Back in Europe for a few a weeks now, Sébastien has been busy since being forced to retire from the 2008/09 Vendée Globe. After a short stop-over in Paris at the Vendée Globe Race HQ to participate in the daily call with the sailors still in the race, Sébastien then went on to fulfill some further media obligations before meeting up with many of BT’s employees who had rallied round in their support of Seb, then Seb headed back to Britanny to be with friends and family.
“For the moment, I need to wait for BT to come back home, so I am working on my fitness and use the available time to make sure everything will be perfect for the rest of the season. I’ll do some winter racing in Brittany where the scene is thriving, and take out my windsurf gear in the winter gales – that should keep me busy and reasonably in shape!” said Seb. On Sunday 01st of February, he had the opportunity to go and witness Michel Desjoyeaux’s victory in Les Sables d’Olonne – at the same time, a tough and great moment for the BT skipper who has seen his own race end prematurely in the Pacific Ocean whilst with the leading group of Desjoyeaux, Jean Le Cam and Roland Jourdain – two other skippers who have also had to face the crushing disappointment of not finishing this epic solo race.
Since then the BT Team have launched into a refit and recovery operation in Auckland. The complete team – PE, Charlie, Rhys and Paul-Ed have been working to carry out a relatively major refit to repair the damaged boat and get BT ready for the busy 2009 race circuit.
Sébastien is looking forward to the IMOCA racing season ahead and in particular the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre leaving on 7th of November from Le Havre to Costa Rica. “The Transat Jacques Vabre is the pinnacle of the 2009 season, and given what the boat demonstrated in terms of speed potential in the Vendée Globe, I’ve got my sights set on at least a podium finish! Of course, the choice of my co-skipper is already being considered, and to be frank I can think of a few guys I’d like to race with‚ so it won’t be an easy decision to make.”