Thomas Ruyant and TR Racing taking aim at The Ocean Race
by The Ocean Race 1 Oct 03:36 PDT
10 November 2024
Thomas Ruyant and his IMOCA © Eloi Stichelbaut / polaRYSE
The TR Racing Team and its skipper, Thomas Ruyant, who will be setting off on his third Vendée Globe on November the 10th, have announced they will be taking part in The Ocean Race Europe 2025 aboard the Koch / Finot Conq designed VULNERABLE and then in The Ocean Race 2027, the iconic fully-crewed, around-the-world race with stopovers.
This will be a new exercise for the entire team, in line with the international growth of its long-standing partner Advens.
"While the Vendée Globe is currently mobilising all our resources within TR Racing (TRR), we are actively planning the next three seasons," says Thomas Gavériaux, CEO of TRR. "Following Thomas and Sam Goodchild's solo circumnavigation of the globe this winter, we will be shifting to fully-crewed race mode, with participation in The Ocean Race Europe in 2025, The Ocean Race Atlantic, between New York and Barcelona in 2026 and finally The Ocean Race in 2027. We will race The Ocean Race Europe with Thomas' current boat and are in the process of designing and building a new boat for 2026."
Thomas Ruyant raced in the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe in 2021 and is a proven winner at all levels in short-handed offshore sailing dating back 15 years, including victories in the Tour de France à la Voile and Mini Transat in 2009, a Class 40 win in the Route du Rhum in 2010 and more recently, victories in IMOCA in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021 and 2023 and the Route du Rhum 2022.
"While the big focus is on the Vendée Globe in a few weeks, we're also starting to think about what happens next, with a lot of excitement," says Thomas Ruyant. "With the three events in The Ocean Race programme in 2025, 2026 and 2027 it will be a big change, from the solo focus we have now to racing around Europe and then around the world. I'm excited and looking forward to sharing this challenge with the whole team.
"We'll need to put together a good crew and adapt the boat for this very different race format. But we're fortunate with IMOCA to have a variety of races, from the single-handed to the fully-crewed. I know this shift will be interesting and exciting. We have these amazing IMOCA machines which are incredible, but not easy to sail alone and I know that racing with a crew we will be able to extract their full potential and that's one of the most exciting things about this project."