“Try to ensure that he can repair everything”: Jean le Cam’s boat is ready for the Vendée Globe

“We are three bags out of 30“: this Saturday morning, on the pontoons of Les Sables d'Olonne, Jean le Cam's team is mobilized to load the boat. The skipper from Finistère takes the start of the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe this Sunday, November 10. After months of preparation, you have to make sure you don't forget anything.”So here we have the bags of string, so that's all the “ends”. There is the sailmaking bag to be able to repair the sails and then the climbing bag for example to be able to go to the top of the mast“, lists Mathieu Moulinec, one of the team's preparers. It all starts in Finistère Armor Lux. “Then we will load all the food for the 80 days, one bag per week. We're going to put everything to starboard because it's definitely going to be a port departure..” Certain foodstuffs are only loaded at the very last moment, such as precious Breton butter dear to the browser.

Thirty bags to load and move

Everything was carefully checked by Jean le Cam himself and his partner on the site, the Swiss navigator Bernard Stamm, conductor of this funny ballet. “I've been there since August.”he smiles. “It's complicated because there, we could easily take a second spare boat. We focused on trying to make sure he could fix everything to finish the race. And the goal is gear bags. There are fourteen of food and two of clothing. With the rest, it makes about 30 bags“. Bags that will have to be moved depending on the position of the boat. “Before being sailors, they are movers“, he sneers.

And among all this luggage, a small yellow bag that doesn’t look like much attracts our attention. It is extremely important. It's the emergency bagthe one that Jean le Cam would take in his life raft in the event of major damage. “Inside, there are things that allow you to be spotted, rockets, smoke bombs, small beacons that appear on the competitors' screens, sachets of water, high-calorie food, everything that it takes to try to survive“, explains Bernard Stamm. This precious bag must therefore absolutely remain within reach, while obviously not intended to be used.