A remarkable arrival this Tuesday at Les Sables d’Olonne… The monohull Heart Initiatives Samantha Davis docked at the Vendée Globe pontoon in the middle of the day, with Arnaud Boissières on board. The two sailors, and Nicolas Lunven, brought the sailboat back on the ferry from Martinique, after the Jacques Vabre transatlantic race. Arnaud Boissières has indeed just bought this sailboat, and he is therefore now officially the owner.
“I have experienced so much with this boat that inevitably I am sad” – Samantha Davies
The Briton Samantha Davies, she says she is rather moved to separate from her boat: “I’m sad, because I’ve been sailing with him for five years, I’ve done several transats, and of course the Vendée Globe. But I know he’s in good hands ”. She promised it, she doesn’t want to cry, especially since the future looks good, since she will have next year a brand new sailboat, state-of-the-art, which will allow him to win the next Vendée Globe. In the meantime, during this crossing, she was able to give a kind of user manual to Arnaud Boissières: “I’m not hiding anything, I wanted to pass on everything we’ve done, so that he can start learning to sail with this boat as quickly as possible”.
– Philippe Rey-Gorez
It’s true, for Arnaud Boissières, it’s a change of planet, at the helm of a very efficient boat. He even says he was surprised, his top speed has become his cruising speed: “With my old boat, I was going at 20 knots, with this one, you are going at 20 knots all the time. It’s a little wet, it’s intense, it’s good acceleration ”. New difficulties too … Imoca large foil yachts are very uncomfortable, even violent, very hard physically. And then, Arnaud Boissières readily admits, he will have to work a lot to get used to his new mount: “The first site is me. You have to learn to navigate with this boat, to progress ”.
“It’s great. I couldn’t have asked for better” – Arnaud Boissières
But for now, the skipper is enjoying it, with as much enthusiasm as ever, after having nonetheless completed four Vendée Globe. The first big race with this new boat will be next June, Vendée-Arctic-Les Sables-d’Olonne, or Valso, then the Route du Rhum, beginning of November.