Just hours before the start in Saint-Malo, two sailors separated by more than fifty years share their common attachment to offshore racing.
This Sunday, 1 November, the Route du Rhum will set sail from Saint-Malo, in Ille-et-Vilaine. Ahead of this grand departure, two skippers with contrasting backgrounds agreed to meet and talk about their shared passion. Charlie Capelle, 71, is the oldest entrant in this edition. Titouan Pilliard, 20, is the youngest. By chance, their boats are moored in La Trinité-sur-Mer, in Morbihan, just two rows apart.
The conversation quickly centres on a single conviction: offshore racing cannot survive without renewal. For the elder of the two, passing on knowledge matters as much as performance. He describes how the sea taught him patience and humility, and how he now sees the appetite of younger generations to test themselves against the ocean. For the younger skipper, the experience of his elders is a precious resource, provided it is welcomed with curiosity rather than frozen respect.
The two sailors also discuss preparing an Atlantic crossing, solo or with a reduced crew. They stress the importance of weather routing, sleep management and boat maintenance, factors that make all the difference over several thousand miles. The age gap is visible in their approaches: where one favours long-established analysis and proven settings, the other bets on innovation and digital navigation tools.
Far from opposing these two visions, their exchange highlights a complementarity. The elder reminds us that every edition of the Rhum has given rise to vocations, often among sailors who, at the beginning, could never have imagined one day competing with the most experienced. The youngster admits he looks to these careers as role models, without seeking to reproduce them exactly.
As the skippers prepare to leave the harbour, this intergenerational dialogue recalls a simple reality: the Route du Rhum, celebrated for decades, draws as much on memory as on the momentum of those discovering it. Sunday's start will offer the chance to see these two trajectories, so distant in time, set sail in the same race.
The conversation quickly centres on a single conviction: offshore racing cannot survive without renewal. For the elder of the two, passing on knowledge matters as much as performance. He describes how the sea taught him patience and humility, and how he now sees the appetite of younger generations to test themselves against the ocean. For the younger skipper, the experience of his elders is a precious resource, provided it is welcomed with curiosity rather than frozen respect.
The two sailors also discuss preparing an Atlantic crossing, solo or with a reduced crew. They stress the importance of weather routing, sleep management and boat maintenance, factors that make all the difference over several thousand miles. The age gap is visible in their approaches: where one favours long-established analysis and proven settings, the other bets on innovation and digital navigation tools.
Far from opposing these two visions, their exchange highlights a complementarity. The elder reminds us that every edition of the Rhum has given rise to vocations, often among sailors who, at the beginning, could never have imagined one day competing with the most experienced. The youngster admits he looks to these careers as role models, without seeking to reproduce them exactly.
As the skippers prepare to leave the harbour, this intergenerational dialogue recalls a simple reality: the Route du Rhum, celebrated for decades, draws as much on memory as on the momentum of those discovering it. Sunday's start will offer the chance to see these two trajectories, so distant in time, set sail in the same race.
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Source: Ouest-France