The 10th edition of the Vendée Globe, a non-stop and unassisted race, is not only played at sea. During the competition, several people work in the shadow of the skippers and play a key role until their arrival. This is particularly the case of Marion Cardon, the team manager of the navigator Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil Sailing Team).
Eight people, including technical trainers, are under her responsibility, she who has 18 years of experience in ocean racing and four Vendée Globes. The team is based a stone's throw from the port of Sables-d'Olonne, in a hangar which serves as HQ.
franceinfo: Is the “team manager” a kind of Swiss army knife?
Marion Cardon: He's a bit like the conductor of the team. There are several profiles of team managerit also depends on the profile of the skipper and the project. There are more technical profiles, who know the boat very well, but who will still be able to financially manage a company, manage human resources, coordinate a team. They will have experience, more technical expertise. There are also profiles more like mine, who have more marketing, commercial and communication expertise. But we are all obliged to know this ocean racing environment well, to have a good network. We have to know the people, we have to understand the challenges of this competition, we have to understand what the skipper is going through so that we can make decisions quite simply and coordinate everyone.
Are you in regular contact with your skipper Sébastien Simon?
We are in permanent contact. I am lucky to work with a skipper who communicates a lot. He tells us absolutely everything that happens on board, how he feels, his sailing conditions, the small problems he may have, or the biggest problems.
He communicates very well to the whole team and, as soon as things start to get difficult, if it requires a certain expertise and to control the communication around the management of the problem, it goes first through me. I am his first relay of information and then, me and the whole team, we organize the response we are going to give him.
Since assistance is prohibited, how can you help in case of difficulties?
We have the right to a certain level of technical assistance, that is to say we have the right to provide advice on repairs to be made or medical interventions that we may have to carry out on our person. . We have the right to guide him, to advise him on the intervention itself. On the other hand, we do not have the right to tell him when to do this intervention, where to go or how to plan it. We cannot intervene on our strategic performance choices or which can influence our trajectory. Nevertheless, I think we are an essential link. It may be a solo sport, but all the skippers say it: you can't do it alone.
So you are constantly reachable?
My phone is on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The slightest beep from a WhatsApp wakes me up and Sébastien has a response within a minute. When conditions get tough, we are more vigilant, we will coordinate this monitoring, divide things up, we will ask Sébastien to keep us informed. We know that if we don't have any news within a certain period of time, we might go looking for it.
