First words from Fabrice Cahierc and Aymeric Chappellier (Réalités)

Aymeric Chappellier: It’s an extraordinary moment. We never gave up. It was always a question of preserving the equipment while looking for performance. We finish second but are pleased with that. The outcome shows that the team did good work on the boat as she was reliable.

We’re pleased to finish. In Le Havre we saw that the conditions were going to be difficult. Ten days before the start we had an engine problem, so the team had to work hard to sort that out. We discovered the boat thanks to the Transat Jacques Vabre. Thibaut (Vauchel-Camus) and Quentin (Vlamynck) had a great race. It’s such a pity that three of our fellow competitors couldn’t finish.

Fabrice: I tend to push hard to try to win. Aymeric calms me down to look after the boat. I learnt a lot from Aymeric. I like sailing and for me, the most important thing is sharing the experience with others. It’s a way to socialize for me.

Aymeric. It worked out well together. She’s a new boat and so we learnt a lot together. We tripled the number of miles sailed by this boat in doing this race.
We didn’t talk to each other that much, as we really took it in turns. Towards the end, we thought it was never going to finish, as there were just so many gybes to do. But carrying out manoeuvres together went smoothly.

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Cover photo © Jean-Louis Carli / Alea