Marc Guillemot – Safran
Born on 25th June 1959 in Quimper (Brittany, France)
Lives in La Trinité-sur-Mer (Brittany, France)
IMOCA Skipper since 2006
Before taking the helm of the SAFRAN monohull, Marc Guillemot was one of those, who used to hop around multihulls, the giant 60-foot trimarans, which he sailed single-handedly and at high speeds. His return to monohulls impressed the ocean racing world, but if we look a little more closely, it is certainly not down to chance. Here’s a portrait of a born competitor.
Never making more noise than necessary, Marc Guillemot is however, one of those sailors that figure in the elite group of top level yachtsmen. Apart from a list of achievements that tells us a lot (read below), his return to racing aboard a monohull definitely left a deep impression this winter during the Transat Jacques Vabre (2nd) and the Transat Ecover B t B (5th). For someone, who willingly admits « not having raced in a monohull since 1994, with Eric Tabarly on board La Poste during the crewed round the world voyage,» we might have feared some less spectacular results. As, if he had not suffered from damage to his spinnaker in the Jacques Vabre, he would have been battling it out at the front with Michel Desjoyeaux and if he had not had a problem with his keel system in the Transat Ecover B to B, he would probably have finished up there with the winners…
Unanimously congratulated by his peers and by the specialist media on the speed of his SAFRAN and his ability to sail it quickly and on the right track, this pure Breton, brought up in the sea air of Bénodet and who quickly caught the ocean racing bug, has thus already marked a triumphant return to one-hulled boats. At the age of fifteen, Marc was already doing delivery trips, by eighteen, his first major races alongside another top name, Bertrand de Broc. As a teenager, Marc Guillemot sailed in the wake of the Poupon brothers, until he had quenched his thirst for ocean adventure, before becoming interested, even back then, in the design and build of racing yachts.
Results
– 4th in The Artemis Transat 2008
– 5th in the Transat Ecover B to B 2007
– 2nd in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2007 (with Charles Caudrelier)
– 7th in the Route du Rhum 2006
– 2nd in the Route du Rhum 2002
– 2nd in the Europe 1 Star (single-handed transatlantic race from England) 2000
– 2nd in the Quebec – Saint-Malo 2000 as part of a crew
– 4th in the Route du Rhum 1998
– 4th in the Quebec – Saint-Malo 1996
– 4th in the Open UAP 1995
– 2nd in the Transat Ag2r two-handed race Lorient-Saint-Barth’ 1994
– Winner of the Open UAP 1993
– Winner of the Multihull Trophy 1989
– Winner of the Quebec-Saint-Malo 1988
– Atlantic record in 7 days 6 h 32 minutes in 1988
– 3rd in the Round Europe race 1985
– Atlantic record in 8 days 16 h 36 minutes in 1984