INTERVIEW
If experience and carelessness can perfectly fit together, then Armel le Cleac'h and Clarisse Crémer form a perfect duo. Present three times on the Vendée Globe podium, Armel Le Cleac'h is the ideal companion for Clarisse Crémer. Parisian by birth, the fate of Clarisse Crémer was not necessarily linked to the sea. However this Sunday in the early afternoon, she sets off with Armel Le Cleac'h for the fourteenth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre.
The capsizing of his multihull during the last Route du Rhum is no more than a distant memory for Armel Le Cleac'h, ready to go to the assault of the Transat Jacques Vabre. Accompanied by Clarisse Crémer, the Breton skipper will bring all his experience to the young sailor of 29 years. At the microphone of Europe1, he explains that "this project to accompany Clarisse until the Vendée Globe, it was something which we had not necessarily the habit."
Skippeur professional since 1999, Armel Le Cleac'h will be in the role of "professor", a new status underlines the Breton of 42 years. "I was not necessarily in the role of the teacher or the one who transmits his experience so it changes a bit of what we have been doing for years, so it's great."
IMOCA World Champion in 2008, Armel Le Cleac'h knows his boat perfectly. "IMOCA, I've been doing it for ten years, including three rounds of the world, and the boat we're sailing with Clarisse is very close to the one I had in 2012 on my second Vendée globe so it helps to find landmarks quickly ".
Heard on europe1:
Less in the pressure of victory, but more to accompany Clarisse
Great competitor, Armel Le Cleac'h changes course in a transat Jacques Vabre where there will be "less the pressure of the goal of victory but more that of trying that Clarisse succeeds in the Vendée Globe next year". He thus plays the role of the big brother. "I'm trying to get to know her boat pretty well, it's important when you're going around the world, which is a very long race, and when you know your machine it's a lot easier and it gives you trust in hard times, that's my role. "
Armel Le Cleac'h evokes the subtlety "of explaining the different maneuvers, and why I take this initiative, it is a new way of doing things, there is everything to learn."