The racing yacht Cigare Rouge Helvim has had a busy career, skippered by Jean Luc Van den Heede, Catherine Chabaud, Alan Wynne-Thomas, Karen Leibovici, Joé Seeten and Jean-Marie Patier. The most disastrous of his skippers, however, is Marc Le Gall, who decided one night during a full moon to kill his wife, the head of a sailing school at Pointe du Bill, by hanging her from his mast, thinking he had devised the Perfect Crime. And that's where Bruno Solo comes in!

Cigare Rouge is a legendary boat, making her comeback in the Route du Rhum 2018. With her original rigging, she is a 60-foot yawl or dundee (fitted with a tap), with a beam of 3.76 metres. Designed by Philippe Harlé and Alain Mortain, she was built by the CDK2 yard for Jean Luc Van Den Heede, under the name Helvim, who skippered her until 1995.

1st launch in 1991

Launched in 1991, she lined up at the start of the La Baule-Dakar race under the baptismal name of Helvim, during which she dismasted from the two masts! During his participation in the 1992-1993 Vendée Globe, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede was forced to return to the port of Les Sables-d'Olonne due to a problem with the mast. The skipper decided to set sail again.... and finished second in the race with a badly damaged delaminated tack.

At his helm, Jean Luc Van Den Heede finished second in the 1994-1995 BOC Challenge. Catherine Chabaud, sailing in the colours of Whirlpool-Europe 2, became the first woman to complete a Vendée Globe, in 1996-1997.

A year later, in 1998, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede returned to the helm of the boat and took part in the Route du Rhum, finishing the race in second place in the monohull class.

2021 : The murder was... almost perfect! 

In 2021, everything changed: Marc Le Gall, a great skipper if ever there was one, organised the murder of his wife on board his boat in Séné, hanging the body from the mast to make it look like suicide.

This theory was initially favoured by the investigators.

The case caused quite a stir and sent the sailing world into mourning. However, the appointment of Bruno Solo to the investigation, teamed up with Elisa Ruschke, two crack investigators from the Gendarmerie Nationale, changed all that! 

On 28 June, an episode of the series "Crimes Parfaits" was rebroadcast on France 3, whose indirect hero was of course Cigare Rouge Helvim.

Episode 12, season 3: "Against Wind and Tide".