Louis Burton was a happy man when he got to the pontoon in Pointe-à-Pitre. He danced exubebrantly on the trampoline of his giant Ultim having just taken third on his first Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe in the Ultim class after just a few months of sailing aboard Ultim Armand Thiery.
He was like a kid at Christmas, overjoyed to have finished is race on the podium, seeing his has seen dream through to the end. Louis Burton has completed his first transatlantic crossing in an Ultim. As Armand Thiery reached the pontoon, Louis let himself go, he set off flares and then dived off the crossbeam into water from the stern of the boat, a snapshot of pure pleasure that will go down in the delightful lore of race finishes. Soaked, with a beaming smile on his face, he took a moment to reflect on his adventure.
Just a few months ago, you weren’t even sailing an Ultim, and now you’ve finished third in the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe… Could you have dreamed of anything better?Yes, I’m just happy. I haven’t felt this kind of joy since the Vendée Globe, where I also finished third (2020–2021). The sensations are truly indescribable. I’ve been through some challenging phases in my sports career. We bought this boat, launched it last July, and here we are on the podium. I’m certainly not holding back my delight… It’s just crazy! “I only really eased off the throttle twice—for two hours each time!”
There’s a lot of emotion, too…Yes, the emotion is proportional to what you experience on boats like these. I’m not one to shy away from a challenge, but I have to admit—with the succession of low-pressure systems and the difficulty of getting any sleep—it’s not easy to know where to draw the line. My thoughts are also very much with Armel Le Cléac’h, who was fighting like crazy for the top spot. It really gave us all something to think about. Personally, I actually managed to complete a Route du Rhum since 2014. It’s been 12 years since I was last able to make it here!
Do you feel like your way of sailing has changed?What I can tell you is that I only eased off the throttle twice—for two hours each time—throughout the entire race!
“I feel like the boat never let me down.”
Did you think you might finish ahead of Thomas Coville?If I hadn’t eased off, perhaps that could have happened. But I intend to come back in four years and beat everyone (laughs)! Mind you, we did run into some issues: I couldn’t get the port-side foil to stabilize. The risk was that it might punch through the hull and slice the boat in two. I had to stop several times to secure it, and every maneuver took that much longer… It took all the brainpower of the shore team to ensure we could make it to the finish!
Is sailing an Ultim even tougher, more intense, and crazier than sailing an IMOCA? Yes, there are no words to describe it. It’s hard to make comparisons; there’s a sense of the colossal—you’re in the middle of an immense expanse. But when you see the boat flying through the middle of nowhere—out on the ocean, beneath the stars—it’s an absolute joy, the likes of which you can’t find anywhere else.
Are you already looking ahead to a circumnavigation, specifically the Arkéa Ultim Challenge-Brest in January 2028?I’ll need to prepare for that properly. I have to learn how to endure what I’ve just experienced, but for 50 days, sailing solo. It’s a form of extreme sport that’s new to me. Regardless, I don’t know if I could say I became one with the boat, but I certainly felt that it would never let me down