Les Voiles de Saint-Barth marks its tenth anniversary this April, and Richard Mille has been part of the regatta since its very first edition. The brand began by contributing funding before stepping up to become title sponsors, and Peter Harrison, CEO of Richard Mille Europe, Middle East and Africa, takes evident pride in what founders Francois Tolede and Luc Poupon have built. What started as a fledgling event is now widely regarded as one of the most prestigious regattas in the world, and by many as the finest in the Caribbean series.
The event has grown alongside the brand's involvement. Ever more prestigious boats and crews have joined the fleet, and last year the organisers introduced the Richard Mille Record Trophy, which rewards the fastest Maxi and Multihulls over a 49-mile course. For Harrison, who has known Richard Mille personally for more than two decades, the regatta is also a natural extension of the company's philosophy. He is candid about the risks of acquisition by the big luxury groups, which he believes struggle to nurture the independent brands they absorb, and he hopes the maison will continue to evolve sensibly while holding to its founding discipline around super-high-performance watchmaking.
That obsession with resistance and performance is, he argues, exactly what unites horology and sailing. Richard Mille timepieces are made to be worn in any conditions, and the brand's ambassadors, the best in their respective sports, wear them while competing, serving as the ultimate testers. Just as yacht designers chase better aerodynamics, lighter weight and greater resistance, the watchmaker pushes the boundaries of the lightest, most robust tourbillons, testing its movements at up to 10,000 Gs and borrowing innovative materials such as Carbon TPT, drawn from the performance sailing world, and graphene.
Harrison first raced in 2014 with Jolt 2, a Baltic 45 in the Spinnaker category, before moving to the Maxi category in 2016 aboard a TP52 named Sorcha, and most recently a Mini Maxi 72 of the same name. His crew of twenty-two includes World Cup winners and veterans of the prestigious Volvo Race. For this tenth edition he is joined by Pierre Casiraghi, a Richard Mille ambassador, son of HRH Princess Caroline of Hanover and patron of the event, with sails adorned by the RM 60-01 Regatta, the brand's first technical watch for navigating the seven seas.
Powered by a Grade 5 titanium RMAC2 calibre with a 55-hour power reserve, the RM 60-01 offers a variable inertia balance, a complete flyback chronograph, an annual calendar with oversize date and a UTC function, plus navigational capabilities via a rotating bezel marking the cardinal points against a graduated 360-degree and 24-hour scale. It also serves as the prize for the regatta's winner. Harrison recalls his most rewarding moment as victory in 2017, gratifying after so much hard work and team spirit, and his most intense as last year's race, when winds rose to 30 knots and his crew broke two spinnakers.
The logistics of competing, he explains, vary by owner. Some sail their boats across from Europe, whether in a transatlantic race or under their own steam, folding Les Voiles into a wider Caribbean or cruising agenda; others come down from North America. Harrison's own campaign relies on a shipping company, a 12-metre chase boat and two containers, a significant operation that is nonetheless made easy by the smooth organisation on the island. He rents a house in Gustavia to be close to the harbour, arriving for training and lingering afterwards to enjoy Saint-Barth with his family.
