“The Vendée Globe has everything planned so that Clarisse Crémer can take the start in 2024” – Crémer affair: a sailor disembarked after maternity leave

Vendée Globe, departure on November 10, 2024

The number of places is limited to 39 solo sailors + an invitation for the 10th edition: why not welcome more sailors?

We could have gone further, the port of Les Sables d’Olonne would have enabled us to accommodate more than 40 boats. But we set a gauge at 40 for safety reasons. It is not possible to imagine an infinite number of boats because the Vendée Globe is attractive. The Vendée Globe will remain a great race with the reputation that we know of it if we ensure the safety of each skipper who takes the start.

Saint-Malo pushed the walls to welcome 138 competitors at the start of the last Route du Rhum. With only 40 boats, aren’t you taking the risk of disgusting certain sponsors and leaving skippers at the quay?

On a basketball court, the number of players has been limited to five. On a football pitch, it’s limited to eleven. We have 40 boats: the rules have been known since October 2021. What right could I have, because I am president of the Vendée Globe, to imagine allowing myself to change them along the way?

The race for miles has strained skippers and sponsors: shouldn’t this qualifying system be changed?

That’s right, but I also see a lot of stressed athletes who want to be selected for the 2024 Olympic Games. It’s the test of sport. The Vendée Globe is certainly an event for adventurers, but it is a sporting event, a great solo race. We will keep our reputation as a great single-handed race if we limit accidents, if we do everything so that there are none. Forty boats is a fixed number, so we found a rule to make it happen. This rule was voted on by the Imoca class in August 2020 by all the skippers and sponsors. And this rule makes sense.

Sponsor, Imoca class, organizer, sailor: everyone blames the other side in the Crémer affair…

All of this is really unfortunate. We had a great skipper there, we have a great sponsor who is Banque Populaire and what a waste. But the truth is gradually starting to come to light… I repeat that the Vendée Globe has everything planned so that Clarisse can take the start in November 2024. We are totally unaware of what is happening. I am sad but I will continue to support Clarisse so that she can be on the starting line.

Concretely, what can you do?

I had the opportunity to tell her and I tell you: she has the gnac, she has the guts, she had the boat, she had the sponsor, she had everything it took to compete in the two races. qualifiers and have enough miles to be in the top 40 qualifiers. Everything was planned.

Everything was planned… Are you talking about an invitation?

I wanted to review these regulations where there were four invitations: today, there is only one because, in my opinion, that is the beauty of sport. In my office, with my collaborators, I said: “I would like an invitation”, in case there was, for example, a maternity ward, or even a person with a disability who might have had a last-minute concern. . So, I repeat that Clarisse has everything it takes to select herself, without owing anything to a Vendée Globe president. On the other hand, if, on June 30, 2024, there had been this little problem, if I could be there… If Clarisse Crémer is at the start of the Vendée Globe, I will be the happiest of presidents. She knows it, we phone each other regularly.