Four years ago, Yannick Bestaven gave up buying a new sail to keep a “mental preparation” budget. He congratulated himself on it throughout his victorious Vendée Globe and agitated by many moral upheavals. Eric Blondeau is always with him, and the mental coach of athletes, leaders, special forces such as GIGN, slips his athlete in recent days into the clothes of the loner that he will be for about two and a half months. Here's how.
What is your role with Yannick these last days before departure?
Previously, we were talking about the boat. This week, it's him, every morning. The idea is that he returns to his bubble, cut off from anything that can maintain a link. It is methodical work by the detachment, which makes it possible to avoid bringing too many people on board.
And you emphasize it, we must differentiate between solitude and isolation…
Solitude is chosen, isolation suffered, the difference is very great. Solitude, he wanted it, he knows the rules, the consequences, it's his 3rd start in the Vendée Globe. Isolation is a feeling suffered, suddenly I am cut off from… and I didn't want it. My job was to detach him from the people he could take (Editor's note: in thought) on board. His boat is completely stripped of photos, cuddly toys, grey-gray because Yannick is prepared to face a race alone which is almost inhuman.
Eric Blondeau, originally from Charentais, established in Anglet.
Émilie Drouinaud / South West
My job was to detach him from the people he might take on board
However, at Christmas, on his birthday on December 28 and on New Year's Day, these loved ones will all arrive with very personal little gift packages?
These are what I call moments of truth, where the events are there, the dates known in advance. What I suggested to Yannick was to fill this feeling of isolation with comfort and also the ability to share them thanks to modern means of communication. We prepared ourselves for that, how to enter into these festive moments, to live them to the fullest so as not to bring them out afterwards. We opened these doors, there are no others, to know how to close them. As during the shock of the rescue of Kevin Escoffier (1), we entered into that moment and we came out so that Yannick could resume his race. We must not panic because we are overtaken by a feeling of isolation.
The worst thing would be if an unforeseen event on land brought someone on board?
It's already planned, all the worst family events. They were already anticipated for the first Vendée.
The race is without assistance. What will be your role during this process?
I will not have any intervention during the race. Strictly following rule 4.3.3 and I hope everyone does the same.
For each situation, we have implemented protocols, the content of which remains between us
Four years ago, Yannick Bestaven experienced moments of very strong discouragement and euphoria. Is this experience useful to you?
We played a lot on that, to be ready to overcome them. Discouragement, loss of meaning, “what am I doing here?” », all the skippers will have it at some point in the race, you would have to be scared to avoid these things. As this race is progressive, the meaning given to it evolves over the days. With each piece of information, the brain will reformulate and revisit its story.
Moments of discouragement occur when we lose the ability to imagine what should happen over the next three or four days. What is interesting in these moments is to have protocols, which remain between Yannick and me, to return to a process where he can regain his consciousness instead of letting the unconscious panic. These are very interesting moments, which we have already worked on for the last Vendée Globe. And that we of course revisited, with a different maturity for this one.
What is the weight of a past race in a future, different race?
I reviewed my 72 pages of notes from the last Vendée Globe, including the critical moments, of injury, of cold, of heat, where we had breakage, moments of very strong enthusiasm or on the contrary of deep doubt, which live all the skippers. We saw with Yannick how he perceives this race today, which he discovered while playing it. But there, he already starts with preconceptions, a history, with knowledge of curves, of seas. However, what he is going to experience there, he has never experienced.
The goal is to avoid surprises, to work in anticipation on blockages, and on the contrary, moments of enthusiasm. In the protocols, we revisit these strong elements. The discouragement at the level of Brazil when he is in a slump and sees the others passing him in front, just after the great enthusiasm of taking the lead at Cape Horn, having never done that in his life. I have to help him experience this film and anticipate what can happen in a new boat, with new foils.
Is being the title holder, more scrutinized by the media, a pitfall?
The media weight of being winner of the last Vendée Globe, we have completely detached ourselves from it, we don't care. Yannick does not have to meet the expectations of others, of anyone. He is going to experience such a long race, a marathon as he says, a marathon with Formula 1 cars in unknown, uncertain, irrational conditions.
He knows this new boat, he didn't have the chance to fully exploit it in the preparatory races, but the boat is ready, Yannick is ready, relaxed and concentrated, and ready to improvise. Which is anything but nonchalance but on the contrary, it is knowing your instruments well, the sea, the weather, the boat to play them perfectly, like a very great musician who knows his instruments well.
(1). He participated in the distressing search, in the night and the cold, for Kevin Escoffier floating in his only survival suit.
