© © Anne Beaugé / Retour à La Base

The youngest competitor in this first edition of Retour à La Base crossed the finish line in 23rd place at 00:34 on Wednesday December 13. The Devenir sailor will have covered the 3,500 theoretical miles of the course in the space of 12 days 7 hours 34 minutes 55 seconds, at an average speed of 11.83 knots. With a freshness and mentality in inverse proportion to her experience, the Breton sailor actually covered 4,464.17 miles at an average speed of 15.10 knots

 

SHE SAID :

"I’m so pleased to have succeeded. It’s a huge challenge to sail across the Atlantic on an IMOCA and not in the most traditional direction. This was a pre-Vendée Globe for me. I have done it and am proud of myself. It was great training and I am getting to feel my boat more and more. At the end, it was a bit hard, although even when I was a bit behind, I kept telling myself that I would do a gybe in the same way as if I was in front. I gave it my all during manoeuvres.
I broached a lot and that’s what caused all the damage. I really need to work on that. My downwind sail gave up the ghost in the middle of the Atlantic and that was important in this race. I broke my mainsail track too. One night, I had a complete energy blackout for a couple of hours. I rewired everything on the secondary circuit, then on the primary circuit. I hadn’t realised I was capable of doing that. There were a lot of ifs and buts concerning this Retour à La Base, as it is such a huge challenge, so that is why I’m just so pleased to have finished."


Her race in numbers


Finish time: 23:34:55hrs UTC
Race time: 12 days 7 hours 34 mins 55 secs
Delta to winner: 3 days 7 hours 31 mins
Miles sailed: 4464.17 miles
Real average speed: 15.1 knots
Average speed on the Great Circle route: 11.83 knots