Mike Birch Canadian ocean racer Mike Birch passed at age 90, on October 26, 2022 in Brittany, France. Birch is famous on the ocean racing circuit for winning the first Route du Rhum Race in 1978 from Saint Malo to Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe aboard the 30-foot Walter Greene-designed trimaran, Olympus Photo. Birch became well known as an ocean racer but didn’t start out that way. He was born in Vancouver B.C. and was a gold miner, then on oil driller and even a cowboy. He didn’t start sailing seriously until he was 44 years old. After work as a delivery…