The Vendée Globe, a race where there are those who leave, but also those who stay. Loved ones, family who live this adventure from a distance, with passion. Sometimes also, with fear. Meeting with Anne, the wife of Jean Le Cam, who had promised him that he would not do the Vendée Globe again.
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Anne Le Cam is not the type to let herself get discouraged. She is also as outspoken as her husband. It is essential to him, staying on the ground suits him very well.
“We are very close because we are like a VSE, a very small company. We are necessarily linked both in work and in life. That said, this edition is a little special because we are a little better surrounded than previous editions”.
This year she will notably have at her side the skipper Bernard Stamm, who will act as technical referent.
I do a little bit of control like that, it's the others who do it for me
Jean Le Cam and his wife Anne on the 2016 Vendée Globe
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© JO?L LE GALL / MAXPPP
A few days before departure, how does someone who has experienced the Vendée Globe feel?
“You never know what will happen. It's always the unknown. That's why it's an adventure, the Vendée Globe. And you can never be completely calm. But we can't is not stressed at all.”
Everyone remembers the images of 2020, with the rescue of Kevin Escoffier in the South Seas. Then, Jean Le Cam's journey up the Atlantic while his boat is almost sinking.
“It’s true that this last Vendée Globe was very, very significant. On the one hand, there was the rescue of Kevin and that was magnificent and indeed full of diverse and varied emotions. And afterwards, what was extremely hard was that he still sailed for 60 days with a boat that was extremely damaged, that he repaired twice and that it could sink.”
Indeed, it was stressful, especially since we didn't talk about it. Because afterwards, if we talk about things like that, everyone gets involved. Why does he continue? Why doesn't he continue?
“So, we said, we are closing our door and we experienced that with the race direction all the same, who also knows how to respect silence and moreover a great tribute to the race direction who is always nearby skippers and who accompanies us and reassures us enormously”.
Days and days of anxiety before the reunion with Jean Le Cam and a completely crazy world tour. What did she feel when she found him on the pontoons of Les Sables d'Olonne?
“Like every time when he arrives, you have to give him time to arrive. So, I don't feel much other than being happy that he is there and savoring his happiness at being there, she says, afterwards, we have to give them a lot of space and a lot of freedom because we have to give them time to descend and give them this freedom to take the time to arrive. to celebrate, to breathe. And so, for me, the reunion is later.”
Jean le Cam photographed on August 1, 2024 off the coast of Port-La-Forêt, France
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© FRANCHOIS VAN MALLEGHEM / ALEA
A few days before the 2024 edition, Jean Le Cam “returns little by little to his course”, before leaving with a new boat. “He has never sailed a long, long distance with this new boat, except for two deckchairs. But he is calm and we are calm. We are rather calm, yes.”
Two members of the family will start, Jean Le Cam and Éric Bellion, the couple's son-in-law.
“It’s going to be so funny,” says Anne Le Cam who will follow the duo.
“They developed this project together and it’s quite nice because indeed, the project was first drawn up during the Vendée Globe 2020, remembers Anne Le Cam, I was with Éric Bellion and my daughter, since he is my daughter's husband. We had lunch at home. John calls. And then, we start talking behind the scenes because Eric asks Jean the question. What boat would you buy? I want to do the Vendée Globe again. And then that's how it went.”
They therefore worked together to develop this new boat.
On November 10, Jean Le Cam, Eric Bellion and the 38 other skippers of this 2024 edition will take the start of the Vendée Globe.
Once at sea, the Le Cam couple will continue to communicate on a daily basis “since I am his contact person on land”, the rock of King John.
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