Guillaume Pirouelle is a 31-year-old skipper from Le Havre, a naval engineer at Karver since 2019. Born in Rouen and raised in Le Havre, he built his record from the youth classes: French Optimist champion, double 420 European champion, and 470 junior world champion in 2015. He sailed multiple classes (match-racing, funboard, Diam 24 with a win in the Tour de France à la Voile in 2019) before turning to offshore racing.
In 2020, the Normandy Region selected him to skipper the Figaro Bénéteau III Région Normandie. In his first Solitaire du Figaro in 2022, he won the second stage and finished second overall, establishing himself as a formidable contender. 'I haven't finished my story with the Solitaire,' he confides, hinting at a future return.
In 2023, Guillaume Pirouelle joined Cédric Château on the Class 40 Sogestran – Seafrigo (#197, Mach 40.5 JPS / Manuard). The all-Le Havre duo won the Class 40 World Championship title in 2025, with a win in the Transat Café l'Or (19 days 2 hours 34 minutes, seven minutes ahead), a second place in the CIC Normandy Channel Race, a third in Les Sables – Horta, and a fifth in the Rolex Fastnet Race. In July 2024, during the Transat Québec Saint-Malo, the crew (Pirouelle, Loison, Ducelier) set the Class 40 24-hour distance record: 440.2 miles at an average speed of 18.34 knots.
In parallel, Guillaume Pirouelle was selected by Thomas Coville to join the crew of Sodebo Ultim 3 in December 2025, to challenge for the Jules Verne Trophy. The maxi-trimaran completed the round-the-world voyage in January 2026, earning the Le Havre native another title. From the Solitaire to the Jules Verne, via the Class 40, Guillaume Pirouelle embodies a generation of versatile sailors, both engineers and racers, who rack up victories 'one battle after another'.
