This Sunday, November 7 at 1:27 p.m. sharp, after the passage of the Patrouille de France aerobatics, the more than 80 sailboats registered for the 15th Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie-Le Havre will be released to face the Atlantic Ocean and this time join Fort-de -France, in Martinique. Before that, for 10 days, they will have met and been greeted by more than 50,000 visitors passing through the village located around the Paul Vatine basin.
With around fifty exhibitors, in addition to activities such as a giant zip line, a navigation simulator or even concerts every evening, it is an opportunity for the lucky ones to get on certain sailboats, to visit the three-masted Bélem and a French Navy boat. And, as tradition dictates, several bottles of champagne will be shattered on the edges of the shells during baptisms.
Objective: to come out on top this time around
Whether on the Class 40, the Ocean Fifty, the Imoca or the Ultimate, the skippers are already circling around like wild animals in a cage. They feel the pressure of competition and the depressions to come. Among them, the duo Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and Fred Duthil, who finished second in the 2019 edition. The Breton and the Normand will set off on Solidaires En Peloton – ARSEP. To come out on top, but above all to “beat multiple sclerosis.” A real challenge! “.
And, the Malouin is ready! First of all because he knows the event and its coskipper. Secondly, because his boat is “tried and tested”. “This will be my fourth crossing with him. He already has over 65,000 miles on the clock. Right now, there is nothing that can stop us from leaving. Just a few small tweaks, some tweaking. »And the sailor watches over his« companion »in Azure Blue colors.
15.24 meters long, the Ocean Fifty Solidaires En Peloton – ARSEP (Multiple Sclerosis Research Aid) is not there to promote an agrifood industry or a bank. He supports research against multiple sclerosis: “It’s been 9 years since the project was born with my friend, the skipper Victorien Errusard”.
Talking about the disease to motivate researchers
“During a dinner with friends,” says the skipper, “I discovered their fight to help their sister affected by increasingly violent outbreaks. It affected her physically, but also morally. She was experiencing social isolation, marital complications, and professional and parental difficulties. Despite all their support, his brothers told me that hope can only come from medical research. We must talk about this disease to motivate people and therefore researchers. “
Since then, Thibaut Vauchel-Camus has dedicated his races to this cause “thanks to a collective of around forty patrons, instead of having visibility that a sponsor buys”. “Today, the ARSEP Foundation has been able to help more than 120,000 patients and I am proud of it. There is a link between the sea and their fight, even if I do not allow myself to put myself forward ”.
It is Bernard Gentry, the founder of the brand Solidaires En Peloton, who makes the connection in the form of an allegory between the life of the patient and that at sea, with its blows of tobacco, its slack and its damage. “The life of the patient is like that of a skipper, full of ideas, projects, objectives. But not everything goes as planned. So you have to face it and always adapt. “
And to adapt, the Breton and Norman duo will have to do it, they who “rely on the reliability and the knowledge of the boat to take it to its maximum potential, without going too far”. “We are players, equilibrists, recognizes Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, but we have to stay on track. So, I can’t imagine the road yet. I look at the weather forecast out of curiosity, but I don’t project myself ”, humbly declares the man who thinks of reaching one of the most beautiful bays in the world in two weeks. Without departing from the “skipper’s paradox”: “We scramble to arrive before the others and, once at the finish, we think of setting out again at sea”. For the others.
