SIX WOMEN SAILORS are to start the solo, around-the-world Vendee Globe 2020-21 on Sunday.As Pip Hare notes: "More men have walked on the moon than women have completed the Vendee Globe." These six skippers are the focus of our coverage – the stories of courage and daring they bring to a competition with each other and 27 male sailors.
“There is still a lot unknown to me on this Vendée Globe. … I will learn on the job. … I know I’m going to have very difficult times, but I want to make the most of it, to be good at sea….”
Clarisse Cremer had a career dialed in as an entrepreneur. Her contacts alone would open doors –she studied at HEC Paris, ranked No. 2 in the world for its alumni network by The Economist. Harvard came in at No. 11.
Cremer was off to a fast start with an adventure travel business she’d started with her brother. Then the bug of blue water sailboat racing bit, and how.Cremer campaigned as a novice in the 2017 Mini Transatand blew away the competition. She excelled at wringing speed from a 21-foot, massively powered sailboat on the 4,000-plus mile course from France to Martinique, with one stop off Africa’s coast.The media heaped praise on her, as in this account from interestingsailboats.com: