Since a first initiatory world tour, exploits, adventures and dramas have followed one another 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 at the start, 7 classified
How much will they come back to? And in what condition? The questions and concerns were real on Sunday November 26, 1989 in Les Sables-d’Olonne during the departure of the very first edition of a world tour imagined in the bars of Cape Town three years earlier and initiated by Philippe Jeantot. The organizer-runner will rank 3e a great solo first, non-stop and without assistance (apart from weather routing) marked by four abandonments and two out of the race (sailors finishing unclassified after assistance). The rescue of Philippe Poupon by Loïck Peyron (the maneuver to right Philou’s boat being filmed by the Saint Bernard of the seas) launches the legend of an endless epic also marked by the meeting of Jean-Luc Van den Heede, with icebergs and the victory of Titouan Lamazou (Aquitaine Squirrel II)spared from damage. After 109 days 8 hours and 48 minutes…
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