The return of 28-year-old Jules Bonnier to the Transat Québec-Saint-Malo 2024 marks a new chapter in his ocean racing career. We continue our meeting with this determined skipper on the quays of the corsair town, who is increasingly asserting his status as one of sailing's greats.
During your last participation in the Route du Rhum, a video shows you singing with gusto, which seems to motivate you greatly! If you had to choose one song to symbolize your Transat experience, what would it be?
For the Route du Rhum, it was quite a special context. In general, I listen to everything, and some music is really stimulating. For this video, Nicolas Touzé did the editing. He asked me to film anything and everything, even the odd moments after several days alone at sea!
Before the start of the Route du Rhum, I prepared my playlists with podcasts and music. I discovered that Orelsan was releasing a reissue of his latest album, which I listened to on the first night at sea. There was a song on it, "On a gagné", which I thought was brilliant. I listened to it throughout the crossing. I remember one night, after rounding Guadeloupe, I was stuck in the calm, unable to set off again. When the wind finally picked up behind Basse-terre, I was just a few tacks from the finish line. I was listening to this song, and the lyrics "We've won" seemed to fit perfectly with my feeling of having reached my goal. It was really cool.
As a little anecdote, a week later, when I arrived in Paris, a childhood friend suggested I stay and go to the Orelsan concert. It was fun to get straight to the Orelsan concert after the race! Since then, I still sometimes listen to that music with a smile.
Do you have a lucky charm or grigri that you take with you on your offshore races?
I'm pretty superstitious myself. At the start of the Route du Rhum, I was given several small gris-gris, which I was happy to receive. I kept them on board for a while, but ended up taking them all off, as I had to make room for them... They were gifts from family and friends.
As a rule, I don't really have any particular lucky charms. I try to eliminate these superstitious elements from my environment for fear they'll have the opposite effect! Besides, the boat's reliable, which reassures me.
What are the most challenging and rewarding moments you've experienced at sea?
In ocean racing, especially single-handed racing where lack of sleep amplifies emotions, even small victories can seem huge. Conversely, major achievements can seem normal. So it's sometimes difficult to distinguish which is really the most significant.
A concrete example is after the Route du Rhum, in early 2023. We took part in a return race called the Défi Atlantique, starting from Pointe-à-Pitre, going to Horta in the Azores, then back to La Rochelle. It was crewed by Robin Follin and Thibault Le Carpentier.
On April 1st, after an hour's racing, we broke a part of the mast, which almost dismasted us. It took us 5 days to get a part from Romania to repair it.
So we got back into the race with a delay; out of the race for stage 1, but with the aim of reaching Horta as quickly as possible and performing well on stage 2. We arrived in Horta just 36 hours before the start of Leg 2. We took the time to eat, shower and sleep, then got back into the race. After 5 or 6 days, we finished 2nd in the second leg in La Rochelle. Finishing 2nd after all we'd been through was a victory in itself, even if we were last in the overall race standings because of the backlog we'd accumulated. Arriving in La Rochelle under a superb sun with wind that allowed the boat to make good progress, the sense of achievement was immense! This moment remains one of the most beautiful memories of the last 3 years, a real reward for all our efforts.
As skipper of Entrepreneurs pour la Planète, how do you integrate your environmental concerns into your career? Do you have any specific initiatives or projects linked to protecting the oceans?
We try to adopt eco-responsible practices at our level. For example, we hand over all damaged or unused sails to stores specializing in recycling and upcycling. We've also chosen to keep an old-generation boat rather than build a new one, to reduce our environmental impact. We use renewable energies as much as possible, in particular by having developed a fleet of solar panels on the boat.
For races such as the Route du Rhum and other transatlantic races, we have consumed less than 50 liters of diesel for more than 15 days at sea, the rest being covered by solar energy. We also try to integrate more ecological materials whenever possible, using biosourced resins and more environmentally-friendly fibers for the boat's non-structural parts.
Even if totally transforming our approach is a challenge, we believe that small actions have a cumulative impact. As far as Entrepreneurs pour la Planète is concerned, the association supports projects linked to environmental protection. We use our visibility to promote the association and raise awareness among the people we meet in each port. The idea is to arouse the interest of entrepreneurs and encourage them to get in touch with the association. We also support the association by donating part of our budget each year. We're proud of this collaboration and of our contribution to its mission, and we continue to make efforts, even on a small scale, to move in the right direction.
Do you have any specific dreams or goals you'd like to achieve in the world of ocean racing over the next few years?
Ideally, I'd like to do every race there is! It's not easy, but I'd love to do the Route du Rhum again in 2026. That's my first big goal. First of all, I'd like to improve my performance in Class40. Then, why not, in other categories. I'd love to do multihulls one day, or IMOCAs too. I'd also like to sail around the world, either solo or with a crew.
So no, clearly, I'm quite happy at sea and I'm happy to be involved in these projects. I'd go for anything! Typically, I've done very few Figaro races. For me, the Figaro solo race is an extraordinary race that I'd like to take part in one day. I think it's very difficult to go there as a one-shot because there's every chance of getting a very bad result. But if I ever get the chance, it's also a race I'd love to do. Clearly, I'm interested in any race on any type of support! So on that point, I'm quite open to sailing.
