The Famous Project CIC

The Nice-born skipper’s goal - supported by highly experienced, well-trained sailors such as Dee Caffari, Deborah Blair, Rebecca Gmür Hornell, Annemieke Bes, Stacey Jackson, Molly LaPointe and Tamara Echegoyen - was above all to become the first all-female crew to set a reference time. That bold wager has been won: the former Idec trimaran, which held the record until Sodebo 3’s victorious arrival, made it safely into port - even if the beat back up to Brest after crossing the line, hard on the wind without a mainsail, was a near-impossible challenge… because this circumnavigation proved particularly demanding, with its share of breakages. A non-exhaustive list: a steering problem, the mainsail halyard jammed from the very first run down the Atlantic, the starboard foil out of action, a first tear in the mainsail under the second reef, and finally a second tear near the head. And so it was with the wing mast and the headsails that this round-the-world was finally completed - in a storm, to make matters worse. A fine lesson in seamanship, whatever some armchair commentators may say…