Solo ocean racing
Route du Rhum 2026: Sam Goodchild Returns for Unfinished Business
Published · Last checked October 2026
The 13th Route du Rhum–Destination Guadeloupe starts from Saint-Malo on Sunday 1 November 2026: a solo race of about 3,540 nautical miles to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. Bristol-born Sam Goodchild, 36, lines up among 22 IMOCAs aboard MACIF Santé Prévoyance, the boat Charlie Dalin sailed to victory in the 2024–25 Vendée Globe. He has started the race twice and never finished it.
The race in brief
| Start | Sunday 1 November 2026, Saint-Malo, France |
|---|---|
| Finish | Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe |
| Distance | About 3,540 nautical miles |
| Crew | One: every skipper sails alone |
| Fleet | 118 skippers in six categories, including 22 IMOCAs |
| Last IMOCA winner | Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut), 11 days 17 hours in 2022 |
Goodchild's unfinished business
Goodchild grew up sailing on his family's cruising boats and has become one of the most consistent IMOCA skippers of the last two seasons. The Route du Rhum is the one that has got away. Two editions ago he was dismasted in a Class40. In 2022 he was badly injured in the face at the start, sailing an Ocean Fifty trimaran, and could not finish.
This time he has a proven boat. MACIF Santé Prévoyance is a Guillaume Verdier design with its early problems already sorted. "When I turned up the boat had been made to work already and all the de-bugging had been done," he said. Still, he is cautious: "We're happy with how the preparation's gone. But the hard bit is left to do."
Who else to watch
- Boris Herrmann sails his new Malizia 4 in a solo race for the first time.
- Jérémie Beyou races Charal for the last time.
- Sébastien Simon has a new boat, Groupe Dubreuil–Air Caraïbes.
- Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande MAPEI) has beaten Goodchild before, in the Défi Azimut 48 Hours.
What solo racing teaches every skipper
The Route du Rhum usually opens with rough weather in the Bay of Biscay and the eastern Atlantic. Goodchild's point about stopping, "It's a 10-day race, so if you have to stop you are not going to win the race", is about boat preparation as much as speed. A small failure early on can end the race.
Sailing alone also raises the question every watch system answers: who is keeping a lookout? Rule 5 of the COLREGs requires a proper lookout at all times. Solo racers rely on AIS and radar alarms and sleep in short naps, a much harder version of the watch and fatigue planning every offshore skipper does.