© Christophe Favreau

The final part of the Défi Azimut 2025 sets sail at 12:30pm today. The traditional Tour de Groix is a festive crewed sailing event, where skippers share the magic of an IMOCA trip with their partners. It's an opportunity to discover the beautiful panorama that will unfold before their eyes today.

On this day when the French turn to their roots, the Défi Azimut sends the skippers around the island of Groix, as it does every year. A thunderous or contemplative ride, depending on your point of view. With less than 10 knots of south-westerly wind today, we can bet that the IMOCA guests will have time to contemplate the landscape and that Vincent Riou's record set on PRB in 2015 in 1 hour and 8 minutes will probably not be broken...

So, follow the guide! The Tour de Groix, a counter-clockwise circumnavigation, starts in the north of the island at the granite rocks of Pointe de Pen Men before skirting the green slopes of the wild coast. After Port Saint Nicolas, which is too small to accommodate even half an IMOCA, the coast becomes more austere. The competitors leave Pointe de l'Enfer behind and make a wide turn around the stone garden of Locmaria, passing La Basse des Chats, the first mark on the course.

An island and its sentinels
This was an opportunity for the first IMOCA checkpoint before heading back up the other side of the island, marked by several cardinal buoys. All of them are named after rocky plateaus (Basse Mélite) or shipwrecks that fell victim to them (Edouard de Cougy, a trawler sunk in 1945). As for Speerbrecker, north of Port Tudy, it is the name of a small 72-metre German cargo ship, converted during the war to escort U-boats and sunk in 1943 by the British Air Force!

Heritage will also be a topic of discussion on the water today. While the Pen Duicks – the first of which has just been voted France's fourth favourite monument on France 3 – will remain moored at Lorient la Base, the Biche will be out and about. This tuna boat from the island of Groix, already spotted on Wednesday during the Runs Azimut, will maybe be back around the island, Lola of Skagen. Recognised as a heritage vessel in 2020, this Danish fishing boat, built in oak and superbly converted for pleasure cruising, changed hands last year. It was bought by Jay Thompson, an American skipper well known to the IMOCA teams, and his wife Natasha, who is responsible for video content for the Défi Azimut!

It comes and goes!

While Bureau Vallée left yesterday for its home port of Saint-Malo after crossing the finish line of the 48 Heures Azimut, Elodie Bonafous' Association Petits Princes Queguiner is joining the party this afternoon. So there will be twelve IMOCAs racing around Groix.