Tulikettu shatters Paprec 600 Saint Tropez record

The weather conditions at the start didn’t necessarily herald a speed record this year. But that was without counting on the determination of the Finnish crew on Tukilettu, who literally pulverized the time set in 2025 by Mikael Mergui and Richard Robini on the Class 40 CENTRAKOR!

On Thursday, April 23, 2026, averaging 8 to 10 knots over the entire Mediterranean course and finishing with a bang, the Infiniti 52 equipped with a retractable transverse DSS foil set a new record of 3 days 2 hours 37 minutes and 1 sec. That’s almost twelve hours less than the previous record!

The boat’s name says it all… Tulikettu comes from a mythical creature (Firefox) from northern and eastern Finnish folklore, representing a fox whose tail glistens with fire.

They put that fire to good use, winning the PAPREC 600 in real time and certainly in compensated time in the crew group. This information will be confirmed at the prize-giving ceremony on April 25 at the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez.

Arto Linnervuo – TULIKETTU “The PAPREC 600 is one of my favourites”.

“It’s a perfect race course and I think this race has a lot of potential!”

Magnificent! We really enjoyed the race and the course is very beautiful, offering very different conditions in the various parts of the course.

We used all our sails, which was nice. We got off to a light start, but then we had to do some heavy reaching!

The last reaching at the end was great because we had our foil. And we’re only able to use it if there’s enough wind, and there was the right angle and enough wind, so we had over six hours on the foil last night! It’s our weapon and being able to use it gave us these great results. Very happy!

there have been many modifications made to the boat. The latest was a new rudder, a little shallower than the previous one. The main thing is that it’s working perfectly well now, paired with our new keel which was installed already last year offering more lift and less drag so a very good combination.

We’ve also modified the interceptor, which pushes the bow down, which is great when we’re reaching. The boat naturally tends to lean forward and behaves better in waves. We’ve now found the performance of this new type of boat.

The PAPREC 600 is now one of my favourite races – the race course is magnificent – we’ve done the Caribbean 600 the Middle Sea Race obviously the Fastnet we’re planning to do the race in Athens this summer.

As on the Caribbean course where we go around real islands, it’s similar with a perfect course and I think this race has a lot of potential to grow!

There are all kinds of conditions and beautiful views, and of course the organising committee from the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez is one of the friendliest and warmest we’ve seen! We’re extremely well received!

I don’t know yet whether we’ll be able to come next year, but I understand that records have to be defended and we want to keep them for a long time. So yes, we’ll definitely be back, and let’s hope it happens soon!

A few hundred miles behind, the Class 40s passed through the Giraglia gate north of Corsica in the morning and are heading for Saint-Tropez. The battle is on for the last trajectory, where strategy is the name of the game!
So far, Mathieu Claveau and François Verdier on FRA142 Phare40 HA Plus PME have managed to take the lead ahead of SUI134 Stella Nova with Omar Nass and Louis Toreilles, followed by GER135 Aquamarin with Chris Kerl and Benoit Tuduri. And the FRA168 RDT Logistic Ocean Connect with Yves Courbon and Nicolas Guiba.

Not far behind, the FRA155 Flamingo Rosso with Gilwen Moriceau Loquen and Raphael Maniglier.
Still well placed, the Multi de la course, Eleven skippered by Hugues de Saint Germain.

Among the IRC crews, the crew of Leclerc Hennebont Cocody with Richard Fromentin continues to run second to Tulikettu in the crew group. Other crewed yachts, such as Stergann, Overdose Neo, Raging Bee, Xantus and Asha Cap Sela, are still together for third place!

In the IRC Duo group, the battle for the win continues and will come down to the final run! Marco Paolucci and Niccolo Bertola on the JPK 11.80 Libertine continue to lead, ahead of the JPK1010 Blue 007 with Michel Sastre and Johnathan Freze, and the JPK1030 Sakifo with Lucas and Philippe Mao.

Watch live at https://carto.oceantracking.fr/paprec600/carto