Benout finishes Vendee Globe

by Vendee media on 4 Mar 2005 Benoît Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar-Best Western), from La Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast, is the 10th competitor to have completed the Vendée Globe, in a time of 116 days, 1hr 6mins 54secs.

This is a convincing performance for the 32 year old Franco-Canadian on a boat originally launched nearly 15 years ago (ex DDP/60ème Sud). A celebrated shore crew, boat-builder and Mini 6.50 specialist, Benoît has achieved what he set out to do by sailing around the world.

He did so with intelligence, staying true to both his values and his convictions, respecting both the environment and fair trade with a constant good humour and sensitivity.

Having set out a careful pace, Benoît Parnaudeau relished the idyllicdescent of the Atlantic. He was attentive to the boat’s needs, sharing
his discoveries and his fears with a boyish enthusiasm, making the latitudes of the Southern Ocean without seeming to care too much about
where he was positioned in the general ranking.

The roaring forties woke up the competitive Parnaudeau. Totally confident in his boat,
Benoît was continually hunting down the shortest, fastest trajectory, albeit through the ice fields and the depression centres synonymous
with his very southerly course.

While those around him struggled with various problems, Benoît continued on without any serious damage, proof, if there was a need, of his prowess in preparing boats.

For some of the competitors, the round the world was a technical challenge comprising latitudes and longitudes, degrees and lifts. For others it
was wonderment when faced with the riches of nature and the act ofgoing beyond your limits.

For Benoît, it was a permanent analysis of human relations, based on geography. ‘We are off Brazil, and this is what happened here.

’Everything played to the tune of a certain idea
about human relations. As is written in the text from the ‘Declaration of Human Rights’ that went round the world with Benoît, ‘man is free and
equal’.

As a result, he should maintain relations in which each individual is respected so that it is possible to live together in harmony. The defence of fair trade naturally found its way into
Benoît’s Vendée Globe universe, a cause also defended by his sponsor Max Havelaar.

With this tenth arrival, there are but three skippers now left at sea; Anne Liardet (Roxy), Raphaël Dinelli (Akenas Verandas) and Karen Leibovici (Benefic). Anne is less than 600 miles
from the finish and currently looks set to loop the loop in Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday.

Raphaël Dinelli entered into the heart of a depression he was trying to round last night. ‘It was Verdun*!’ he said, sailing under just a storm sail alone and fleeing to escape the
backlash.

The menu for Karen Leibovici is not that appetising either, amidst big seas and a relatively poor VMG. With continuing back pain
from an operation last summer, Karen is being served up between 35 and 40 knots of wind in an unfavourable swell. 1600 miles from the finish
she courageously promised today, ‘I’ll keep going. I will bring the boat back to Les Sables d´Olonne’.

*A strategic town of great importance in French history: it saw the signing of the treaty in 843
establishing the existence of what is now France, two occupations by Prussian forces, in 1792 and 1870, and Pétain´s ten-month resistance to
the German siege of 1916, a hard-won victory which etched itself deeply into the memory of the French people.

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