Franck Cammas in the spotlight
In an exceptional year, exceptionnel? contest! The FFVoile has decided to reward in 2020, not the sailor of the year, but the sailor of the decade. The sailor who has made the biggest impact over the last 10 years through his or her performances nautiques?! There were 10 athletes competing for the jackpot.
The jury presided over by Michel Desjoyeaux - double winner of the Vendée Globe and the only triple holder of the Sailor of the Year Trophy (2001, 2007 and 2009) - and the public (whose votes counted double) designated Franck Cammas as "Sailor of the Decade"
The skipper of the Ultime Maxi Edmond de Rotschild is therefore winning this new title, having already been crowned twice by the FFVoile in 2012 and 2013. It has to be said that his track record speaks for itself.
"Choosing a sailor of the year is hard enough, so a sailor from décennie?! We had a very eclectic line-up of sailors and made the big difference between Charline Picon, Francis Joyon, Antoine Albeau and Damien Seguin. The choices went to multidisciplinary sailors. Franck is a true ambassador with a strong international reputation, which is important for French sailing. Congratulations to him for his entire ?uvre?! This title is necessarily special, because for once it is not a ranking on a race finish, but an election. It's not rien?!" explains Michel Desjoyeaux.
An impressive track record
In 2010, he broke the crewed round the world record in 48 days aboard Groupama 3. A few months later he won the Route du Rhum. In 2011-2012, he won the Volvo Ocean Race at the helm of Groupama 4 after 8 months and 10 days of racing and 19 legs raced.
In 2013, Franck Cammas returns to the M34, a 10.34 metre long one-design and wins the Tour de France à la Voile, before becoming Class C world champion in 2013 and 2015 aboard Groupama C.
In 2015, he set up Groupama Team France and took part in the 2017 America's Cup in AC50. Since 2019, he has been the skipper of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, a 32 metre trimaran, alongside Charles Caudrelier, and has already won the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Brest Atlantiques. Setting out in early December to attempt to beat the Jules Verne Trophy, the crew had to abandon their attempt after a collision with a UFO.
The words of Franck Cammas
"We don't play our sport to receive awards, but it always feels great when we are distinguished in this way, especially this year when the election looked back on the last decade. Since I started sailing, I've been incredibly fortunate to do very different disciplines: from single-handed and crewed ocean racing, on small and very large boats, to Olympic sailing, to match racing at a very high level, especially with the America's Cup. I'm a work and sailing bulimic and I love to evolve and discover new media all the time. In my career over the last ten years, there have been ups and downs with some very good victories, and downs with failures and a training accident in 2015 that could have had serious consequences. In these ten years, I obviously have tons of very good memories, but being at the helm of a French boat for the America's Cup is rare and exceptional. It was quite frustrating, because we didn't have all the cards in hand to defend ourselves on the water, but I have very fond memories of it, because it was a very strong experience. With this distinction, I'm necessarily thinking of Groupama, which has accompanied me for a very large part of my career, and of all the people in the team, thanks to whom I've been able to experience all these great challenges.
Today my daily life is written with the Gitana Team and the whole Edmond de Rothschild group. For the past two years, Charles Caudrelier and I have been working hard on this project. Gitana is a perfect synthesis of what I've learnt over the past decade. Technology, innovation and the very highest level. Flying is the great revolution of the last few years. By joining the Gitana Team at the helm of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, I've joined the pioneering approach of this entire team to deep-sea flying. It's an incredible opportunity and I hope to be able to experience as many great challenges with the same passion over the next ten years"
The 2020 solidarity prize for Jean Le Cam
The FFVoile wanted to reward Jean Le Cam for the rescue of Kevin Escoffier in this 2020 Vendée Globe. The sailor was able to put his race on hold as he sailed a faultless course to help the skipper of PRB in his life raft. Jean Le Cam manoeuvred for almost 12 hours in the middle of the night, in 30-32 knots of wind and 5 metre waves.
