Louis Burton second across the line in the Vendée Globe 2020/21
by Vendée Globe 27 Jan 2021 17:41 PST
27 January 2021
Louis Burton on Bureau Vallée 2 second across the line in the Vendée Globe - 80 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes, 12 seconds © Olivier Blancet / Alea / Vendée Globe
Second across the finish line, Saint Malo skipper Louis Burton was visibly delighted with his race, revealing he had an electrical fire which latterly hampered his performance.
"There is a great joy to be reunited with my loved ones and to be out of harm's way. Breaking the line in 2nd position is a crazy thing, especially with the race I had. I tried not to think too much about the finish during the race, it's like when you are riding a bike and you have a very steep hill to climb, if you look all the way up you get discouraged.
It's a dream come true a second time for me and this time at the forefront so it's the dream.
I haven't said anything the last few days, my strategy since the doldrums has been to try to get here. I had a fire at the entrance to the doldrums so a general blackout of the entire electrical system. There is hardly any electricity left in the boat, only the pilot is working. And the mainsail system that I had repaired at Macquarie to hold the mainsail up held up, but the halyard gave way out of the doldrums. I wasted 7 hours trying to repair with the genoa halyard to hold the mainsail to the first reef. The idea was therefore to make the simplest route with as few manoeuvrers as possible.
When I was about to give up, one thing always hung up on me, and that was thinking about my children. They absolutely didn't want me to give up because they must have been afraid it would be a shame for them at school (laughs) and so I think it's for them, it's for Servane, for my team, for my father, but it is for the others. That's what gave me all this energy. There has been at least serious talk of quitting three times.
I think at some point you're doing the best you can. This race is so huge that finishing is already great. For me it actually takes precedence over the ranking. This is a particular context, these real-time time changes are related to the saving of a human life, I have nothing more to say about that. The bonuses must be fair and even encourage people to seek out people in distress.
I would not like to have anything more than what I am living here and now
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