Pointe-à-Pitre (AFP) – An emotional Basile Bourgnon won the Ocean Class 50-foot multi-hull Route du Rhum title and dedicated the victory to his late father Laurent, the only sailor to have been crowned overall champion twice.

Issued on: 11/11/2026 - 12:57

"I was thinking of him the whole journey," said 24-year-old Bourgnon of his father, who drowned while diving in Polynesia, where the family had moved to, in 2015.

"It is a race that means a huge amount to our family. I think he gave me some help several times in any case," he said after completing the trans-Atlantic race at Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, early Wednesday.

"It is a wonderful homage to my father to have won this Route du Rhum."

Bourgnon raised his fingers to the sky and then put his hands together as he brought home his battered trimaran, its sails torn apart early in the race by a gust of wind.

He was greeted by his support team, who were all in tears, and was joined aboard by his mother, sister, the overall multi-hull champion Tom Laperche and runner-up Thomas Coville, the latter a close friend of Laurent's.

Laurent Bourgnon had stamped his mark on ocean sailing and made history with victory in the 1994 Route du Rhum and then became the first and still the only mariner to win it a second time, in 1998.

'I was ashamed'

Bourgnon junior got his first taste of the sea in Polynesia, sailing on a catamaran.

After his family moved back to France following his father's death he threw everything into becoming a racer.

"I am extremely proud of Basile, it makes me very emotional," his mother Caroline said.

"This is what he wanted and he has achieved it. He battled for it right till the end.

"At the finishing line there was a lot of emotion swirling around, it was intense for all the family.

"It is good because it gives us a sense of continuity."

A few metres away Coville, 58, linked arms and wept with the father of Tom Laperche, Philippe.

Both of them sailed with Laurent Bourgnon in the 1990s and then went on to develop the new golden generation.

"Basile does not hugely resemble his father, but that is also something that pleases me and he is as courageous," said Coville.

"Obviously, Laurent is with us, he was one of the greats."

Bourgnon will need to rediscover his land legs after spending nine days 17 hours 10 minutes and 23 seconds at sea.

Amid the tears and the congratulations Bourgnon said the moment that he thought the dream would go unfulfilled was when his sails took the full blast of the wind.

"First I was afraid, then I was ashamed," he said.

"To see my boat in that state, worthy of the Flying Dutchman (a cursed phantom ship captained by Davy Jones) in 'Pirates of the Caribbean', was hugely frustrating.

"However, I had to get myself motivated again."

© 2026 AFP

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