Yoann Richomme announced as Skipper for Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team

According to the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team, Yoann Richomme will skipper the team’s Racing for the Planet boat in the 2021 edition of The Ocean Race, the world’s longest and toughest sporting event.

A highly regarded sailor in the French ocean racing scene, Richomme’s recent victories include the 2018 Route du Rhum and his second La Solitaire du Figaro triumph in June 2019.

Richomme started his career in crew racing while studying naval architecture at the University of Southampton. He raced with a student team in the Tour de France à la voile for the four years of his study before returning to his native France.

Lasting over nine months and spanning the breadth of the globe, the Ocean Race has taken up the mantle as an award-winning force for change on sustainability issues, with the Mirpuri Foundation acting as the official sustainability partner on the previous edition as part of a global movement against plastic pollution.

The start of the race in the Autumn of 2021 kicks off nine months and 45,000 nautical miles of sailors experiencing lack of sleep, physical exertion, fear, no fresh food, and no privacy.

Richomme was recommended for the role by reining Ocean Race champions, Bruno Dubois and Charles Caudrelier, who are advisors to Paulo Mirpuri and the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team.

“I knew right away that Yoann was top of my list for the next race,” says Bruno Dubois. “Yoann’s recent race wins speak for themselves. From his base in Lorient, he is racing in the ocean up to 200 days of the year. He has the natural feel for how to make a boat fast and also the technical skill to make best use of the data and manage his team. He is without a doubt the most exciting sailor on the market right now.”

Richomme will take the helm of the Racing for the Planet VO65 entry of the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team. Class rules dictate that all VO65 entries be identical, bringing the skill and daring of the sailors to the forefront of the racing.

“We have one of the greatest assets that any successful team needs – time,” says Yoann Richomme. “With the boat already in the water, 2020 will be our year to trial different sailors and team configurations in order to select the very best team. We will also enter some practice races this year and begin our preparations in earnest, so we know we will arrive at the start line with a team capable of winning the race.”

Having tested the waters in 2018 with involvement in the Turn the Tide on Plastic entry, 2021 marks the first full team entry for the Mirpuri Foundation.

With its skipper secured, the team begins its 2020 sailing programme in earnest. The team is inviting resumés from sailors around the world who believe they have what it takes to compete in the toughest race in the world. The team will begin testing potential team members in the coming months before embarking on their practice race outings before the end of the year.