steering Viabilis Oceans to line honours victory in the Ocean Fifty class after one of the tightest duels in recent race history.
The pair crossed the line off Fort-de-France, Martinique, at 15:54 local time on Thursday (6 November), completing the 4,700-mile course from Le Havre in 12 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes and 30 seconds. On the direct route their average speed was 16 knots, but the trimaran actually covered 5,709 miles at 19.5 knots — fast sailing even by Ocean Fifty standards.
From pitstop to podium
Viabilis Oceans’ win was far from straightforward. On the first night they were forced to make an unscheduled stop at Roscoff to repair a torn mainsail, leaving them trailing the fleet by over 100 miles. Refusing to concede, Hulin and Rouxel clawed their way back through the fleet on the descent towards the Canaries and re-entered contention by the Cape Verde Islands.
When early leaders Edenred suffered a damaged gennaker pole mid-Atlantic, Viabilis Oceans seized the chance to lead. But the final 350 miles delivered high drama — Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan on Wewise briefly reclaimed the advantage before being caught in lighter air close to the coast. Hulin and Rouxel, sailing a southern line in stronger breeze, surged ahead to take the gun just five miles in front.
Experience and partnership
Hulin, 28, a former French match-racing and European youth champion, joined Louis Burton’s BE Racing team in 2021 and has since raced both the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Route du Rhum. Rouxel, 42, brings immense multihull experience, having previously co-skippered Sodebo Ultim 3 with Thomas Coville.
Their VPLP-designed trimaran is a proven campaigner, launched in 2017 as Ciela Village and later raced successfully by Sam Goodchild as Leyton. For BE Racing and Viabilis Oceans, this victory marks the high-point of a project built on determination, teamwork and trust.
As Hulin summed up mid-Atlantic, “We set off again 140 miles behind … now to be in the lead is fantastic.”
