Since the first round-the-world voyage, there has been a succession of exploits, adventures and dramas around the planet. A look back at a legendary epic, before the start of the tenth edition on Sunday.
1989-1990: Poupon first rescued, Lamazou first winner
13 sailors started, 7 classified
How many will return? And in what condition? The questions and concerns are real on Sunday, November 26, 1989 in Sables-d’Olonne at the start of the very first edition of a round-the-world voyage imagined in the bars of Cape Town three years earlier and initiated by Philippe Jeantot. The organizer-runner will rank 3e a first-ever single-handed, non-stop race with no assistance (apart from weather routing), marked by four retirements and two hors courses (sailors finishing unranked after assistance). Philippe Poupon’s rescue by Loïck Peyron (the manoeuvre to right Philou’s boat being filmed by the Saint Bernard of the seas) launches the legend of an endless epic also marked by Jean-Luc Van den Heede’s encounter with icebergs and Titouan Lamazou’s victory (Écureuil d’Aquitaine II)spared from damage. After 109 days 8 hours and 48 minutes…
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