Bernard Stamm is far from being done with technical problems. On Sunday, while François Gabart was crossing the Vendée Globe finish line, the Cheminées Poujoulat skipper had to climb up the mast to fix his main sail traveller in very rough weather conditions: Last night was a complicated day, so I had to lower the main sail and climb up the mast. It was a tricky operation, it was shaking so much… I couldn’t feel my arms at one point and now I have bruises all over. I was dead tired when I came down, I could barely walk. But I just couldn’t get some rest immediately. I hoisted the main sail but I still have no winch column, so it wasn’t easy. Once it was all over, I just crashed in my bed, I so needed to recover. Conditions are getting a little better but the sea is still terrible, I had never seen that before in the trade winds. There is a three-metre swell and the boat keeps crashing in the waves. The weather for the next few days is very uncertain, I’m not sure whether the anticyclone is going to be in our way, we’ll need to wait for a couple of days until we know more. Let’s see what we get and keep our fingers crossed so the boat can take it ".
The Swiss sailor also wanted to congratulate the MACIF skipper for his impressive Vendée Globe win: The first word that comes to mind is Congratulations! He made very few mistakes and François and Armel both took their boats back all the way to the finish. All the hard work before the race paid off, they’ve sailed really well, they imposed their rhythm and what we saw during pre-race trainings was confirmed in the race. They were always ahead, they were very confident when manoeuvring but they had to do it for two months and a half, and they did it! Kudos to them both!
