The IMOCA Podium 2026 Route du Rhum Guadeloupe World on Water

Please Subscribe if you like our Global Sailing content, Like and Share. It helps us show our content to more sailors. Thank you. After a high-caliber IMOCA podium: some lessons can be drawn from the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe. Following the victory of Corentin Horeau (MACSF), with Boris Herrmann (Malizia 4) and Elodie Bonafous (Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner) rounding out the podium, IMOCA finishers have been arriving in Guadeloupe at a steady pace. Once the emotions, the champagne, and the media fervour have all settled, it is a good time to look at what proved to be fast, where the technical gains seemed to be and what worked. "It was, in a way, the perfect course. Even in my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined it," said winner Corentin Horeau as he setting foot in Pointe-à-Pitre. By smashing the race record—improving upon it by 2 days, 24 minutes, and 16 seconds—and finishing 27 hours ahead of the runner-up Boris Herrmann "Coco" made a big statement with his first major IMOCA victory. Beyond the sporting achievement, the figures from this edition are revealing. Corentin maintained a very high speed, partly because the atypical weather conditions offered him a lot of downwind sailing. In fact, the leaders' tracks almost followed the direct, great-circle course. And so Corentin Horeau sailed 290 nautical miles less than Thomas Ruyant, who won the 2022 edition aboard LinkedOut. But MACSF actually maintained an average speed of 17.47 knots (over the ground), compared to 15.5 knots for Ruyant’s winning route in 2022. While weather conditions certainly play a role, the ability to push the IMOCA to its full potential—along with advancements in foil handling, sail designs and use, and a host of other technical nuances—undoubtedly accounts for this step up in perfornance. And of the actual pace he set Corentin Horeau remarked with a smile: "The boat took a bit of a beating—I’ll need to check the bulkheads, too, because I think I really slammed it into the waves..."