Storm Austen tore through Saint-Malo overnight, bringing sustained winds of 50 knots and gusts topping 75 knots to the Breton coast. The Route du Rhum village took a battering, but organisers now expect it to reopen on Saturday afternoon.
Quick planning by the race organiser, shore crews and the city's technical teams meant boats were protected and damage kept to a minimum. The main food areas, Brasserie du Rhum and Pavillon des Îles de Guadeloupe, will open from midday. The rest of the 70,000 square metre village follows at 2pm.
Julie Coutts, managing director of OC Sport Pen Duick, gave an update mid-afternoon. "The worst of the storm is behind us," she said, though she warned that "residual winds are still very strong." It was too early for a full damage assessment, with technical teams only just beginning to work through the structures.
No major damage was reported across the fleet of 115 boats.
"The protective measures put in place over the last 24 hours allowed us to protect them," Coutts said. "But the wind will stay with us all weekend, so we need to remain vigilant."
Checks on the site's structures are a necessary step before the public returns. That groundwork clears the way for Saturday's reopening, with the restaurant precinct from midday and the full village from 2pm, giving visitors plenty of time to admire the fleet and soak up the offshore racing festival atmosphere.
Through the night and into the afternoon, every team was out protecting their boats.
"It's shaking like a TGV," said Clément Surtel, technical director of IDEC Sport, CIC, the ULTIM campaign skippered by Alexia Barrier. "We started shifts with the team at 4am." Like other ULTIM teams, they had ballasted down hard. The real fear wasn't the wind alone but flying debris.
The roof of a stand came down on Erwan Le Draoulec's multihull, Lazare X Hellio (Ocean Fifty), though without serious consequence.
"We had 50 knots sustained and gusts to 75," Le Draoulec said. "Those are conditions we almost never see. It's dangerous for the boats, but also for the people."
Every skipper credited the organisers' preparation beforehand. By the end of the day, once the heaviest gusts had passed, sailors felt relief. None of the 115 boats suffered major damage, and crews were simply glad not to have faced such conditions at sea.
As Le Draoulec put it: "Even if it's very impressive, we'd rather live through this here than out in the middle of the Bay of Biscay."
