Damien Seguin: "I had a thousand reasons to stop, but I had a thousand reasons to continue…"

It was a huge relief, because I struggled so much! It wasn't an easy round the world race, physically, psychologically, sportingly, and so my emotions took over at the line. Crossing the line….well, I've been waiting for this moment for a few days, the closer I got the more it seemed to be delayed, so yes, it feels very good. This channel was great with the sun rising, being the first boat in this morning. In the end, it's the only time in this Vendée Globe where I feel like I've been lucky!

In terms of the sporting objectives, yes, I felt a lot of frustration. I had a lot of difficulties on a lot of levels, a lack of luck and success in terms of weather. I'll have to replay the race to debrief a bit, but I think that Sam and I are really the two who have had our bad luck, it wears you out and it makes you think. And this wasn’t the Vendée Globe I was dreaming of.

Exactly, a completed one, a second. I had a thousand reasons to give up, but I also had a thousand reasons to continue. When you’re in difficulty, you have to dig deep inside yourself. In any case, you can race around the planet twice, the only thing the two races have in common is that it’s round, everything else can be different.

I still can't fully explain that phase, it's part of the sport, you can't be 100% psychologically and physically on top all the time. I thought I had set my cursor in the right place. I have a good boat, it won the last Vendée Globe, but it has some weaknesses too, it is robust but is not very good in light airs. This start of the race in the calm, it distracted me, it took me a little time to find another way to express myself in this race rather than just through the sporting result. The change of mode was not easy, it was carried outside by many people. The technical team put an extraordinary boat in my hands, I was a little ashamed sometimes of not being able to achieve something on the water, but I continued. When you start a race, you have to finish it.

Yes, and the chance to do this whole sport quite simply. To have a sponsor like this who has supported me for 8 years, the red wave, I am extremely lucky. We are finishing a nice chapter. And then on top of all that I am not the type to give up. Yes, there was frustration, but I don't give up, I always find a reason to continue to challenge myself, to push the boat to make it move forward fast. The climb back up the North Atlantic was hard because each time everyone came back to me, and in the end it forced me to really push at 110% and get this fifteenth place. It wasn’t the one I dreamed of at the start, but it’s nice and I went after it with everything.

The boat and the skipper aren’t in really good shape, but I think it’s worse for me. I’ve been injured a lot, I even had to make a choice with the race doctors in New Zealand. They gave me the choice to stop or continue, I decided to continue knowing the risks. I still got really hurt. It was a difficult time, I injured my head, my neck, my knee, when you’re in the race you tell yourself it’s okay, but in fact you realise it’s much more serious than you realise…

With all the little physical glitches, there’s going to be a good medical assessment, I think it’s going to take me a while to recover. These boats are extremely demanding, I was able to see this with all the medical sensors that we had put in place. Specifically, the shocks that we constantly take, the noise, the intensity... The skipper is really the limit, it becomes unbearable on board. I think that at some point we will have to review this equation. When you are on all fours to eat, when you cannot eat hot food for four days, the notion of pleasure is complicated. On a Vendée Globe, there is the competition part and there is the adventure part. The two still have to manage to converge. I am one of those who think that records are not necessarily made to be broken, racing is about going faster than the others, we do not necessarily need to always go at 30 knots.

It is in great condition, I am very proud of it! That was also one of the things that we wanted to highlight. Innovation is part of our sport, but at some point all of this has an environmental cost, and we must not ignore it. We are the actors of our sport, but we are also the decision-makers, I wanted to go further than the rule. It is a 100% French sail, with 45% linen that comes from Normandy, and after a round the world trip it finishes up in very good condition, and I hope that it will make people think about voting for the next rules. Our sport must be used for something!

In the end, I was alone a lot, except on the Atlantic crossing. We experienced competitions at all levels, there were groups that formed in specific weather conditions. When I was alone, it was difficult not to have a benchmark next to me, you had to find motivation to always give the best of yourself. I was very envious when I saw others sailing in straight lines. When you're unlucky, you shouldn't blame the whole world, even if it happened to me, just accept that when it doesn't want to happen, it doesn't want to.

 

He's my Yoyo and I'm his Dada! It's such as sincere friendship, no artifice. He's always been in all my projects, I've tried to help him as much as I could, we're very good friends. I was sure he would have a great Vendée Globe and he didn’t prove me wrong. It’s one of the things that carried me during this Vendée, seeing his performance, I’m really proud of him. A little anecdote in passing, on our second Jacques Vabre together, we had to dock out ot the Le Havre basin, he said to me: “There’s a young guy who’s going to help us get the boat out of the port”. That young guy was Charlie Dalin… in the end, I launched all the big guys! (laughs)

It’s definitely the end of a chapter. I’m passionate about my sport, I still want to do great things on the water, but I’m going to take the time to think carefully. But you can’t stop like that when you’re passionate, I’ll find a way to sail!