Florence Arthaud was born on 28 October 1957 in Boulogne-Billancourt to Jacques Arthaud, director of the Arthaud publishing house, which specialised in publications on the theme of adventure and travel. In the 1960s, Jacques Arthaud successfully created the "Sea collection" inaugurated by Eric Tabarly. It was his father who gave him a passion for the sea and a taste for sailing.
Alongside her father and brother, she began sailing at an early age, aboard the Argade II . She later joined the Antibes Sailing Club. In 1974, at the age of 17, Florence had her first brush with death when she was paralyzed in a coma following a serious car accident. She was hospitalized for two months and took two long years to fully recover. It was this dramatic event that gave the young girl from a good family the desire to live her life as a free woman. She even stopped her medical studies.
The first Transatlantic
She owes her first Atlantic crossing to Jean-Claude Parisis, teammate of Alain Gabbay, French skipper, on the 2 e stage of the 2 e round-the-world race, with stopovers and crew, on board 33 Export in 1977/1978. She was 18 years old. " I drink a coffee in the yacht club with Gabbay, who tells me about his hard crossing. Jean-Claude Parisis, sitting next to us, looks at me with eyes full of desire and says: " Miss, will you cross the Atlantic with me?" I don't hesitate for a quarter of a second. He hasn't seen a female figure in weeks and devours me with his eyes. His proposal is a bit dishonest... [He takes me across the Atlantic for the first time. It is a real trigger for me. I discover the days punctuated by sunsets or moonrises, the suspended time, the eternity of these moments. The stars, the immense sky, the curve of the horizon, the endless world, the murmur of the ocean, the company of dolphins, the breath of whales. Everything is new for me, everything has changed. I feel free and light. I do not miss the earth. I just got to know my secret garden, my own universe."
The first participations in the Route du Rhum
In 1978, she took part in the very first Route du Rhum and was ranked 11 e place, on board X .perimental . She is the youngest of the competition. Mike Birch won this edition, a few seconds ahead of Malinovski.
She tried her luck again in 1982, aboard Biotherm II, then again in 1986 with Energy and Communication . It is ranked respectively 20 e and 11 e . On the 3 e edition, she goes to assist Loïc Caradec, whose trimaran with the huge wing mast has turned over Royal II, but no trace of its skipper. He is missing.
It is thanks to her first participations in the Rhum, that she manages to make a name for herself in the world of sailors. She quickly earned the nickname of "Little Bride of the Atlantic". She has no career plan and works on the spur of the moment. Without an agent to find her partners, she progresses according to her meetings. This is how, through her father, she met the real estate developer Christian Garrel. Florence Arthaud convinced him to finance the construction of her large golden trimaran, Pierre 1 er .
The year 1990 consecrates two records for the young woman. In August 1990, she beat the record, held by Loïck Peyron, of the North Atlantic Crossing under sail. Choosing to do it solo, from west to east, she won the "Loïc Caradec Trophy" in homage to the late skipper on board the trimaran Peter 1 er from Serbia in 9 days 21 hours and 42 minutes.
A sailing legend is born
On November 18, she became a legend! At 33 years old, the outspoken sailor with the lioness mane has just achieved a double. First of all, she is the first woman to win an ocean crossing and moreover, she has set the record. She beats Philippe Poupon, previous winner of the Route du Rhum, Laurent Bourgnon and Mike Birch, 1 er winner of the Transatlantic race. After 14 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes, she arrived in Pointe-à-Pitre, suffering a chaotic end of course. Without radio or automatic pilot, she was about to set off her distress beacon, when she learned that she was in the lead.
She confided that technical problems were not the only ones encountered on board. Starting with a herniated disc in her cervical spine, she will also have to deal with a hemorrhage due to a miscarriage. A woman of character, rebellious, Florence does as she pleases! It is a great nose-thumbing that she sends to all those who had mocked her, saying that she "wasn't really cut out for it."
euros her arrival, the crowd is jubilant, the journalists are all trying to get the first words of the "Little Bride of the Atlantic" as she was nicknamed after her victory. Big-mouthed, she calls everyone to order. She confided to the media, to everyone's surprise " I don't think the seafaring community is a macho community [euros] It's a seafaring community where people value each other for their qualities and not at all a macho community."
Quote from A wind of freedom of Florence Arthaud.
