The navigator died at the age of 90 this Wednesday a few days before the flight of the mythical transatlantic.
A kind of affectionate wink. While the first boats reached the basins of Saint-Malo on Tuesday before the big start of the Route du Rhum scheduled for November 6, the first winner in 1978, Mike Birch died at the age of 90. A last edge for eternity and legend. The Canadian sailor made sailing history by winning the inaugural edition of the transatlantic race between Saint-Malo and Pointe à Pitre 44 years ago.
Aboard a small 12m yellow multihull (Olympus), the Canadian had caught up with then edged the powerful monohull of Breton Michel Malinovsky to win with a lead of just 98 seconds, after more than 23 days of racing. . An anthology arrival. Forever in the history of this race which launched the domination of multihulls over the heavier monohulls with their keel.
Mike Birch had been diminished for several months
«It had been diminished for several months. He died quietly that night in his sleep“, told AFP France Birch, wife of the sailor. “He was an extraordinary man. He was extremely discreet and simple. He kept this simplicity to the end“, told AFP his niece, lawyer Aline Simard.
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Mike Birch died at his home in Brech (56), around 4am. Decreased, the Canadian had been repatriated to France at the beginning of the summer of 2021 at the initiative of his wife for health reasons. A tribute will be paid in Dinard (35) on November 3 (7:30 p.m.) to this man who wrote the legend of the greatest transatlantic race and then continued to sail in other races. He had landed late in the small world of offshore racing before writing one of the most beautiful pages in sailing. “I learned everything late in becoming one day a sailboat attendant. I’ve been on over 500 trips, but before that I worked in a gold mine and was a dock worker, oil worker, cowboy, tradesman and sports car mechanic “, he said in 2017 to Figaro during the release of a book retracing his life and his career.
Discreet, humble and stingy with words but not feelings, Mike Birch marked his time and a generation of sailors. He was thus very close to Loïck Peyron, whom he met during a Solitaire du Figaro in 1980 on the same production boat, before the two men competed together in the Transat Lorient-Bermuda-Lorient. “33 days together on a 15-meter boat creates bonds. Mike taught me to respect the equipment and his boat in order to finish the races. He was a mentor to me and it was in his silence that his teaching was most eloquent. I’m sad today “, confides Loïck Peyron, this Wednesday at Figaro.
The Breton likes to compare Mike Birch to a ” reed” in his way of sailing, Eric Tabarly, the legendary sailor, being according to him more a “Oak“. And if the “reed” ended up definitely bending, it only did so long after the “oak” disappeared in 1998.
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