At 10.30 this morning, the Route du Rhum organisation decided to postpone – for the first time in the history of the race – the start. The weather conditions, in fact, do not allow any of the categories in the race to sail safely, and consequently – despite the announced visit of the President of the Republic, Macron – there will be no start tomorrow. The jury has not yet announced the new start date as the weather is still uncertain and the double disturbance (with winds of up to 55 knots and 6-metre waves) is expected to die down.
From a technical point of view, it is a choice welcomed by the skippers: the risk of breaking the boats in a survival test rather than a race was obvious, and many crews would have stopped and sheltered in some harbour immediately after the start. “I think it is the right decision,” said Alberto Bona, “I would have found it crazy to start the competition in these conditions, especially as it would have been a survival race and not a regatta. Now we need to catch our breath, because the weather has put the whole IBSA team under a lot of tension, I was ready for a very difficult test. Now the adrenalin drops, reorganising is complex and it is not easy to stay here for two days waiting. We will await the next official information, and in the meantime we will organise the restart.”
