"I didn't know Louis before the race. I sent him a few questions. So we're a 'fresh team' that I hope will become a 'good team'.. Christian Kerl has a sense of humour, as he and Louis Torreilles will form an amazing duo, with the 56-year-old German and the 30-year-old skipper from Montpellier. Right in the spirit of Class40 and MedMax. On the one hand, Christian Kerl, born in Hamburg, 'desalinated' (since he started out on a lake near his family home) in 420s and Flying Dutchman with his brother. The next step was on the seas, sailing for two years on the waves, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, Greece, Turkey and Norway. In 2019, this self-made sailor will buy his first Class40 in Cadiz, a Pogo 40 from 2007. First races, and quite a lot of success, with a 3^e place on the Aegean600 2021, followed by the Palermo-Montecarlo 2020 and 2021, then the Roma Per Due (2^e) and the Paprec 600 2023 (3^e behind Kito de Pavant and Ivica Kostelic!) "With these old boats, it was a surprise, exclaims the man who will be stepping up a gear with the purchase of a Pogo40prS3 in Lorient. " I learnt that in Lorient, the rain comes from the side, then from above, then from everywhere. And that there's a lot of rain.jokes the man who prefers to base himself in the sunshine at Port-Napoleon, at the mouth of the Rhône in the Camargue. "This MedMax will enable me to improve within this very high level Class40. I'm a real amateur and I feel like a goldfish in a pool of sharks. And I'd like to thank Kito for organising this superb race.

The man he's counting on to help him improve is Louis Torreilles, a native of Montpellier, a windsurfer nurtured by the Yacht-Club Mauguio-Carnon's nursery of champions, a skipper-trainer-instructor, who has launched himself into Class40 racing this season. Notably in the Porquerolle's Race, on Anthony Streicher and François Verdier's Phoenix (4^e). Then with Edgard Vincens on the Paprec 600 Saint-Tropez (5^e). " I did my first transatlantic race to prepare for my instructor's certificate. In 2022, I was contacted by Jean-Pierre Balmes to bring his boat back from Lisbon to Port-Camargue after the Rhum. The virus took hold. Then came the Porquerolles with Anthony and François, then the Paprec with Edgard Vincens. That one really convinced me that ocean racing was for me. And when I saw that Christian Kerl was selling his boat, I contacted him. And we decided to do the MedMax together.. And that's how Kris and Loulou will go from being a fresh team to a good team. For sure!

With ambition to spare and an unquenchable thirst for Rum (the next Route, of course).