Alexia Barrier and Anne-Claire Le Berre are competing in the Route du Rhum, a race in which women remain a small minority. Of the 115 skippers who left Saint-Malo on Sunday, November 1, 11 were women. In an interview with Le Monde before the start, the sailors discussed their paths through a still male-dominated world of offshore racing and the difficulty of establishing themselves in it.
Barrier, 46, is the first woman to enter the Ultim class, which features 32-metre multihulls. She is sailing Idec-Sport-CIC, a 22-year-old boat. Barrier said her target would depend on the weather, but that a finish in seven to eight days would make her proud. The course record, set by Charles Caudrelier in 2022, is six days and 19 hours; her boat’s record is seven days and 14 hours.
She also pointed to the value of learning from sailors who had previously raced the boat, saying that success was not only a matter of the vessel’s size but also of judgment and adaptability. Le Berre, 44, is racing UpWind-By-MerConcept in the Ocean Fifty class, aboard a 15-metre multihull. She is the first woman to start in the category in 16 years.
The available interview extract focuses on the skippers’ participation and Barrier’s sporting ambitions; the remainder of the article is restricted to subscribers.
Sources: Le Monde Sport.