Sam Goodchild and Boris Herrmann interviewed ahead of Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe
by La Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe 31 Oct 08:20 GMT
1 November 2026
MACIF © RonanGladu-Disobey-Macif
Sam Goodchild skipper of MACIF Santé Prevoyance is one of the outstanding favourites to the win the IMOCA class on the Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe.
Having left England for France some 15 years ago, Goodchild did his share of sofa surfing and low budget living in the early days but has worked his way up to the top, top level to now have a programme capable of winning the Vendée Globe with a brand new IMOCA in build.
Significantly he is probably one of the very, very few sailors in the fleet who have sailed all of the main classes involved in the Route du Rhum, Ultim, IMOCA and Class 40. But the 37 year old sailor who originates from England's west country plays down being described as a favourite to win. He reminds us he was favourite to win the Ocean Fifty class four years ago and he did not get past Cape Frehel!
So, feet on the ground, head focused on 'controlling the controllables' Goodchild will be using all of his experience to prevail this time.
How's the waiting?
I need to go sailing. It's the worst bit of the year, isn't it? But it's fine. We're quite well prepared. I've got a very good team around me. The ten last days are as very much as planned as they can be making sure there's as few unforeseen things as possible.
What are your expectations of this race?
We aiming to win it. That's very clearly the aim. We've no chance to forget that's the aims as. everyone reminds us regularly. We've got a good boat, a great team and we've got the tools to do it. But a race is a race. We're happy with how we're prepared and what we've changed on the boat.
How do you measure yourself against the others?
We do training and we've done a few races this season. So you obviously see how the boat goes against the others and there's weak points and strong points. And then everyone knows the Route du Rhum is slightly different. And obviously the whole pressure of the event makes some people better and some people less good.
How do you feel about that pressure as favourite?
I 'control the controllables'. So we do what we can do with where we are. And we're happy with what we've done. And there'll be points on the course where we'll have to work harder at some points, and there'll be points where it'll be easy and we'll win some. And who knows what weather will be dealt to us. And then there's the whole single-handed storm management, strategy management, risk management on top of that as well.
What have you done to the boat?
The boat hasn't revolutionised. It's still the same boat that won the Vendée Globe with Charlie. It's obviously a very good boat. But everyone's progressing and so we've been doing the same. We've been evolving it slowly but surely, adjusting bits on board.
How is it compared to how it was on the Transat Café l'Or in terms of performance?
It's definitely better. But it plays in details that either we don't talk about or can't be seen from the outside. Or both. We've got a different set of sails. We've adjusted certain things around inside the boat which all goes in the right direction.
And how do you feel about it being favourite?
Apart from the fact it means nothing because I was favourite (in the Ocean 50) four years ago and ended up in St. Malo Hospital arriving in a helicopter. And we've been favourites on other Transats before and still haven't won them. So apart from the fact it means nothing, it's obviously good for me. So in essence everyone thinks we've done a good job and so do we.
How do you deal with it or do you just try not to think about it?
It just has to be part of it. I'm proud of being favourite and I make sure it doesn't make you work any less hard because you think it's good and easy.
And do you enjoy the aspect of going around the village and being recognised?
It's quite a nice level of fame of being a sailor, isn't it? You can do 99% of your life and no one cares or knows who you are. And then the 1% of the people who do recognise you can enjoy being recognised a bit. It's a nice moment to share with the partners and with the public and it's a huge event. The Route du Rhum is a big event in St. Malo, it's a big race village and yes it's nice to enjoy this moment.
Do you ever get recognised just going about France?
No.
Not at all?
Once or twice.
Really?
I got recognised in an airport once. If you're walking down the dock wearing a Macif t-shirt, it's not very hard to work out who I am.....
And how do you assess the competition?
We obviously follow each other quite closely throughout the year between the events. You know where people are and every time you go sailing someone comes out with a new sail or a new something and it's a bit different so it's evolving. Beware of everyone, basically. Obviously there's a few projects which have got older boats and they've got no chance of winning. But apart from that, writing anyone off is fairly dangerous.
What about the new boats? What do you like about the new boats?
For sure it's going to be interesting to see how Boris goes and how Seb (Simon) goes. They're two brand new, brand spanking new boats and those two boats we don't really know how they go. We've obviously seen bits of them, we've seen sailing of them.
So what have you seen?
I mean, Malizia I think they've done a very good job of perfecting existing 2024 boats. So in terms of balance, in terms of doing a compromise between an Arkea Paprec and a Macif that came first and second on the Vendée Globe and finding a compromise between the two, I think they've done a good job of perfecting that.
So it's an all-rounder?
Yes and then Groupe Dubreuil have gone out on a wing, a bit more daring. And I think their learning curve will be much, much steeper because it's not at all the same way of sailing, it's not at all the same way of getting the boat to work. So they're starting from a much lower level as opposed to just trying to optimise something we know already, like a Malizia project. So they're the ones that could make the biggest, especially this early in their life of the boat, the biggest performance gains or not. But thy are the ones that could have the biggest surprise if you like.
And what would you expect from them in particular in terms of performance on this course?
I mean Seb is, we obviously saw it on the Vendée Globe and he's very, he knows how to make a boat go fast and he's not scared of a lot. The only question mark above him is the brand new boat and what state the boat's in and how well he knows how to use it because it's a whole different, new way of sailing. And I think, I don't know, but historically he's probably got more chance of pushing it too hard than not hard enough. If you look at his track record.
And then Boris, Boris has been hit and miss. Sometimes he's on form and he came second in two back-to-back Transats and almost won the Vendée Globe. And then sometimes he's missed out and he gets off on the wrong foot and he kind of missed the bandwagon and you don't see him again. So it'll be interesting to see what form he's in. But with that boat and with the experience he's got he's not someone you're ever going to write off
What's Jérémie Beyou got with the 'new' boat?
Obviously Jérémie is probably the favourite for the win, if you like, or one of the favourites for the win. With that boat and with his experience and how fast he's been going. He obviously didn't do the first two events of the season so we didn't see him. We just go from what we see from the outside. But it looks like he's got a boat which is a very, very good all-rounder. It's never slow. It is regularly the fastest and never the slowest. And obviously he's got a huge experience and a good boat.
Where do you think the race will be won or lost?
I don't know. It depends on the weather, I guess. Yeah, if you look at the previous Route de Rhums and how they've played out and what happens, it's hard to know. There's a lot of places to lose the race and generally only one or two places to win them. You can lose them leaving the Channel and leaving the North Atlantic depression systems. And then there's the transition and then there's the trade winds. Charlie got beaten in the trade winds. He got out first and then got beaten in the trade wins from probably on sail choice four years ago. And if you look at the Jacques Vabre from last year, which is not exactly the same race, but it's a similar race course. After a week at sea, the top ten boats were all looking at each other, within sight of each other. And it was a new race start.
I think regardless if you're Anglo-French or demi French, half English or whatever, but this is the first Route du Rhum race that you'll be the only English skipper doing this race I think
I noticed that the other day. It's quite sad, isn't it?
Are you sufficiently in touch with what goes on in England to suggest why that might be?
No. No. I've made a choice 15 years ago now to move to France because I thought it would be better for my offshore career. And I guess it's justification here and now that I made the right choice. It's sad really. I didn't have a very big profile in the UK. And what I did have is gone. And maybe there was a bit of surfing on the back of Ellen MacArthur when I turned up.......
Boris Herrmann: This is a legendary race and we want to be part of the legend
Germany's Boris Herrmann leads one of the biggest, most ambitious IMOCA programmes in the world. With a brand new boat, Malizia 4, just launched in July this year the 45 year old from Hamburg is set to start the Route du Rhum for the third time.
Fifth place on the 2020-21 Vendée Globe, reaching the Bay of Biscay with a fighting chance of victory, really ignited a huge following at home in lockdown Germany. His sporting performance was but one element, daily he unfolded his story with clarity and emotion and his race engaged an audience all over the world.
As a kid Boris grew up in Northern Germany reading and following the exploits of legendary French sailors but also the crewed races around the world. Now he and his team have built a campaign which pursues the solo and the crewed pinnacle races at the highest level. Herrmann seems entirely untroubled that this solo ocean sprint to Guadeloupe will be his first long period on a new boat which is much more demanding to sail than Malizia 3 which was powerful, designed to go best in the deep South.
But maybe it is too easy to forget he has such a long and diverse history on the ocean and inshore, from being the youngest skipper on the 2001 Mini Transat to racing round the world on a Class 40 to challenging for the Jules Verne Trophy with Frances Joyon and setting records with Italian Giovanni Soldini. He has six circumnavigations under his belt, finishing third in The Ocean Race before doing his second Vendée Globe in 2024.
Your schedule with your new IMOCA is tight, no other new boats are doing the Route du Rhum and The Ocean Race, so this is important to you?
For me the Route du Rhum is not just a race like the others, I don't feel about this race just as another race, just a sport exercise, especially here when you are here in the middle of this crazy public that comes here, so many people. It gives us energy. This is a legendary race and we want to be part of the legend.
Compared to the last time you were here with a new boat how do you feel?
I feel more at ease. I don't feel any particular pressure, I really push it away as well. It feels like a great freedom and it makes me happy to be here. We are here because we love this sport. The passion for this French thing inspired me when I was a kid. I had never been outside of northern Germany until I was doing the Mini Transat. This kind of sailing that made me travel for the very first time to another country. And since then I have discovered the world. And I just feel connected to this race. I don't necessarily love the crowds. But there are these short moments of mystery, like the light in the evening when they do the light show here. Or the big long jetty and the long beach where the waves break over the breakwater last night. It's good to be here.
And where are you in terms of the boat being ready for this race?
I think we are pretty good for our main objective which is The Ocean Race. I think the boat has great potential as a team. That's our focus and also some of the technical choices. We have very long rudders make the boat a bit more on and off we feel. You can really hit the sweet spot and be in a great mode, finding good modes. Or you can be a bit draggy and not really on pace. For a crewed configuration we have really built confidence.
what I have is pretty amazing but it's not particularly optimised for solo sailing.
But does that worry you for solo?
I always knew I'm not going to be able to focus on two things at once, the Ocean Race and the Route du Rhum. I focus on doing our best on the Ocean Race and that was always a clear choice, to honour the team and the team objectives that we had set four years ago. We stick to The Ocean Race as our main objective. And so that takes some pressure off me here. I will do the best I can with what I have. And what I have is pretty amazing but it's not particularly optimised for solo sailing.
How much solo sailing have you done on this boat?
I have done four nights alone, in total I have done three and then one.
In solo mode is there a lot of difference between the boats?
I would say so. This is very different than Malizia 3. Malizia 3 was a super tolerant boat. She can kind of almost heel at any angle or trim up the bow or be able to bow down and always progress in a nice average. I saw that especially in the two 2024 Transats when I was sailing along with big fleets going to New York and back to Les Sables. I had lots of occasions to sail with other people and I just felt at ease all the time. There were races with average quite good winds and then unstable winds. In unstable winds in particular I could see on Malizia 3 it was easier than Charal and Macif. I'm here now closer to a more temperamental boat that is a bit more capricious. It's a bit harder to sail in these gusty, windy conditions and in a sea state. But in medium conditions there is no comparison. It's like a lot faster. There is this one box in the polar diagram. It's a little box and you don't hit it that often. But it gives you an early take off upwind when you start flying upwind which we see with Macif for example. I think we can do the same. We can just take off in 15 knots of wind, 16 knots for sure.
How do you feel about going back solo?
You know my big long term path is the Vendée Globe 28 -29.
There is space for the human to make a difference.
Do you have 'a Boris', a different character that you lock into when you are solo?
No, I'm still searching for it. I start each time as if I've never sailed solo before. It's lots of improvisation. That's what essentially solo sailing is. And it's non-perfection. You have to be going to the essence very quickly. I am a bit like that anyway. I like to improvise. I like to not overthink. I like to take quick decisions, sometimes I'm really struggling. It is such a different way to crewed sailing. And I really like it. It's very intuitive. Sometimes you don't know why but you do something. It is really still a sport where there is space for the human to make a difference. In solo sailing, because it's imperfect, you cannot assume that you sail at 100% polar all the time.
This boat is less comfortable than the previous one in terms of life on board?
One thing I like a lot, that's essential, is that the deck is lower. That means sitting in the cockpit I can look out at the sea. And this is just a key thing. What's the point of sailing around the world when you can't see the ocean? Before I was looking at a wall.
What were the key elements you sought in this boat?
The starting point was (designer Antoine Koch's) previous boat Paprec and it is an evolution of that. We can just be almost the same, but a bit better. The key step was being better upwind. And this has been achieved. Overachieved, I would say. Sometimes we look at the numbers and I can't believe it. Upwind is scary. Once upwind, I looked and saw 24 knots boatspeed.
How do you feel about having the busiest, hardest programme of every one, in terms of the number of races you're doing and the new boat?
The setup we do with the team is very different than some other teams. It's a very special way that we have developed over many years. We have a very solid technical group. I don't have to be much involved. I'm on and off between Hamburg to see my daughter and France. And I don't have to be there physically at the boatyard every day but I'd love to be there. And that gives me a certain balance. Everything is relative, but it's my reality. I've been since many years now. It's on and off back to Hamburg and back to the racing. Ultimately this is kind of three-weeks. I come here, do the race, go back home. It's relatively quick. We alternate also with the seven sailors. The biggest difference to the other teams is that we are seven sailors. And we are a very strong skipper in Will Harris.
Did you ever hope for or think of a project of this scale 10 or 15 years ago?
No, absolutely not. Yesterday, I was sitting in the technical van in the parking. And I remember the years of Malizia 2016-17, when we were basically living in the van. We had our coffee machine screwed down to the workbench. We had all the different drawers with ropes and balls and blocks and things. And we were touring the GC32. And this is essentially something that I really enjoy, being on the road with fun people. The essentials haven't changed. That's why we do The Ocean Race as well. And we have built a bigger, more solid structure around. And that helps us to also have the breadth and keep going.
And will you do another Route du Rhum in four years, say?
That's something which I really enjoy. I enjoy the thought of being here and saying, you know, you can't take it for granted. Yesterday I spoke with Vincent Riou, and that is what is so particular in our sport that we also can be alongside our own legends. Like these people that we saw when we were kids