Clarisse Crémer celebrates in Martinique after a fine debut in the 2017 Mini Transat race finishing 2nd in the Series Division. Crémer switched to two-handed sailing in 2018 managing 14th out of 16 finishers in the Transat AG2R… with her fiancé Tanguy Le Turquais, possibly not the most focused of arrangements (meow – ed). But this more pedestrian result did not colour Crémer’s Mini Transat performance and she is now the envy of every potential Vendée Globe racer (let’s be frank), having being plucked from the ranks to skipper the Imoca on which Paul Meilhat won the last Route du Rhum. Meilhat himself is back on dry land and without a sponsor
50th edition) – which already has an exceptional field lining up made of young talents and veterans of the circuit such as Loïck Peyron, Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou. In 2020 Armel will also sail the next Transat AG2R, a race he
has won twice, like the Solitaire… Apart from the Figaro he will teach Clarisse Crémer how to use an Imoca. Clarisse graduated from HEC (one of the best business schools
in France) and made a remarkable debut in offshore racing finishing second in the 2017 Mini Transat in the Series division. She then finished 14th last year in the Transat AG2R on a Figaro 2. But she has never been racing on an Imoca before. For her project
Banque Populaire purchased SMA, winner of the 2012/13 Vendée Globe (as Macif, skippered by François Gabart) and of the last Route du Rhum skippered by Paul Meilhat. SMA has won several other big events in Paul’s hands including the Fastnet Race. In the last VG he was not far from the frontrunners despite having no foils when he was forced to retire in the Pacific after the hydraulic canting mechanism for his keel failed. Clarisse is popular and well respected among the French offshore
community and is also an expert at using modern communication tools to keep in contact with all her followers. She declared: ‘By joining the Banque Populaire team I am assured the best school, the best support that I can possibly have to carry out an adventure like the Vendée. ‘But I am approaching this new project with considerable humility!
I will be asking millions… billions of questions, and expect I will be making notes non-stop if I am to learn quickly enough. But it will still be quite a challenge for me... ‘But I am very thorough, that is how I operate. I will try to keep
moving forward and learning every time I go sailing. I am already committed to a Figaro programme with my previous sponsor Everial until July. Then there will be the first two-handed navigation with Armel in preparation for the Transat Jacques Vabre which we will race together on the Imoca.’ Then Clarisse will begin to gather singlehanded miles to prepare
for the Vendée Globe. Armel explains: ‘My role in Clarisse’s Vendée project will be to communicate all my experience to her after the 10 years I have spent on the Imoca circuit [three Vendée Globes, twice finishing second and one victory]. ‘The first Vendée Globe is always a time of apprehension and
doubt about what it will be like. I will try to give her as much support as I can so that she will be the best prepared at the start.’ Banque Populaire’s total annual sailing budget is now more than
seven million euros. With the announcement that the company is working alongside Clarisse Crémer, there are now five women hoping to take part in the next Vendée Globe, as she will be joining Sam Davies, Isabelle Joschke, Alexia Barrier and a second British sailor, Pip Hare. Such a strong female line-up would be an outright record in the
history of the race, which to date has seen seven women compete in eight editions. They have been fairly successful, as six of them completed the race. The best three of the seven are all English, beginning with the then only 24-year-old Ellen MacArthur finishing second in the 2000 Vendée Globe, just 24 hours after the winner, Michel Desjoyeaux. In 2008-2009 two more British women stood out, Sam Davies and Dee Caffari, finishing fourth and sixth.
Bilou is quite busy Roland ‘Bilou’ Jourdain, hero of the offshore scene with two bullets in the Route du Rhum and a third in the Vendée Globe of 2000/2001, last year got his hands on the excellent Safran Imoca, a foiler launched in 2015. The objective was to find partners to get another Vendée Globe project up and running for former Safran skipper Morgan Lagravière. Unfortunately the project did not come about in time. ‘We gave ourselves the deadline of the end of 2018. After that
it would have been too risky financially for our ocean racing company Kaïros to keep the boat without any guarantees for the future,’ explained Bilou. ‘The programme had everything going for it. We were moving
SEAHORSE 19
OLIVIER BLANCHET/DPPI
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