TOM LAPERCHE: THE STUFF OF HEROES

December 19, 2023 ·4 min read

If you're interested in Tom Laperche, the first thing to consider is his age. The skipper of SVR - Lazartigue is exactly 20 years younger than the average age of his rivals in the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest. Precocity in ocean racing is nothing new. Alain Gautier was also 26 at the start of his first circumnavigation, Laurent Bourgnon was 28 when he won his first Route du Rhum in an ORMA and François Gabart hadn't even turned 30 when he won the Vendée Globe. If the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest is a career highlight for some, it's fair to say that Tom's mentor didn't bother with these questions when he spotted Laperche.

It was in 2018, during a Flying Phantom regatta, that the paths of these two phenomena crossed. At first sight, Tom was just a talented lad like you find in many clubs, dabbling in windsurfing, sport catamarans and dinghies with a certain ease. Gabart probably doesn't know that Tom sailed his first transatlantic race at the age of 13 on a Multi50, with his father Philippe, a sailor himself, on his return from the 2010 Route du Rhum. That at the age of 17, the year he took his baccalaureate, he and his younger brother borrowed the family trimaran, Hydrofolie (a 40-foot foiler from the 1980s) to follow his father to Madeira, where he took part in the Transquadra!

To say that Tom fell into it as a child is an understatement. But where others might have succumbed to the ease of truancy, Tom preferred to follow the norm and carve out his own path. With a well-shaped head, he entered a preparatory school after a scientific baccalaureate and went on to study mechanical engineering at the UTC in Compiègne. In 2017, he competed in the Route du Café in a Class40, but gave up the CMB Challenge Espoir selection to finish his studies. This was only to be followed by a return in 2019 and a four-year stint on the Figaro circuit. That same year, he returned to MerConcept as a trainee, a reminder of François Gabart, who had invited him to join his structure when he was racing in the Flying Phantom.

French Elite ocean racing champion in 2021, he finished on the podium in the Solitaire du Figaro. That same year, François Gabart offered him the chance to race the Transat Jacques Vabre alongside him on SVR - Lazartigue, the trimaran he helped design during his traineeship. That's the official version. In the privacy of this meeting, the boss of MerConcept clearly confided to Tom that he didn't see himself racing in the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE - Brest and offered him the role! The boat had just been launched and they'd never raced on board before... How did Tom react? A big smile came over his face," remembers Gabart. He always does that. It gives him time to think before responding too quickly!

The sea, the mountains, the fresh air...

No pun intended, but Laperche can appear to be a bit off his rocker. Silence is part of his way of being," says Gaston Morvan, who was his stable partner at Bretagne CMB for two years. He can seem absent from the discussion and you need to know the key words to bring him back into the game". Tom Laperche has a rich inner life and many passions, including aeronautics (he flies cuckoos) and the mountains, which he enjoys assiduously winter and summer with his wife Domitille, preferring the summer period when the sports are more varied: paragliding, hiking, mountain biking, via ferrata...

Second in the Transat Jacques Vabre aboard SVR - Lazartigue in 2021, Tom Laperche confirmed his abilities to Gabart, but kept his future promotion a secret and set off to complete his quest as a Figaro racer. He continued training at full speed even though the ULTIM was promised to him," recalls Gaston Morvan. As his partner, I appreciated that, and I found his attitude very respectable". In September 2022, the young prodigy closed the Figaro dossier and won the Solitaire, "a victory that did me a lot of good," admits the champion. "It's not a question of legitimacy, but winning marks the occasion and gives you confidence".

Between 2019 and 2022, so much has happened for Tom Laperche that many would have got lost along the way. Full of feeling but very Cartesian at the same time, he cares little about what people say and is multiplying experiences like that of joining the crew of Holcim PRB in The Ocean Race, in order to discover the Southern Ocean and immerse himself in a crewed experience that is "out of the ordinary and very different from anything I've done before".

Since his return, Tom Laperche has focused on physical preparation, and is also working with a mental trainer on managing a major event. In Brest on 7 January, Tom will still be 26 years old, but he will be ready for a fresh start.

© Guillaume Gatefait