Drheam Cup Grand Prix de France de Course au Large: the list of winners is almost complete

Arrivals continued throughout the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Lorient, and we now know almost all the winners of the 2026 DRHEAM-CUP/GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE. The suspense lasted right to the very end on the DC 600 course for the IRC double-handed class, and ultimately JPK 1010 ‘Abracadabra soutient Don Bosco’ (Alban Mesnil/Jérôme Aubert) pulled off a double victory, winning both in real time and corrected time, arriving at 00:15 (4 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes).

Enough to give both skippers complete satisfaction: “It was a long race – nearly four and a half days – and extremely varied, with brilliant conditions: heavy sailing, light winds, storms, bright sunshine… We really enjoyed ourselves, but we’re absolutely exhausted! The first part was intense and physically demanding; the second was a bit more of a mental challenge. Between Wolf Rock and the DRHEAM-CUP buoy, we sailed a legendary leg that will go down in history, with the boat’s top speed consistently exceeding 18 knots, which is a lot for a small boat like ours. As for the competition, we were up against much larger boats and, in the end, we finished ahead of them, so we’re delighted we sailed rather well. There was quite a lot of damage for the other competitors; our guiding principle was to keep both the equipment and the crew safe, which we managed to do, so we’re pleased with that aspect; winning is the icing on the cake!”

The corrected time podium was completed by the duos Fabrice Daviaud/Clément Salzes (Wabi) and Giulio Di Gennaro/Pierre-Emmanuel Dubois (Auremat). After the arrival of the first IRC double-handed crew, Pierre-Louis Attwell crossed the line at 2:08 on his IMOCA Resilient, in his first race. He is now qualified for the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.

All the Class40 skippers who managed to reach Lorient from Cherbourg-en-Cotentin are also qualified. The first place ultimately went to Corentin Douguet (SNSM Faites un don !), who managed to emerge in the lead on Wednesday after sailing out of the transition zone between the DRHEAM-CUP and Rochebonne marks, and finished at 02:43 (4 days, 15 hours and 13 minutes), 18 minutes ahead of his rival this season Guillaume Pirouelle (Seafrigo-Sogestran), and 29 minutes ahead of Robin Follin (Solano).
Completing the top five, Luca Rosetti (Maccaferi Futura) and Achille Nebout (Amarris), who were among the key figures in a particularly intense race.
“It wasn’t easy at the start, a bit tough in the middle and a real test at the end,” commented the winner. “I’m absolutely delighted to have won this fantastic race – the last solo race before the Route du Rhum, which is, after all, the whole point of our projects – so it’s great for my confidence. I worked hard; I had loads of little things to work on and I got stuck into them, particularly right at the start of the race. I found a few solutions – it’s been a perfect race!”

Achille Nebout also had a successful outing, pleased to have achieved what he had set out to do at the DRHEAM-CUP/GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE: “It was a brilliant race, with a real mix of conditions; we got to use every sail on the boat, which is actually quite rare. We experienced strong winds on the downwind legs, something I hadn’t practiced much until now. I was right in the thick of it the whole time, even though I’m still missing that little something to be with the very best. I dropped a few places towards the end – that’s never pleasant – and the final day was a bit of a rollercoaster, but I want to focus on the overall performance. I’m really pleased with the standard I maintained throughout; four and a half days solo on these boats really takes it out of you, so I had to make sure I stayed in the running.”

Amidst the successive arrivals of the Class40s, Numerobis – the only Sun Fast 30 OD in the race (the second retired early on) – crossed the finish line, with the skipper Jean Passini commenting: “It was a long, brilliant, very varied race, with a fantastic start – absolutely mad in strong winds all the way to the DRHEAM-CUP mark. Then it was very calm off the coast of Brittany – a real test of patience; it seemed to go on forever – but it was a very well-rounded race, a proper offshore race!”

An offshore race that saw Halvard Mabire crowned champion in the Vintage Multi class, finishing at 6.53 am on his GDD catamaran. The Cherbourg-based sailor added the DRHEAM-CUP/GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE to his list of achievements for the first time, after 4 days, 19 hours and 54 minutes at sea. He succeeded despite having no weather information, as his catamaran was still waiting for the satellite antenna to be installed. “Having absolutely no information in the rather tricky situations we faced sometimes leads to unnecessary manoeuvres: if you have heavy-weather sails in light winds, it’s a bit silly – you end up taking them down again… But that’s sailing for you – lifting and lowering sails! I’m pleased – we’ve had all sorts of conditions. I challenge anyone to come up with a qualifying course for the Route du Rhum that’s as varied as this one; I even had to get the trysail out for a while! In fact, I’d forgotten just how much of a workout it was…”

The final results of the DRHEAM-CUP/ GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE, which includes Laurent Charmy’s JPK 1080 SL Energies V1D2 – winner on corrected time in the IRC crewed class – will be complete by Thursday, with the expected arrival of the first Vintage Mono, likely to be Tanguy Caradec’s Open 50 Eurvad.