only eleven Figaro-3 set off from Concarneau (Finistère) to cross the North Atlantic on Sunday April 30 at 1:02 p.m., but the tacks pulled by their crews of two sailors to reach Gustavia, capital of the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthélemy, could revolutionize offshore racing. This is, in any case, the ambition of the organizers of the Transat Paprec (formerly AG2R) by imposing diversity for all the monohulls entered for the sixteenth edition of this biennial event born in 1992 and which crowned the biggest names in ocean racing.
“We hesitated to wait until 2025 to make mixed doubles compulsory, since Paprec has signed up for three editions [2023, 2025 et 2027]then we chose to save time and create the need [de coskippeurs femmes]so that the event is immediately identified by the world of offshore racing and by the media, while assuming the risk that there will be fewer boats for this edition »explain to Monde Joseph Bizard, general manager of OC Sport Pen Duick, the race’s organizing entity.
Commonly called the “transatlantic on equal terms” because contested on an identical support for all competitors – a production monohull approximately 10 meters long equipped with foils – this event, which took place in even years (until the postponement of the 2020 edition to 2021 due to the pandemic of Covid-19), has always connected the south of Brittany and Saint-Barthélemy.
“For us, it wasn’t a question of doing one more transatlantic race, but of committing ourselves to the long term to convince and give legitimacy to this mixed doubles transatlantic race. The Figaro circuit is the meritocracy of sailing, the place where the Bourgnon, Cammas, Desjoyeaux, Gautier, Eliès, Le Cam, Le Cléac’h – and I forget – were formed and came back regularly to measure themselves”says Sébastien Petithuguenin, Managing Director of Paprec, the French leader in recycling, already involved for twenty years in the sponsorship of Imoca monohulls, the boats of the Vendée Globe.
“I think we need quotas”
Director since 2021 of the Pôle Finistère offshore racing, which notably trains Figaro sailors in Port-la-Forêt, Jeanne Grégoire, 46, masters the mysteries of this transat. In seven appearances between 2002 and 2014, she was on the podium three times with Gérald Véniard (2es in 2010, 3es in 2006 and 2012) and signed a 5e place in 2004 with the British Samantha Davies.
“At first I was against the imposed mix, because offshore racing has always had undifferentiated rankings, but it must be recognized that women who took men on board have long been the exception, she says. And finally, I believe that we need quotas to evolve and secure sports and institutional partnerships allowing women to develop winning projects in the long term. »
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