How do you climb Mount Everest?

Published on October 28th, 2024

It’s become a popular term – pathway. In sailing, how do you get to where you want to go? When pondering the pathway to The Ocean Race, event organizers asked some of the people that had already arrived. Here’s what they learned:


“Just sail as much as you can on different boats in different races to gain as much experience as you can,” was the first thing Rosalin Kuiper told us.

She should know, after first joining the VO65 Team AkzoNobel in The Ocean Race Europe, she moved on to become a fan favorite and important member of Team Malizia for the last edition of The Ocean Race. Now Rosalin is an IMOCA skipper with Team Holcim PRB for the 2025 edition of The Ocean Race Europe.

“I think The Ocean Race is the Mount Everest of fully-crewed offshore sailing and so it is the ultimate goal and ultimate challenge. It is addictive. I hope I can do many more!”

“If you are young and you aspire to do this, just do as much sailing as you can do,” is the advice from Yoann Richomme, the skipper of Paprec Arkéa. “Try every type of racing you can do, in any type of boat. You have to go through all the classes – Mini, Figaro, RORC, Fastnet, to work yourself up to the end goal.”

Richomme is a living example of someone who worked his way up. He is a qualified naval architect and has wins in the Solitaire du Figaro in 2016 and 2019 and the Route du Rhum in the Class 40 in 2018 and 2022. In the IMOCA class, he won the Retour à la Base 2023 and The Transat in 2024, as well as The Ocean Race Europe in the VO65 class in 2021.

When he looks for sailors to fill out his crew, Richomme says they need to be, “hard working, good all around the boat, tireless.”

These qualities of determination and persistence also came up time and again.

“Just do it. Believe in yourself and don’t listen to people who tell you to only try it if you are sure you can win,” said Hublot’s Alan Roura. “I think you just have to do it and follow your dream.”

“Try. Just try,” agreed Éric Bellion the skipper of Stand As One. “Because it can look like it is impossible on one day but maybe on the next day it is possible. “If I did it, you can do it.”

A good sense of humor and the ability to get along are important as well.

“Keep smiling. It’s not easy when you want to become a professional. It can be difficult,” cautions Kuiper. “But try to find the nice moments and really enjoy them. If you are happy with what you are doing then you are the biggest winner.”

“The human part is the most important,” says Roura. “We spend weeks and weeks together so it’s important that everybody is able to get along. The human characteristic is most important.”

“Every sailor is different. You need to be yourself and do your sailing with passion and if you do that, your moment will arrive,” shared Ben Dutreux, the skipper of GUYOT Environnement, who won over fans with his passion and commitment in the last edition of The Ocean Race.

Details: https://www.theoceanrace.com/en/

The Ocean Race will begin again in 2027 using the IMOCA class boat, with two earlier events providing training and exposure to prospective teams. In 2025, The Ocean Race Europe will start on August 10 from Kiel, Germany and take a route south around the Iberian Peninsula and into the Mediterranean Sea. In 2026, The Ocean Race Atlantic will start in New York, USA and finish in Barcelona, Spain.

comment banner

Tags:



Back to Top ↑

Get Your Sailing News Fix!

Your download by email.

  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We’ll keep your information safe.