Eight years ago, Éric Bellion set off on his first Vendée Globe. Into the total unknown. He returned after 99 days 4h56'20'' with a 9th place but swore he wouldn't be taken there again. However, on November 10, he will once again be on the starting line for the solo round-the-world trip… on a new boat with straight daggerboards!
Even if he doesn't like people to call his “Stand as One” like that, “for me, it's an Imoca with straight foils”. If he knows that the foilers will make the difference, he explains the choice of this boat: “For Jean (Le Cam) and me, it is our absolute weapon. We looked at the resources we had, the time we had, the team we had and we looked at ourselves before asking ourselves what we could achieve as much as possible.” And that's this plan Reason.
“Why are you doing this? »
For his second loop, he now knows what awaits him: “My first boat in 2016 already had a history with the Vendée Globe. I arrived and it was him who guided me. This is a new boat. It’s me who knows the way, it’s me who takes it.”
He has also gained confidence over the years. In him. On his boat: “I began to create a bond with my boat and for me, it is essential. I was full of confidence on the different deckchairs. This boat is extraordinary for the Vendée Globe.”
He is finally looking forward to going around the world again: “These are feelings that are catapulting a little: I really want to go there. I know it’s going to be extraordinary but I also know that when the day of departure arrives, I’ll say to myself: “Why are you doing this…”.” What he dreads the most: leaving his family, his wife, his daughter: “The first days are going to be super hard. 80% of the time, we wonder what we're doing here. I have something new compared to the first: I am married, I have a two-year-old daughter. Just talking about it, I am moved (tears flow)… It’s bad,” he slips.
“Today, I know how to sleep”
However, he is happy at sea: “As it is something ultimate, it pushes you to your limits, it invites you to discover things that you do not know about yourself because it puts you in fear extreme”.
Putting yourself in extreme situations: repair, stress, fatigue, distance, stepping back from your life. “I glimpsed an extraordinary harmony with the sea and my boat in 2016 and I would like to find that again.”
However, he admits that he did not know how to sail a boat during his first Vendée Globe: “For 40 days, I was terrified, on the brakes, I did not know how to do it. I didn't know how to sleep.” Today, he says he knows how to ride a boat better, no longer has the same relationship with fear. “And I know how to sleep.” He even wants to see what it's like to go full throttle. .
Because he admits it: “In the first Vendée Globe, it was as if I had ruts caused by fear. I was freediving all the way to the South Seas.”
Once in the Indian and Pacific he sailed liberated. “That’s the magic of this world tour. I wasn’t tense, just happy. I allowed myself daydreams looking at the ocean. I was going fast because I felt good.”
Sensations that he wants to rediscover…
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