Charles Caudrelier: Ultim Commander

From the windows of the family home in Beg-Meil, you can see the entire bay of La Forêt, from the Pointe de Trévignon to the beach at Cap Coz, where Desjoyeaux, Jourdain, Le Cam and Poupon have all sailed in their day. This is the setting in which young Charles Caudrelier dreams. When others tiptoe home from the disco, he quietly moors his parents' friends' boat, borrowed secretly at night to wander between Concarneau and the Glénan.

No dinghy, no Olympic sailing for Charles Caudrelier, who started sailing at the age of 15. Self-taught and a solitary at heart, he got his first taste of crewed racing alongside Marc Guillemot, who rented the Figaro his father had bought. His appetite for the sea and boats led Caudrelier to enter the merchant navy, a course of study "that attracted me but didn't please me", he says, drawing a definitive line under the officer's profession that he would never practise.

With his diploma in hand, he was seconded during his military service to the Port La Forêt training center, not yet known as the Pôle Finistère Course au Large. He finished first rookie in the Solitaire in 1999, and gave himself four years to win the race. Jeanne Grégoire, current director of the Pôle, who was his competitor at the time, remembers "a super committed boy". "Charles wasn't one of those people who got into sport because they were into sailing. He already had it in him. More than 20 years on, Caudrelier has not changed, according to his Route du Café team-mate Erwan Israël, who is also one of his routers. "He's capable of going very far, of being very aggressive, he's an animal. During the Route du Rhum, we had to slow him down! Even before the race, when he's managing his project, he's insatiable. He invests an enormous amount of energy and reaps the rewards.

The first reward came in 2004, when he won La Solitaire ahead of Yann Eliès and Jérémie Beyou. Doors opened quickly. Pascal Bidegorry welcomed him aboard the ORMA Banque Populaire trimaran, and Marc Guillemot, who had not forgotten his first promising tacks, found in him the right crew member for his IMOCA Safran. Together, they finished second in their first Transat Jacques Vabre, and went on to win it hands down two years later in 2009.

Charles will be racing multihulls twice again, under the colors of the Gitana stable (Mod 70 in 2013 and ULTIM in 2021).

Meanwhile, in 2010, he joined Team Groupama for the Volvo Ocean Race, a race that would occupy almost 10 years of his life. With two victories under his belt, one as chief navigator for Franck Cammas, the other as skipper of the Dongfeng Race Team. Better than compensation for not being able to race the Vendée Globe of his dreams, as the Safran group found him too old when they launched a new IMOCA in 2013... he was 39 at the time.

An impeccable record of achievements

These Volvo years not only made Caudrelier one of the French sailors recognized and respected by the Anglo-Saxons. He acquired a density and a "form of appeasement", according to Pascal Bidégorry, who was at his side on Dongfeng. "Charles has always been a hard worker, no doubt to give himself confidence. The Volvo was good for him. Crewed racing is harder than single-handed. It forces you to work on yourself, it makes you grow," adds the Basque.

Having reached maturity, Charles joined the Gitana team alongside Franck Cammas to take the double-handed reins of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. The rest is history. Apart from a third-place finish in Fort-de-France this autumn, despite the boat being disabled very soon after the start in Le Havre, the Verdier design has won everything in the hands of its exceptional duo. And Charles didn't miss out on his solo date with the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe, which he pocketed with flying colors in 2022.

Figaro, Route du Café, Volvo Ocean Race, Brest Atlantiques, Route du Rhum, Rolex Fastnet Race, single-handed, crewed, monohull, multihull... Charles Caudrelier has won every major event he has ever coveted. "He's a champion, but not a star. He's not looking for a magazine cover. His trip is to race beautiful boats and make them go fast, which he does very well," says Marc Guillemot.

Good-natured and relaxed on the pontoons, happily chatting up those he likes, Charles Caudrelier is no joke when it comes to racing, an area in which he has a reputation as eternally unsatisfied, still doubting despite his lengthy list of achievements.

« Il se pose toujours un milliard de questions. Il va systématiquement imaginer le scénario le plus défavorable : que ce soit une option, un nuage, un concurrent, … Il a du mal à lâcher prise. »
Erwan Israël, Routeur de Charles Caudrelier

L’exigence absolue et l’instinct de compétition seront-ils les bons atouts pour s’imposer sur l’ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE-Brest ? « Tant qu’il sera en position de gagner, il ne sera pas facile à déloger » promet en tous cas son routeur…