Violette Dorange is stainless. While Becomeher Imoca (18 meter monohull) is running out of steam, after ten weeks of sailing, the youngest competitor in the history of the Vendée Globe (23 years old) displays the resilience of an old sea dog.
In 27e position out of forty entered – of which six abandoned -, Saturday January 18 at 7 a.m., the skipper from Charente-Maritime has nevertheless had a hard time in recent days in her journey up the Atlantic, where temperatures now allow “bring out shorts, t-shirt and Crocs”.
He had to let go of his winch column (“coffee grinder” which multiplies the force to activate the winches allowing to tighten the ropes used to raise, lower and adjust the sails, and to tighten the cables holding the mast) whose internal chains have continued to derail for a month.
“I've taken everything apart and put it back together ten to fifteen times and it takes hours, but the chains have been too loose, so I'll do everything by crank, even though it makes the maneuvers twice as physical »explains this 1.60 m tall woman to the “painful hands” and nails “encrusted with grease”.
-The strong wind encountered from Cape Horn (Chile) also tested her rigging. On January 12, north of the Falkland Islands (British Overseas Territory), his J3 (small headsail adapted to the breeze) fell into the water at 35 knots (nearly 65 km/h), after the breakage of a part attaching it to the top of the mast. “I had to retrieve it from the bow in stormy seas, it was hell,” breathes the competitor.
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