Neanderthal in a carbon cave
In the end Jean-Pierre Dick did not quite win the Vendée Globe – though he did successfully finish one of his attempts at the race without a keel on his Imoca 60. However, he did win almost everything else before switching to his diverse new career promoting a fabulous inshore foiling class while enjoying a very different kind of world cruiser… Øyvind Bordal sat down with the eclectic and often startlingly open French ocean racer
For some time in France ‘Vendée Globe’ have been the third most searched for words on Google. The sailors of the world’s toughest race are national heroes. Jean-Pierre Dick is a race legend, having competed four times. Meet him here. Let me start with a little personal note: I
have always, since I was boy, had single- handed sailors as personal heroes. Other kids looked up to footballers or action movie heroes. I looked up to strange men who stayed alone in the South Seas, for months on end. My mother, understand- ably, was worried.
Heroes for a reason My first big idol was Robin Knox-Johnston,
38 SEAHORSE
the first man to sail non-stop around the world. Later came the Vendée Globe, and with that race came Ellen McArthur, Pete Goss and of course a host of very fast Frenchmen, including Michel Desjoyeaux and, more recently, the Mozart of the sea, François Gabart. I never stopped thinking of these men
(and a few women) as my heroes. I still do. And believe me – with good reason. You probably need to be particularly
interested in offshore sailing to know all the names mentioned above. But the stories they can tell will fascinate any human being. They’ve faced death time and time again, in the world’s most desolate seas, and weathered storms the rest of us find hard to imagine. They have overcome inhuman difficulties and stresses, over long periods. And they have done it alone. What drives them into such situations,
time after time? What is it they seek? How do they cope? I’ve always wanted to know, and that’s
why I made it a personal goal to meet them, so I could get their stories, and ask the questions myself. This has included meet- ings with, among many others, Knox-John- ston and Gabart, two of the very greatest of the greats. And here is the story of another giant, Imoca World Champion and four- time Vendée Globe sailor, Jean-Pierre Dick.
The gentleman skipper He comes walking towards me with a ravaged face and a broad smile, and gives me a firm handshake. I have heard he is called ‘the gentleman skipper’ and that he gave up a promising career in business to become a sailor. He has a strong charisma, combined with a keen eye and apparently a genuine interest in whatever it is I want to talk to him about. His English is search- ing and with a strong accent.
16 years, four Vendée Globes We sit down for coffee and I ask why he chose to go into this particular sport. ‘Single- handed offshore sailing is a big sport in France,’ he explains. ‘There are a lot of people involved, there is a lot of interest among the public, and big sponsors. It’s all mainly driven by the Vendée Globe, which is a really big event, especially nationally but gradually internationally as well. ‘I won the Tour de France à la Voile in
2001, and the same year saw the first Vendée Globe. When I first heard about it I decided to change my life completely to do that race. And as I had just won the Tour de France I had a benevolent sponsor. However, I later ended up finding a new, bigger sponsor, Paprec, and we worked together for 16 years and four Vendée Globes.’
TIM WRIGHT
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