Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V) crossed the finish line of the twelfth edition of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe at 09:52:27 UTC on Wednesday 23rd November. He finished nineteenth in the IMOCA class with a race time of 13 days, 20 hours, 37 minutes and 27 seconds.

The winner of the last Vendée Globe sailed the 3542 theoretical miles of the race course between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre at the speed of 10.65 knots on the Great Circle route. Out on the water, the skipper of Maître CoQ V actually sailed 4321.11 miles averaging 12.99 knots. He finished in Pointe-à-Pitre 2 days 3 hours 1 minute and 2 seconds after the class winner, Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut).

“I found this Route du Rhum harder than the Vendée Globe. The boat is new and there are leaks. I had to a lot of jobs to stay in the race. I almost stopped in the Azores for a pit stop, but in the end managed to carry out repairs in the ridge of high pressure. There were teething problems. The keel seal came away and that led to a massive ingress of water. I had water up to my knees in the living area. I kept thinking of Fabrice Amedeo as the batteries were inside there. I spent more time doing DIY jobs than planning my strategy. It was stressful all the time and I’m completely worn out. These IMOCAs with their huge foils are crazy. The slightest technical problem costs a lot. I wasn’t aiming for a particular result in the rankings. I was in the top ten in the first week, but after that it was complicated. I never experienced any joy or smooth sailing in the race. When you spend your time doing odd jobs, that changes the way you see the race. We have two years to prepare for the Vendée Globe and we’ve already made a lot of progress since the launch.”