In 2011-2012, it was the Frenchmen aboard Groupama, led by Franck Cammas, who won the Volvo Ocean Race. This year, despite the absenteeism of a crew in the colours of France, the event is becoming increasingly French-speaking. As such in 2014, there will be 16 French-speakers - including 10 Frenchmen - within the seven teams.
A Frenchman at the head of the Chinese team
After winning the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race aboard Groupama, Charles Caudrelier decided to lead the Chinese team, Dongfeng Race Team, this year. To help him in this mission, he's recruited four Frenchmen, Pascal Bidégorry, a Basque navigator, Kevin Escoffier, bowman from Saint Malo and two Bretons, Eric Peron and Thomas Rouxel. This will be their first Volvo Ocean Race.
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A Frenchman and a Belgian among the Dutch
For Team Brunel, we decided to take on board Laurent Pagès, a regular in the Volvo Ocean Race, as he will be taking part in this third edition. In 2011-2012 he was part of the Groupama team and in 2008-2009 he sailed aboard Téléfonica Blue with Brunel's skipper Bouwe Bekking. As such these two will not be sailing together for the first time. In the ranks, a young 25 year old Belgian, Louis Balcaen, is also preparing for his first race.
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Three Frenchmen among the Spaniards
Among the Spanish, there are three Frenchmen. In the MAPFRE Team, Michel Desjoyaux, twice winner of the Vendée Globe will be watch leader and coach, Nicolas Lunven, winner of the Solitaire du Figaro in 2009 will be navigator and Anthony Marchand, who is used to big ocean races, will be helmsman, trimmer and crew member under 30 years old.
Sam Goodchild, a Briton from the Figaro circuit, speaks fluent French.
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Team Alvimedica takes on Groupama's reserve crew member
For the previous edition, Seb Marsset was a reserve crew member and was therefore unable to come on board for the Volvo Ocean Race. He intends to make up for that this year as bowman and trimmer for the American-Turkish project.
In the girls' room, we'll speak French!
In Team SCA, the all-female team, two Swiss sisters, Justine and Elodie-Jane, will be under 30 years old. This is not their first sailing experience, since the first won second place in the Mini Transat last year and the second won the amateur 2,012 ranking in the Tour de France à la Voile.
Sam Davies, an English sailor, bilingual and living in Great Britain will be the skipper of the yacht and Liz Wardey, originally from Australia, now lives in Brittany.
Of all these French-speaking recruits, only the last one is already familiar with the Volvo Ocean Race since she participated in the 2001-2002 edition with Amer Sports Too.
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