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98 seconds! It was with this gap that Canadian Mike Birch, who died on Wednesday aged 90, became a sailing legend by winning the Route du Rhum…
98 seconds! It was with this gap that Canadian Mike Birch, who died on Wednesday aged 90, became a sailing legend by winning the first Route du Rhum in 1978 in his little yellow trimaran.
“He was down for a few months. He died quietly that night in his sleep,” France Birch, the sailor’s wife of forty years, told AFP.
Mike Birch died at his home in Brec’h (Morbihan) a few days before the start, on November 6, of the 12th edition of the Route du Rhum. “He is really the person who forged the legend of the Route du Rhum (…) He was a lover of the sea who wanted to stay free”, reacted to AFP Hervé Favre, president of OC Sport, organizer of the race.
On board a small yellow 12m board (Olympus), the Canadian had defeated Frenchman Michel Malinovsky’s powerful ball to win by just 98 seconds, after an anthological final.
This victory of David against Goliath, after 23 days 6 h 56 min of racing between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) established the superiority of multihulls over monohulls in offshore racing.
From rodeo to cruise
She also discovered this atypical, shy runner with great kindness and modesty. “He was an extraordinary man. He was extremely discreet and simple. He kept this simplicity until the end,” his niece, lawyer Aline Simard, told AFP.
Mike Birch was born on November 1, 1931 in Vancouver (British Columbia) and it was quite late in life that this former cowboy, rodeo enthusiast discovered a passion for sailing.
In 1976, aged 44, he launched English Transat, aboard Third Turtle, the smallest trimaran in the fleet, designed by American Dick Newick. On top of this 9.75m Birch will take second place behind Frenchman Eric Tabarly and his 22m Pen Duick VI.
Birch, whose slender figure and bald head quickly became famous among sailors worldwide, gradually built up an impressive record, participating in the entire Route du Rhum until 2002 (9th in 71 years old!). He would finish third in 1982, fourth in 1986 and 1990.
World offshore champion in 1991 and 1992, he established himself as one of the rare foreigners to beat the French, who monopolized the only offshore races after Tabarly’s victory in the English transat from 1976.
The gold digger
Birch sailed for sixty years, but “gold digger was my first job,” he told L’Equipe newspaper before the start of the 2014 Route du Rhum. “Not for long. It was an interesting job even though I didn’t make much money! “.
Until last year, he lived between Brittany and his home in Gaspé, Quebec, on the St Lawrence estuary, with a Jack Russell named Lucie as his only companion.
But, his health deteriorating, he was returned in July 2021 by his wife to their home in Morbihan. “Before that, despite his age, he continued to sail” in a small monohull called Dolly, his mother’s nickname, France Birch explained.
The UK-based father of two (a son and a daughter), who has been out of ocean racing for years, followed the sailing news from afar with the calm of a wise old man, amazed that he still remembers it and those 98 seconds of eternity.
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Canadian Mike Birch, captain Olympus Photo congratulated by French sports minister Jean-Pierre Soisson (left) on his victory in the Route du Rhum, at Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe on November 28, 1978
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