That’s a beautiful story. A nice person too. This is also how sum it up – if that is possible – those who know him well. The Rochelais Arthur Le Vaillant will be at the start of the Route du rhum, on November 6, in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), destination Guadeloupe. What was far from won for the man who, at 34, will be alone at the helm of Bettera giant trimaran (Ultim class): its societal convictions and a certain vision of ocean racing did not necessarily facilitate the search for sponsors.
In this month of July, he came to pick us up – barefoot – at Auray station (Morbihan) and it was on the ground, in the garden of his shared apartment, in La Trinité-sur-Mer, that we spent a long time chatted with this hybrid sailor. That of shared houses and keys under the fig tree, who eats organic, largely local and vegetarian, cites Victor Hugo and Marguerite Duras, Michel Serres and Edgar Morin, Greta Thunberg and Adèle Haenel, chef Olivier Roellinger, and also Winston Churchill because who said that : “Success is neither definitive nor an end in itself, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts. »
Arthur Le Vaillant was born two days before Christmas 1987, from the love of Isabelle, his adored mother who recites Paul Eluard to him and makes him listen to Barbara, and Jean-Baptiste known as “Jean Bat”, a man with multiple nicknames, in the mischievous eye and smile of Mona Lisa. Reputed to be silent and yet so generous with stories and knowledge, he practices the art of understatement better than well – “I know a little about it”, he teases us by evoking sailing and attacking his chocolate crepe – when, of him, Loïck Peyron simply says that “He is the best master sailmaker in the world”.
Discreet, this father has been the crew of many of the big names in sailing over the past thirty years. “Maybe that’s why I wanted to become a skipper. To differentiate myself », asks Arthur. However, when he was in sport-studies, Arthur swore only by windsurfing and dreamed of participating in the Olympic Games. Before putting himself in the lead, in 2010, to participate in the Solitaire du Figaro.
He makes a few mocking remarks. It must be said that, at home, all the greats of offshore racing parade. Benjamin of this edition, he ranks best “rookie” during the fourth and last leg: not bad for a solo novice.
An accident that marks a turning point
And then there is this regatta in Mallorca (Spain), “this April 24, 2011”, he says, suddenly as precise as a foil can be sharp. It’s the accident: a piece wraps around his right arm and shears the muscle, the artery and the radial nerve. He owes his life to an emergency doctor: start of internal bleeding.
In 2018, Arthur Le Vaillant took the start of the Rhum and finished fourth. In 2020, he hands down the Grand Prix de Brest Multi 50
To the doctors who tell him that he will no longer be able to use his arm, he prefers the sirens of his physiotherapist. It hurts, it does well, Arthur Le Vaillant hangs on, even if it is quite possible that this accident marks a turning point. Helped by a close family member, the naval architect Marc Van Peteghem, the Rochelais spent a lot of time in Paris, before returning to the pontoons, coming second.of the Transat Jacques-Vabre in Class 40, in 2017. The following year, he took the start of the Rhum and finished fourth. In 2020, he won the Brest Multi 50 Grand Prix hands down.
Brest harbor is like going back to basics. This is where his father was tacking. In the gully, under the Térénez bridge. And then ” it is [sa] life, the multihull: it is a tribute to lightness and flexibility”.
But the story takes a less pretty turn when his then sponsor lets go. “I was landed for my unconditional support for SOS Méditerranée [ONG de secours en mer aux migrants] and for an insufficiently defined life project”says the one who prefers to keep his freedom of speech than to please the financiers. “We need to reassure the sponsors, and it’s true that I’m not very reassuringhe has fun, a greedy smile. I need to have dreams and follow through. »
“It’s the world of yesterday that hangs on, it scares me”
Dreams, here we go again. On the ground, Arthur is also active. Co-founded Sailcoop, a sailing passenger transport cooperative, and La Vague. In this collective, launched at the beginning of 2020, by skippers worried about the impact of their sport on the environment, we find Paul Meilhat, Gwénolé Gahinet, or Roland Jourdain who will be at the start of Le Rhum with his fiberglass catamaran. lin and the displayed wish of“leading the way in environmental performance”.
Because, as Roland Jourdain says, if sailors are “cloud catchers” and that one “A boat is pretty when it’s going well”, the objective of these sailors is to “paradigm shift”. For Arthur, no doubt: “There is a real drift of always more in terms of budget, boat. We put a lot of intelligence into making our toys go faster, let’s put our intelligence into being less impactful” on the environment, advocates those who would dream of seeing organized, before the races, training in environmental issues. “There is still far too much inertia, it’s the world of yesterday that hangs on, that scares me. »
He is afraid of locking himself up, too, in a world of competition and performance alone. And to continue, aware of its paradoxes: “What is beautiful is the battle, the commitment that we put into it. I find it very nice that, during the last Vendée Globe, the winner was not the first to cross the line, but the one who rescued Kevin Escoffier. Beautiful also when Kilian Jornet [le champion d’ultra-trail] ends up hand in hand with his “opponent”: that, I dream of! »
Just as he dreamed of the Route du rhum, when, as a kid, he had displayed in his room a poster of Florence Arthaud, the friend of the family who, in the setting sun of Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), on November 18, 1990, had “proved that a woman could win”. She was 33 years old. Arthur is 34, and the desire to wear ” coherently ” this project which took shape from December 2021.
A recycled boat
To respect his eco-friendliness, the sailor used recycling: his boat was the Geronimo Olivier de Kersauson, before being successively reviewed and skippered by Thomas Coville and Yves Le Blevec. Since then, the painter Olivier Masmonteil has drawn a tree and a brushstroke has been given to display its color: it will be Better, a collective of entrepreneurs concerned about the environment.
By autumn, the aim is to make the boat more reliable, relaunched on July 4, in Lorient. At the manoeuvre, a light team: there are only two when some sponsors employ fifteen people. But that’s not counting the help of friends. Loïck Peyron was there on July 29 and 30. And then there is Jean Bat, the rediscovered dad, so enthusiastic to be there and to give a “little helping hand” that he sleeps in a tent at the end of the garden. Discreet (“It’s his life, I let him do it”) and undoubtedly proud, but a little worried – “not sure how to always sleep well at night”.
With a valiant heart, moreover, nothing is impossible. like winning, “but without crushing the other”. Even if it means cutting the road rather than crossing the line, like Bernard Moitessier in 1968 during the first solo round the world race? “That would suck, wouldn’t it? » Incorrigible Arthur. Sensitive too. Because of course he asks himself the question of the long road. That she is certainly not really straight – he who is also a songwriter and singer would like “leave songs and lyrics in people’s hearts” –, but that he dreams of it as beautiful, inclusive, supportive.
Let it be said, in the Le Vaillant family, we will now also have to remember Arthur, because it could well be that sailing has found its new wave.
