Alan Roura has sailed from an early age. After spending his childhood at sea, on Lake Geneva and sailing around the world with his family for eleven years, he took part in his first major race at only 20 years old.
Mini Transat, Route du Rhum, Transat Jacques Vabre… Alan Roura has dabbled in (almost) everything and soon practised offshore racing. Before tackling the holy grail of the sport: the Vendee Globe 2016, which he finished in 12th position, becoming the youngest skipper in history to finish the race, at only 23 years old.
Four years later, he was still the youngest at the start of the ninth edition, which he finished in 17th position. Not spared by technical issues, he did finish his second consecutive solo circumnavigation, after 95 days of painful racing, but having learned many lessons, and ready for the third participation, already in the pipeline.
At 29 years old, the double finisher of the Everest of the Seas and holder of the North Atlantic record, the Genevan has set himself even higher goals. Building on his experience and new maturity, the Swiss man yearns to play among the favourites, at the helm of an even more efficient boat. With a head full of dreams, with victory in 2024 in sight and with a smile reaching up to his eyes.
2021 – 2025
In 2021, after 5 IMOCA 60 seasons, Alan Roura feels he has what it takes to tackle another incredible challenge for the 2024 edition. For an exceptional edition, the tenth one, and for his third consecutive participation, the Swiss man has the experience, maturity and furious desire to seek an honorary position around the world. And why not the greatest one? And thus become the first foreigner to write his name on the list of winners of the most mythical of all offshore races. The bet is on and the goal is clear: Alan wants to race to win. At the start of the next Vendée Globe, he will be 31 years old.
2017 – 2021
Alan celebrated his arrival in the Sables d’Olonne with the furious desire to set sail again. His sponsors were seduced and decided to continue in 2017 and support their young protégé for four extra years. Goal: the Vendée Globe 2020, with increased athletic ambitions.
At the helm of a new boat (ex-Macif, ex-Votre Nom autour du Monde, and ex-Brit Air) surrounded by an enlarged team and enjoying a durable financial situation, the young skipper embraced his new status proving he was a candidate that should be watched. Better still: he was projected to the rank of serious outsider since the change of his monohull into a foiler in the winter of 2018. A sports choice that looked like a compromise at the time when all the latest racing machines were launched, that allowed the Genevan to compete with 2015 generation boats. Proof with a seventh position on the 2018 Route du Rhum and a new solo record of the North Atlantic in the summer of 2019.
Commanding a tested and reliable vessel, which he continued to optimise season after season, and encouraged by growing confidence, Alan Roura tackled his second Vendée Globe in the best conditions and with the strong desire to express his full potential and the means to play in the forefront. His second race around the world ended with difficulty, in the 17th position, his boat suffered serious damage forcing him to sail the globe at reduced speed. An experience that remained fruitful in lessons with a third participation already in sight.
2013 – 2017
In 2013, at only 20 years old and after two seasons of intense preparation, Alan managed to finish his first solo transatlantic race. The most initiatory of all: the Mini Transat, on board 6.50 metre monohulls. With one of the oldest prototypes of the fleet, Navman, and the lowest budget of the fleet, without any weather forecast or rankings on board, the youngest competitor struck a great eleventh position.
One year later, determined to continue his offshore racer’s career, he took the start of the Route du Rhum on board an old generation Class40, which he prepared and consolidated alone, before following up with the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre, that he finished in tenth position.
In 2016, at 23 years old, Alan was the youngest and only Swiss skipper of the eighth edition of the Vendée Globe, solo circumnavigation, without stopping, without assistance and true grail of many sailors. Loyal to his taste for adventure and outdoing himself, he set off around the world on board an almost 20-year-old IMOCA 60, not the fastest one, but reliable nonetheless, for this extraordinary experience. With Superbigou, the young Swiss man got caught up in the game and finished in a great twelfth position, after 105 days and 20 hours of relentless racing, revealing an unsuspected competitive character.
2005 – 2013
After spending his childhood rocked by the lapping waves of Lake Geneva, living on a boat with his family, Alan Roura soon caught the offshore virus. When he was eight years old, the family left on board a sailing boat. The Genevan spent his adolescence between the Atlantic and Pacific, interspersed with stopovers all over the world with dreams of offshore racing. At the age of 13, he decided to work with his father and save up for his first boat: a Mini 6.50, Gift, which he entirely renovated to compete in many races in the Caribbean.
The day he turned 18, he passed his yacht-master and became the youngest candidate to hold the international skipper certificate. One year later, the family boat had been sold, he decided to settle in Brittany and buy a new Mini 6.50 that had been abandoned to try to take the start of his first great race.
Retour à La Base – 15e Transat Jacques Vabre – 19eDéfi Azimut - 18eRolex Fastnet Race - 17eGuyader Bermudes 1000 Race - 8e
Route du Rhum - 21e Défi Azimut - 13eVendée Arctiques - Les Sables d'Olonne - 7e
Vendée Globe - 17thDéfi Azimuth - 13th
Transat Jacques Vabre - 21st with Sébastien AudiganeDéfi Azimut - 10st with Sébastien AudiganeRolex Fastnet Race – 10th with Sébastien AudiganeTransatlantic Sailing Record single-handed, monohull - 7 days 16 hours 58 minutes
Route du Rhum – 7th Défi Azimut – 10th Drheam Cup – 6th Monaco Globe Series – 6th Plastimo Lorient Mini – Winner with Amélie Grassi
Transat Jacques Vabre – 9th (with Frédéric Denis)Défi Azimut: Abandoned (power failure)Bol dʼOr – 4th on Diam24
Vendée Globe – 12thTranslémanique en solitaire Solo Translemanic– 4thCalero Solo Transat – 3rd
Transat Jacques Vabre – 10th in Class 40Grand Prix Guyader – 7thArMen Race – 3rdMini Fastnet – 6th Record SNSM – 7th
Route du Rhum – Abandoned Class 40 (multiple technical problems) Mini Fastnet – 5th
Mini Transat – 11th Bol d’Or – Winner on Surprise Solitaire des séries – 3rd on Surprise Mini Fastnet – 14th Mini Golf – 3rd
Trophée MAP – 17th Mini Fastnet – DNF (dismasted) AIR Valencia – 8th Mini Barcelona – 9th