Mike Birch Cause of Death

Mike Birch, a Canadian skipper who won the Route du Rhum solo trans-Atlantic race by 98 seconds passed away on 25 October 2022, at the age of 90.

Race organisers said he died “peacefully” at his home in northwest France on Tuesday night.

“Anyone who has ever raced or dreamed of multihull ocean racing remembers the image of Mike Birch,” race organizers said. “That of his Olympus Photo first, fighting against the trade winds in the Canal des Saintes to snatch victory from a monohull twice its size in the first edition of the Route du Rhum-Guadeloupe.”

Birch began sailing later in life but rose to prominence after winning the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978.

Late in the race, his sailboat, the Olympus Photo, a 12-metre trimaran, caught up with the larger Kriter V [fr] of Michel Malinovsky [fr].

Birch’s victory on the Route du Rhum would be his only on a monohull, ushering in the reign of the multihull, especially after the death of Alain Colas.

Birch continued his long career in offshore racing, finishing 16th in the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2007.