A seasoned sailor from Lamballe, Brittany, Gilles Lamiré spent some twenty years crossing the seas, gaining wide experience on many kinds of vessels, from luxury yachts to multihulls, particularly in the Caribbean, before devoting himself fully to offshore racing from 2006.

Gilles Lamiré won The Transat (the English Transat) in 2016 in the Multi50 class, sailing from Plymouth to New York in record time, then the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2019 with Antoine Carpentier, after covering more than 4,900 nautical miles at an average speed of 17.56 knots.

For the 2026 edition, Gilles Lamiré will start his 6^th Route du Rhum aboard the ORMA Groupe GCA in the Vintage Multi class. This class showcases emblematic boats that have marked the history of offshore racing, and notably marks the great return of the ORMAs, the trimarans that thrilled the public in the 1990s.

Built at the Multiplast yard in Vannes to a Gilles Ollier design and launched in spring 1988, Groupe GCA is one of the very first modern 60-foot trimarans, a forerunner of what would become the ORMA generation a few years later. Her first skipper, Jean Maurel, won many races aboard her:

• 1988: winner of the Québec – Saint-Malo
• 1989: winner of the Multihull Trophy in La Trinité · winner of the Multihull Grand Prix in Marseille
• 1990: winner of the Two Star, double-handed with Michel Desjoyeaux · winner of the Multihull Trophy in La Trinité · winner of the Grand Prix de Brest

Gilles Lamiré will start the Route du Rhum 2026 aboard this legendary trimaran, on which he had already sailed his very first Rhum:

"Twenty years ago, I started the Route du Rhum with this mythical trimaran, which was then called Madinina. It was my very first Rhum, and I did not yet know that I would bring her back to the same start line in Saint-Malo, in the colours of Groupe GCA."

With this boat, Gilles Lamiré will compete in the Rhum Multi class, active from 1996 to 2007 and the stage for many prestigious events, including the Route du Rhum, the Transat Jacques Vabre and The Transat (the English Transat).