Paris-based journalist Igor Mladenovic reflects on the life of sailor Florence Arthaud, who died along with two other French athletes and seven more in a helicopter crash in Argentina.
– Three French sports stars dead in helicopter crash
– Team SCA select team for VOR Leg Five
– #Quiz360: Win dinner for two at Media Rotana
When Florence Arthaud deviated from her course in the 1986 Route du Rhum race, four years prior to becoming the first woman to win the most prestigious Transatlantic sailing competition, she arrived at the spot where the late sailor sent an SOS only to find her catamaran turned upside down. “There is no better way to die,” she later reflected.
Born in 1957 to a wealthy family near Paris, Arthaud had long understood her freedom lay on the water. Initiated to sailing by her father Jacques, an editor who ran the Arthaud publishing house which released the tales of famous sailors Bernard Moitessier and Eric Tabarly, she fell in love with the sea at an early age, alongside brother Jean-Marie.
Arthaud’s passion for life on the waves was such that she developed a unique talent for navigating them. In a sport reserved for men, she decided to follow her own path and become a sailor. A serious crash in 1974 when she was barely aged 17 left her in a coma after the car transporting her rolled seven times. She spent six months in hospital and on release decided she would be better off at sea rather than on dry land.
The following year she crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, alongside Jean-Claude Parisis. In 1978 she dared to compete in the first edition of Route du Rhum, which has built a reputation for revealing a sailor’s true character in the face of adversity.
She had to fight the elements to finish a respectable 11th spot, but it was more than the unfavourable weather that threatened her journey from Saint-Malo in Brittany, France to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Arthaud’s ascent was greeted by scepticism at a woman trying to stand out in a sport dominated by men.
Despite the initial difficulties that confronted Arthaud, her larger-than-life personality and racing success finally endeared her to the sailors she competed against. Never one to hold back, she made her opinions known and lived like a true adventurer. The shame here is that she would never really gain the status (and financial endorsements that went with it), which her achievements legitimately befell her.
It was 1990 that Arthaud enjoyed the greatest milestone of her career. In August, two months shy of her 33rd birthday, she beat the single-handed Transatlantic sailing world record, sailing from Bruno Peyron in 9 days, 21 hours and 42 minutes.
Three months later, Arthaud competed for the fourth time in the Route du Rhum against doctors’ advice, setting sail despite suffering from a damaged cervical vertebra. She would take off the surgical corset protecting her spinal cord on the eve of the race and go on to lead the pack after four days before losing radio communication.
She decided to continue on her path, knowing an about-turn would be even more difficult to carry out. “At one stage I went to sleep without knowing if I would wake up,” she recalled after the race.
Devastating news re helicopters that crashed in Argentina. My deepest thoughts are with all the families and friends of those who died. #RIP
— Thierry Henry (@ThierryHenry) March 10, 2015
Florence Arthaud, Camille Muffat and Alexis Vastine were all true ambassadors for their country. Let’s remember how they lived. #RIP
— Thierry Henry (@ThierryHenry) March 10, 2015
Only a few hours before reaching the finish line, her persistence was rewarded as a plane overhead informed Arthaud that she still held the lead.
And so, on November, 18 1990 in Pointe-a-Pitre, Arthaud became the first woman to win the Route du Rhum. Only Ellen McArthur (competing in the monohull category in 2002) has since emulated that feat.
Following her victory, Arthaud earned the nickname ‘Little Fiancee of the Atlantic’ and set about searching for new challenges to conquer. She wanted to continue to challenge the established order, both in terms of gender and of nationality.
Arthaud took great pride in representing her country in a sailing practice dominated by the Anglo-Saxons for centuries that dated back to John Jervis addressing the House of Lords in 1801 on the likelihood of an invasion by sea from Napoleon’s army.
“I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I say only they will not come by sea,” he famously declared.
Her sponsor, Christian Garrel, is a real estate promoter that financed the construction of the Peter I of Serbia catamaran, which Arthaud sailed to glory in that remarkable year of 1990. However, a housing crisis disrupted the pair’s projects and Garrel was forced to step down from the new trimaran project with which Arthaud planned to pursue her new challenges.
Family life took centre stage in 1993 as Arthaud gave birth to her only daughter Marie but she decided to continue sailing.
This did not prove easy and her thwarted attempts to pursue the around-the-world sailing record were the first of many obstacles that would ultimately end her career.
With no financial backing she was forced to withdraw and would later concede her disgust: “In 2010, on the 20th birthday of my Route du Rhum victory, I tried to be assigned a large trimaran named Oman but they gave it to a man. This is when I told myself – enough, this is it.”
Having been forced to end her sailing career led to a period of great personal struggles for Arthaud, who periodically fought alcoholism as she struggled to come to terms with life on the land. Similar to other mercurial talents such as Diego Maradona in football or Marlon Brando in acting, Arthaud was absorbed by sailing and found herself lost away from sea. A true fish out of water.
Aux grands champions de sport Camille Muffat, Alexis Vastine et Florence Arthaud le plus grand respect possible. Merci pour tout.
— Jonny Wilkinson (@JonnyWilkinson) March 11, 2015
Tragedy nearly reared its head in 2011 after Arthaud fell off her boat when sailing alone off Cape Corsica but she managed to reach out for help on her waterproof telephone and be rescued, conscious but suffering from hypothermia.
Arthaud’s autobiography ‘Tonight, the Sea is Black’ is an insightful look at her remarkable life and some of the hurdles she not only encountered as a sailor, but as a woman searching for her place on this planet. Her signature was found on Tuesday in an opinion piece on gender equality released by French newspaper Libération in the wake of International’s Women’s Day.
Her taste for adventure was certainly what brought her to take part in the TV show which took her to Argentina last week. Barred from fulfilling her goals in a defiant world, Florence Arthaud will go down as a true sailing pioneer.
For tonight, and many more to come, the sea is black for her loss.
