Vendée Globe Skipper in the Spotlight - Michel Desjoyeaux Interview

Michel Desjoyeaux is one of the world's greatest solo sailors. He has spent his life on boats and around the sea, and if there's anyone you could say has salt water in his veins, it's Michel. With the win for the 2000-01 edition under his belt, he is entering the 2008-09 Vendée Globe as a favorite to win, as nearly all of his competitors will tell you, but he won't say that himself.

 

Unassuming, with a quick wit and a rather dry delivery, Michel is deservedly admired by many in the Vendée Globe. His name comes up nearly every time we speak with a Vendée sailor - "Michel has been helping me with...", or "Michel thinks that..." is often the preamble to any answer about the race. He is, by all accounts, not only a top sailor, but a really nice guy as well.

 

It's usually fairly easy to get sailors to talk about their accomplishments, but not Michel. He doesn't rest on his laurels, and he doesn't see much value in reciting the past. To him, experience is something you wear on your back, so that you don't ever have to look at it. What drives this champion is an overwhelming love of sailing, and maybe that's the biggest reason why we're so proud to feature Michel Desjoyeaux as this week's Sailor in the Spotlight.

 

 

We caught up with Michel at the docks, in the middle of stepping his mast.

YP: Great to speak with you today Michel. So to begin, why do you enjoy sailing?

Michel: Why do you enjoy chocolate cake? [laughing] This sport is not only a physical sport, it is a very complex, very complete sport, with lots of problems to solve each day. You have to be good in weather forecasting, you have to be good in sailing trim. Managing your time, your food, your course. It is always very busy - very complex - so you're never bored by sailing. That's why I continue to train and try to learn new things each year - each day.

 

YP: When did you start sailing?

Michel: I am 43, and my parents had a boatyard in Brittany, back in 1965 when I was born. So the place where I grew up and played and learned about life was in the boatyard. So I was born on the yachts, and I always lived around salt water. It's not by chance that I know how to sail, and how the boats are built.

 

YP: And when did you start racing?

Michel: After I graduated from school, I began to only sail when I was racing. Without any money at the beginning - but that was not a problem - it was only to sail and to race. So we can consider that I started the professional way of life when I was 18.

 

YP: What do you enjoy most about being a professional sailor?

Michel: To be on holiday for 43 years? [laughing] No, I mean, it's a very great opportunity to be able to do what you want and what you love. Of course, these days, sometimes I have to do things I don't enjoy as much as most of what I usually do, but in the whole of the activity I do what I want. Being a professional doesn't mean that you don't love what you do, it means you are paid for it. It is because you love what you do that you can do it correctly, and enjoy this life. That's why I can tell you it's like I've been on holiday for 43 years.

 

YP: What are your goals for your sailing career?

Michel: No goals. I just take opportunities. I have no career plans, just following races after races and new boats after new boats. I don't manage my life like that - I just go forward and nothing else.

 

YP: Speaking of new boats, you've sailed all kinds. What's been your favorite to race?

Michel: For me, any boat is interesting, for sure. Sailing is a mechanical sport. I also like technology, so in a mechanical sport, you can have real enjoyment because of that. That's why I prefer prototypes, not one-designs. I prefer open rules. With open rules, you can add your experience and input with the design engineers and the team to not only make faster boats, but also to design a boat which is your image - something you feel.

With the “tricycle” [trimaran] I had before, I had lots of fun because you can imagine things. You can build them. You can try them on the boat and you can compare your solution with your competitors who are not obliged to have the same ideas as you, or point of view in terms of technology.

When you are racing one-designs, you just have to know how to trim your boat and choose your course, and you have little to do with the technology on the boat, so that's why I prefer open rules. But then it's easier to find one-design races!

 

 

YP: So speaking new boats, you've seen the new Banque Populaire - the new trimaran?

Michel: Uh, yeah! [laughing] I did not go sailing on it this time, because I'm too busy with the monohull at the moment. But for sure! It's two times the size as the trimaran I had until 2006, but it's in the same spirit, the same design. I'm not impressed by the size. It's just about the money.

But about the size, you know that now the 50kn record has been beaten by two French kite surfers in Africa? So...

 

YP: Amazing, isn't it? Do you kite surf yourself?

Michel: No! My good friends - not the bad ones, but the good ones - they don't want me to learn this sport, because they say that it's too dangerous before the Vendée Globe. So I will appreciate the right to learn kite surfing after the Vendée Globe.

 

YP: Speaking of your friends, how would they describe you as a person?

Michel: You'll have to find them and ask them! I have a sense of humor, which is not always easy for other people to understand. But I have fun by myself, and that's enough. So, I'm serious at jokes, but you can be serious while joking and having fun.

 

YP: Are you married?

Michel: Not on paper, but I have had the same girlfriend for 23 years, and we already have three children together, so I think it's serious. Why do you ask, Madame? [laughing]

 

YP: Because I want to keep an eye on the next generation of sailors, who we'll be watching in 20 years!

Michel: Oh no, they don't like sailing. At school, they had the opportunity of learning Latin, or learning windsurfing. They finally said “Oh shit, we'll have to learn windsurfing,” so you can imagine that they're not the next generation of professional sailors.

 

YP: Back to you, then: You have so many achievements in your sailing career - certainly you are one of the most accomplished solo sailors in the world. What accomplishment are you the most proud of?

Michel: Experience is something that you have to fix on your back, so as not to see it. Otherwise, you don't do anything else. I'm not very proud, and I don't have to be proud about anything I did. I did them because I wanted to do them. For sure it's a nice achievement to finish long races and hard races, but just because you've finished or you've won something, it doesn't mean you don't have to try again at something new or even the same thing.

I don't know if I love single-handed racing because I win, or if I win because I love it. But in fact, those two are, together, my way of life. Just doing what I want and what I like - I'm trying to do it as well as possible. Do that, and then you will appreciate your life.

 

YP: Beyond the love, what do you think are the qualities that make a great solo ocean sailor?

Michel: I think the main quality of the single-handed sailor is that he has to accept that he can't do everything perfectly. Because you're alone, you can't do everything as if you are on a full crew. So you have to consider that you will not be able to do all the things perfectly. Sometimes you'll make things bad or just correctly, but not perfectly. When you accept this, then you can sail alone, and you can race alone, while being efficient. If you think everything is to be done perfectly, don't go alone on a boat. You will try to make one thing perfect, and everything else will go wrong.

 

YP: What's the toughest challenge you've had to face during a race?

Michel: Ha! I don't know... I think the biggest challenge is yourself, because each time you have to make a decision, you can't have a discussion with anybody, it's just you and the boat. You have to appreciate the weather conditions, the state of your boat. So you have to fight with yourself each time to find the best solution.

 

YP: So it seems like problem-solving is one of the things you enjoy?

Michel: [laughing] I hope I don't go sailing to have problems!

 

YP: But solving problems is obviously something you like to do, yes?

Michel: That's why I'm involved in the design, because I can say what I want, and know how it will work, and that solves 80% of the problems right away. Then I just have to solve the other 20% while I'm sailing!

 

YP: Do you think the Southern Ocean is where people will see the most problems in the Vendée Globe?

Michel: For sure. It takes approximately one month to get to the Southern Ocean, one month around Antarctica, and one month to get back. So for one month we will be sailing in water that may be -5°. Compared to that, the Atlantic is quite a holiday.

 

YP: Obviously, you will all be alone out in the Southern Ocean. You'll have no one to rely on but each other. Is that when you count on the sailor's code - that you'll watch out for one another?

Michel: That's why it's very important to be one of the first, because then you're quite sure that someone will be there at your back, to pick you up if you need it! [laughing] If you're at the back of the pack, nobody will be around for four more years.

 

YP: You know, you seem to downplay your greatness, but Sam Davies told us you are her sailing hero.

Michel: Sam told you that just to impress you [laughing].

 

YP: Alright, if you're not going to talk about how great you are, then is there anything that we would be surprised to learn about the real Michel?

Michel: Well, I always am learning things that surprise myself. So that makes it easy to surprise others! You can't be a copy machine, just making reproductions of your accomplishments - so every day should be surprising.

 

YP: And finally: Any 'surprising' advice you would give young sailors who want to become world-class ocean racers like yourself?

Michel: They have to go to school as much as possible, because these days racing is complex. You can't be a racer these days by just thinking about where the wind comes from. Go to school, work hard, and maybe someday you'll be able to get such a job.

 

- Kim Hampton exclusively for YachtPals.com

 

 

 

READ MORE ABOUT THE Vendee Globe or Michel Desjoyeaux:

• Michel Desjoyeaux (Michel's Profile Page - YachtPals, add Michel to your Buddy List)
• Foncia - Michel Desjoyeaux (Michel's Boat Home Page for Foncia)
• Michel Desjoyeaux (all news and photos about Michel Desjoyeaux)
• Vendee Globe (all news, blogs, and photos about the Vendee Globe)
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Dee Caffari
  
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Loïck Peyron
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Steve White
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Sam Davies
• Vendée Globe Skipper in the Spotlight - Mike Golding
• Sailor in the Spotlight (all YachtPals Sailor in the Spotlight Interviews, including Dame Ellen MacArthur, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, and more)

 

Submitted By YachtPals on 26 Oct

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