VENDÉE: SEGUIN, THE PARALYMPIC SAILOR ,THE BEST ON THE LAST DAYS

 I had already posted about the excellent performance of Isabelle and Samantha (before the boat let her down) and it is time to talk about the stellar performance of somebody that should be at a disadvantage regarding the other racers, but that for some miracle of will and determination, it apparently is not. I am talking about Seguin, that has only one hand, and that for many years competed in Paralympic sailing, where he is a champion.

To the general amazement, he was leading the Vendee when they approached the coast of Spain, and not by brief moments, but for a day, till he had to look for shelter to dive under the boat to cut a large net that was stuck on the keel. Doing this without any support solo, would be for me, and I believe for most sailors, quite scary .... now imagine doing that with only one hand!

I must say that I thought that on an older boat with vertical foils, this outstanding feat, due mostly to brilliant navigation served by great sailing, would be soon forgotten and that by the middle of the Atlantic Damien Seguin would be sailing between the 10th and the 20th places.

But I was wrong and in the North Atlantic he sailed consistently among the 10 first and only in the South Atlantic was he briefly sailing between 11th and 13th place. I believed that this was his true place in the classification. Wrong again, I was very surprised to see him recover brilliantly to 4th place on the passage to the Indian Ocean, ahead of Bestaven and Le Cam!

Now he got my full attention, what a sailor! and with one hand? I simply cannot understand how, on an older boat, he can be as good as others on newer boats with two hands!!! The truth is that his navigation has been brilliant even if the others around have much more experience than him.

On the Southern Ocean, where this year the conditions did not give a big advantage to boats with modern foils, he has been always in the second group that is at the head of the race pursuing the trio that is leading. He lost a lot of time with big problems with the autopilot, that he managed to solve, having to climb to the top of the mast to substitute the wind sensor.

From 8th place he recovered again, to the 6th first, a long time chasing Le Cam and he managed to overtake him several times, the last one these last days due to brilliant navigation and great sailing.

On the last 7 days, from the five that are chasing the leading trio, he was the 2nd that recovered more miles to the leader, 241 miles. Better than him only Isabelle who recovered 217 miles. Dutreux recovered 72, Le Cam 52 miles and Boris recovered 25 miles to Bestaven.

Fact is that on the last 7 days the conditions have been worst for the leading trio but about the same for the pursuing quintet (depending on navigation) and as we can see among them, the gains were very different.

The conditions were even better for the ones that were more aft on the race and also due to great sailing we have seen some great recuperations, with many miles won to the leader and none won more than Tripon, that reduced his difference in 692 miles! Great performance also by Burton that after staying for almost one day on the shelter of Macquaire island for repairs, recovered 404 miles and Sorel who recovered 397 miles and managed to join the quintet that is chasing the leading trio and that has almost caught Ruyant.

Also a note for Pedote that recovering 247 miles is almost joining the second group and Clarisse that sailing fast recovered 266 miles. With 10 boats within 388 miles, this Vendée is the most competitive ever and an incredibly interesting one to follow, with incidents and changes in the classification happening every day. 

Cheers to all of them for brightening this dark year and giving us fantastic entertainment contributing to making sailing a more popular sport. And cheers to Damien Seguin that is a living example that adversity can be overcome.

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