Six Route du Rhum on the same trimaran, from 1982 to 2022
Charlie Capelle was born in 1955 in Bouchain in the North and grew up in Mirecourt (Vosges). Far from the sea, therefore. He has been running for about thirty years the Technologie Marine yard in Saint-Philibert (56), specializing in carbon/epoxy composite construction. On the water, he races with Acapella, a 35-foot (11.32 m) yellow trimaran that he has entered six times in the Route du Rhum between 1982 and 2022.
Acapella, a 1980 Walter Greene trimaran
The boat was designed and built by Walter Greene in Yarmouth, Maine, in 1980. It is the third of a series of five Acapella trimarans. The first unit of the series, renamed Olympus Photo, won the inaugural 1978 Route du Rhum under the helm of Mike Birch — Capelle is not racing on Birch's boat, but on a sistership of the same series. Acapella has been labeled Bateau d'Intérêt Patrimonial (BIP) since 2014.
Three times saved, three times rebuilt
Acapella has experienced three documented incidents where the boat should have ended up in the scrapyard:
- 1983 — collision with a wreck off the coast of Brittany, declared a wreck.
- 1999 — sinking off the coast of Canada, transatlantic drift, found in Galicia in 2000.
- 2006 — capsize 250 nautical miles from Cape Finisterre during the Route du Rhum.
Each time, Capelle put it back in the water. Six Route du Rhum on the same hull, 40 years after its launch: this is not a stroke of luck, but a deliberate decision.
Achievements
- Route du Rhum 2022 — 9th Rhum Multi in 21 days 7 hours 56 minutes 24 seconds, under the colors of La Chaîne de l'Espoir.
- Drheam Cup Multi class 2000 — winner in 2016, 2018 and 2020.
- Route du Rhum 2014 — 7th Rhum class.
- Route du Rhum 2010 — 5th Rhum class.
- Route du Rhum 1998 — 2nd Class III Multihulls on socks.
- Route du Rhum 1982 — first participation.
- Retirements: 2006 (capsize) and 2018 (electronic failure).
Official website: acapellaocean.com.
