Private from left hand since birth, Damien Seguin has always composed. Double Paralympic champion, passed by the Figaro and the Class40 in the offshore race and two participations in the Route du Rhum in this category, he has taken the plunge. He is involved in Imoca, with plans for the next Vendée Globe. Interview.
How do you feel aboard your big boat? Better and better ! I'm starting to get better and better at hand, to feel comfortable on it, and it's great because it was one of the small apprehensions that I had ... When we go on boats of this size and of this power, we have the right to ask ourselves this question but it is going well. I have been sailing since early May, I did a lot of races (Dhream Cup, Douarnenez-Cascais ...) and training, I have a few miles on the clock that make me feel good aboard.
Obvious question: how do you do with one hand? I still have trouble answering (he laughs)! It's inevitably adaptation, and moreover it's more me who adapts to the boat that the opposite, even if for the first time I adapted a specific position to the fact that I have only 'a hand, and this is the winch column. On a boat so powerful, it must indeed be able to use both arms to maneuver. So we produced this little adaptation with Kerpape rehabilitation center, a kind of fixed sleeve on the handle, not much in the end but that allows me to shoot and push with my two arms on the winch column. After, necessarily, I think differently on the boat because I can not do the maneuvers like someone with both hands, simply. But one of the advantages of 60 feet is that because it's very big and very powerful, you have two hands, one, three, whether you're a man, a woman, like a match or Musclor the problem remains the same: the man is not strong enough for such a machine. So, we have to adapt, to break down the maneuvers, to think before, to anticipate, not to let ourselves be caught by the boat, and that way I still have it. Since I do the Optimist, because I have never been able to do like the others. So, finally, the transition to Imoca was done quite simply.
A proverb of sailors says "One hand for the man, another for the boat" ... It pursues me, that! I often get this proverb! After, we can also have two hands, and do anything on a boat, do not anticipate things ... Since I sail, this issue of security is quite central. So, I adapted myself, in the way I have to hang on the boat, trying not to put myself in danger on a maneuver, I try to minimize the risk of injury, passage to the water. I try to think and think about my movements, to do nothing in a hurry, but finally this question is basic for everyone.
But not everyone has your disability! I'm just maybe paying a little more attention. And behind these safety issues, there is also the public's eye. I may be less entitled to the error than others. Because the day I do bullshit on a boat, seriously hurt myself wherever I go overboard, it will be the fault of my handicap, even if it is not necessarily the cause. It will be easy to say that. So, I try to protect myself as much as possible.
Are there things you forbid? To climb at the head of mast for example ... No, but when the problematic arose to know how I was going to go up there, that it is in Figaro, in Class40 or in Imoca, I looked for material which allowed me to answer it and get in with one hand. I found climbing equipment, caving that is adapted, and allows me to climb the masthead and down. I have always considered that we must find an answer to a problem. It's not because I only have one hand that I have scratch shoes, I have lace-up shoes, nobody knows how I do my laces with one hand and yet I get there! It's in the nature of man to adapt, and the chance I have is to have this disability since birth. So I learned to live like this. Today, I am told "Damien I make you a second hand to the Route du Rhum, I would be damn bored and suddenly I should really readapt (laugh)!
Are you tired of being repeatedly asked such questions? No, and it's important that people ask them. It means that they have crossed a barrier and that they allow themselves to ask them, rather than looking at me without asking me how I am doing. And I'm pretty open on the subject, I tend to laugh. I think that as a sportsman we go beyond this problem, we are focused on our sport, our performance if we can make one, and if by our little story we can change attitudes, reassure parents who have a handicapped child, generate vocations, feed dreams, it will be the little stone and more.
You could have confined yourself to what you excel at and made you king of Olympus, Paralympic sailing! It would have been more comfortable! Certainly. But to do Figaro and go to the biggest is the fact that I always wanted to do like others. I consider sport as an incessant progression. I am also asked why I continue to do Paralympics. It's simple: I also take a lot of fun on these boats (the 2.4), it's technical and the challenge of winning medals remains present even if I have some in my collection (two gold medals, one silver). And it's a great honor to represent your country! But in offshore racing, there is certainly this form of endangerment, this constant reflection, and this desire to drive the point home to show that I am capable of it and that I will prove it. It's not at all a revenge, I continue my career because I want to progress, and I have the impression to cross the steps one after the other without burning the steps. For now it does not succeed me badly.
Rum Imoca, views of the Vendée Globe, it's a big step ... It's a sacred step, and the goal of tour in the world is another. And after that, I will certainly find other challenges. I am a lover of my sport, it is a real passion, so I continue.
It is an advantage for you to have run twice this transat, in Class40? Yes, I know what sauce I will be eating. And moreover, in Imoca, it will last less long. But it's special, a transatlantic race. Today it seems rather banal, but here we do it alone, in race mode, on sacred boats! And the weather will be different, the competitors too, it's a sprint of twelve-thirteen days a little exhausting but it's great! In addition, for me who grew up in Guadeloupe, I come home a little so it's great.
Have you measured what Imoca represents more than a Class40 in terms of commitment? I would have trouble quantifying. The big thing is the power of the boat. In Class40, when you are in difficulty, you can play a little on your physical strength to get out of an unforeseen situation, change the veil when you have caught up in heavy weather. In Imoca, you can not. Catching a shot at the last moment is a little more complicated. The 60-foot is more gratifying than Class40 because you have a speed bonus all the time, which makes you know why you're doing it. Up close, in Class40 where it hits harder, sometimes you wonder what you're doing there. And paradoxically I feel more comfortable in Imoca than Class40.
You worked canvas your preparation with Jean Le Cam, why this choice? I came to see Jean because I was asking myself a lot of questions. How to mount my Vendée Globe project? How to enter the Imoca class? He listened to me a lot. We know that Jean speaks little, but speaks well. At the end of the conversation, he told me "I like your project, if I can help you I'll do it". We left like this, when I found the sponsor it was necessary to find the boat, Jean helped me to choose it, proposed me to integrate his building site to prepare it. In the end, we found a way to work that is win-win. He does not do the Route du Rhum this year, he had a little time, helped me to optimize the boat, sailed with me ... And he knows these boats very well so I gained a lot of time. When I sail with him, I am a real sponge, I store all the little tips that may make the difference one day. We put the boat in the water in early May, I'm ready to do the Route du Rhum, it's just exceptional! And he is thoroughly, as if it was him who was starting.
For you, what will be a beautiful Route du Rhum? Voluntarily I'm not going to talk about classification because it's always complicated, that many boats are better than mine, that sailors have more experience. A beautiful Route du Rhum would be a race where I will feel comfortable from start to finish, a clean race where I will make good choices, a good trajectory, without breaking equipment. Where I have had a good management of the man and the machine, and it is capital for the Vendée.