What is your first memory at mer??
I have a vivid memory of the sea even though I had sailed before. The arrival of Florence Arthaud's Route du Rhum in 1990. It's a pretty strong memory.
On the personal side, I remember my internship in a small catamaran, the KL 10.5, in the bay of Saint-Brieuc.
What triggered you to launch yourself into this carrière??
I don't know if there really was one. By dint of making them, you always want more. Passion inspired me to do more, to sail on bigger boats, to travel to sail, etc. Until it progresses and is detected by a training centre.
I also met some great sailing figures, such as Roland Jourdain, Laurent and Yvan Bourgnon. We were competitors in my world of sports catamarans and they invited me to come and sail on their boat. I was admiring.
When Fred Duthil left Olympic sailing to do the Mini 6.50, then the Figaro, he took me under his wing. I helped him with the preparation of his boat, the deliveries. He offered me my first opportunities to be in charge of a boat, whether it was solo or double-handed sailing. He trusted me and I assumed that trust.
I got a real kick out of faire?! Until he told me: "I'm going to go for it, I'm going boating, I feel comfortable. "From 2007 to 2009, I set up a Figaro project, which fell through due to lack of funding.
So I took a turn to work for three years in real estate. I kept doing errands, deliveries when I was called, but I couldn't make myself available all the time. Then, one day, I was offered a navigation and I snapped. I quit my job. I had no responsibility - single, no children, no financial commitments - and I realized that I was free, that I could do it. At over 30 years old, I realized that I hadn't done much with my life and that it generated a certain amount of frustration.
The stars have aligned. Jérémie Lagarrigue asked me to come and sail on Hydoptere.ch, in Switzerland. I met Victorien Errusard, whom I had known for a long time. "I want to start a sports project, but not alone" he told me. And it's off like ça?!
Thibaut Vauchel Camus and Victorien Erussard ©Pierrick Contin
Have you had a mentor or another skipper who has marqué? for you?
As I said before, my first memorable sailing experience was Florence Arthaud's victory in the Route du Rhum in 1990. I was 10 years old. She was barely 50 kilos, 1.60 m tall and she was coming on a crazy machine for gagner?! I met her in Guadeloupe and I saw her do something about exceptionnel?!
At the same time, Laurent Bourgnon won the Route du Rhum in 1994 and then in 1998... He came from the same world of sports catamarans (Hobbie Cat) as me, we were in the same age group... It talked to me!
In another genre, Loïck Peyron, with his talent and his way of expressing himself. He popularized and desacralized sailing. These people I saw in the distance, but they inspired me.
I had sailing teachers very early on in Guadeloupe - Franck Burnier - and in Brittany - Pierre Gobert - who inspired me to work in a group. He advocated atmosphere, pleasure, sharing and did not focus on any particular individual. "We are a group even if each one has its own specificities and assets."
For them, the group was evolving, as was the sharing. The idea was not to create constraints, but to navigate to progress. Of course we enjoyed ourselves, but we had to work. And when there was no wind, we did something else, cycling and even paddle?! We invented a kind of paddle long before it became known.
Thanks to Fred Duthil, I was also able to cross the different sailing disciplines and discover windsurfing in France. I've done a lot of regattas with him. It was our playground, it was fun and I had a lot of fun on the water. Each discipline brings its own feeling.
I was lucky enough to be carried by these great sailing stars and by people who share you on a daily basis. You shouldn't stay in your box and open up to other practices. That's what I did when I was sailing, surfing, surfing or kitesurfing.
Which boat left you the best souvenir??
My school was the Hobbie Cat 16. It's a bit like the Laser of the sports catamaran. It is the most widespread catamaran in the world. Everyone knows him. It allowed us to share what we were doing quite easily and it generated a fairly dense fleet, of good level and from all horizons... The skippers came from Africa, Papua New Guinea... It was a support that gathered all the flags of the Olympics. And an eclectic fleet: young versus old, male and female... With the Hobbie Cat, there was a real crossroads of culture, nation and experience.
It was thanks to the Hobbie Cat 16 that I met the Bourgons.
I also made an Olympic attempt in Tornado with Damien Seguin. It was a fabulous boat, which went fast and had many possibilities. It was only used to race right and left, whereas there was real potential for raid navigation. I didn't like it too much.
Then the F18 had its emergence. It attracted an exciting audience with great challenges. I have travelled a lot in F18. This was the spirit of raid sailing. I could also mention the Flying Phantom, a boat that volait?! It was incroyable?!
But the basis of everything is the Hobbie Cat 16. I met many people there like Jeremy Lagarrigue, Victorien Errusard, the Bourgnon brothers... It was a fabulous base.
In Guadeloupe we went on raids, beauty, we set up a tent on it... There was no stress, it was simple. It was a hell of a freedom tool. This is Hobbie Cat's baseline.
The Multi50 Solidaires En Peloton - ARSEP
What is your greatest success with marin??
I took part in my first Jacques Vabre, then my first Route du Rhum and so on. I've been through such strong things. Success is the pride that comes out of it. Today I have set up a project with Victorian that we share with as many people as possible. Basically, sailing is a self-centered approach, but in this project, we put our energy at the service of a cause, multiple sclerosis. We sell dreams, which we share with our friends, the sick, the teachers..
It's a terrible disease and we thought we were going to use a personal project for a bigger cause. It made us grow up. We had other encounters, discovered other ways of surpassing ourselves and it felt good. It keeps us grounded. Even if sailing sells dreams, in the end, I'm just a passionate person who has the chance to live his dream.
In 2019, this is our 7th season. We are always there, we are making progress and our partners are loyal. We are congratulated sportily and thanked humanely for what we do. It's really nice.
On my boat I made a hundred people sail, I made them dream, we raised tens of thousands of euros for research, we collect patient testimonies and the impact that this has on their lives. It's really valuable.
There are also the sporting successes, the podiums on the Route du Rhum, the English Transat on which I learned that I was going to be a father. It's a set, it's very hard to choose a specific subject.
Navigation with patients © Thibaut Vauchel-Camus
On a daily basis, what is your practice of plaisance??
I would like to practice. On a daily basis it would be nice to have a weekend with friends and family. I like pleasure boating. On Saint-Malo, there is a great place, the Chausey archipelago. It's magical. I love going there by the day or spending a weekend there. It's a bit like a private island, we'll take a paddle ride to hunt lobster and then have a drink at the bistro..
When I arrived in Guadeloupe in the winter of 2018, I took a course in surfing, kitesurfing, kitesurfing... Locally, time is running out. There is the rhythm of work, with the constraints of weather and tide. My personal life also requires organization with my little girl.
As a result, I mainly practice coastal jogging around my home and paddle.
If you hadn't been a skipper, what would you have fait??
I don't know. I don't know. I had an early affection for the life and earth sciences. I would have liked to be a teacher, work in the world of biology, awaken to this science. I would have been by the water.
I really enjoyed being a real estate agent, which I did by chance. Maybe I would have continued to invest in a heritage and free up time to sail.
