Route du Rhum 2026: the heirs of the race
In almost fifty years, the Route du Rhum has written family stories. Several 2026 skippers set off with a name, a memory or a boat that ties them to past editions.
Tanguy Caradec, forty years after his father
In 1986, Loïc Caradec was one of the big names of offshore racing. An engineer from Supélec, he designed and skippered the maxi catamaran Royale II, on which he won the first Transat Québec-Saint-Malo in 1984. During the 1986 Route du Rhum, the catamaran capsized in a storm. Two days later, Florence Arthaud found the upturned boat, with no trace of its skipper (Wikipedia FR, Loïc Caradec).
Forty years on, his son Tanguy Caradec starts in Vintage Mono, on a 50-foot monohull in Eurvad colours. An experienced amateur who has sailed the Fastnet and the Sydney-Hobart, this is his first major solo offshore race. "I'm not an offshore racing professional, but I grew up with the ocean and with this family story," he says. "Taking part in the Route du Rhum is a way of closing a loop, paying tribute and following a dream to the end" (Figaro Nautisme).
Basile Bourgnon, son of the two-time winner
Laurent Bourgnon won the Route du Rhum twice, in 1994 and 1998. The Swiss sailor went missing in June 2015 while diving in the Toau atoll, French Polynesia (Wikipedia FR, Laurent Bourgnon).
His son Basile Bourgnon sailed his first Transat Jacques Vabre at 17, in 2019. "Being called Bourgnon doesn't go unnoticed. I own it, and I'm proud of it," he said at the time (Figaro Nautisme). In 2026 he races in Ocean Fifty on Edenred. The organisers praise his "energy of youth" in a fleet that has lost its defending champion (Route du Rhum).
Damien Seguin, the boy from Guadeloupe
Damien Seguin grew up in Guadeloupe. "I was 10 years old when Florence Arthaud won, and I have many memories of the Route du Rhum," he says (Route du Rhum). That year, 1990, he went on board a trimaran at the finish: Fujichrome, sailed by Mike Birch, the 1978 winner. "I was 10 when I stepped onto this boat" (Mers et Bateaux).
Thirty-six years later, he sails that same trimaran, later Loïck Peyron's Fujicolor II, in Vintage Multi, in Arkéa and Handicap International colours. Born without a left hand, Seguin is a two-time Paralympic champion (2004 and 2016) and has completed two Vendée Globes (Wikipedia FR, Damien Seguin).
The Pilliards, father and son on the same line
Another family tie, in the present this time: Romain Pilliard races in Vintage Multi on Use It Again, and his son Titouan, 20, in Vintage Mono on Use It Again for Youth. Titouan is the youngest skipper in the fleet (Figaro Nautisme).
These skippers are presented with their rivals in the Vintage Monos, the Vintage Multis and the Ocean Fifties. The founding edition is told in 1978: 98 seconds and a sailor lost.