Inaugural Cannes-Malta Race Preview: a reference time to establish and a legend to write

Valiant © Yacht Club de Cannes

Her name is Charlotte Rousselot and she is competing in the first edition of the Cannes-Malta Race from 8 to 15 October, a new offshore race co-organised by the Yacht Club de Cannes and the Royal Malta Yacht Club, which have decided to join forces.

The idea is also to set a reference time on this demanding course of more than 600 miles via Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily... This 40-year-old woman, who has already travelled a lot and has boundless energy, bought a 50-footer (15.21 m) abandoned from 2012 to 2023 in a shipyard in New Zealand.

For eleven months, she refurbished this former racing yacht almost single-handedly, having competed in the Admiral's Cup, the Newport Bermuda Race and the SORC in the 70s and 80s. This IOR prototype - first known as Phantom - displacing more than 13 tons, was designed and built by the renowned C&C shipyard (Cuthberston & Cassian) in Canada in 1971, when it was not born., Charlotte Rousselot brought her restored boat to France and named Valiant... to compete in the 47th Royal Regatta at the end of September in Cannes.

A renowned sailor and talented captain who is not afraid of anything, she has completed a 25,000-mile (46,400 km) journey - Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Easter Island, Panama, the Caribbean... is subjected to formidable storms. Then during the Atlantic crossing from the West Indies, she finished solo from the Azores on this sailboat usually led by thirteen people before mooring in Cannes.

"Now, we are only going with three people. The boat is ready. I sail the "old-fashioned" way, with paper charts, a Cras ruler and my barometer. I still have a GPS, I don't have a weather forecast (GRIB files) on board but I race mainly on instinct, observing the sky and the sea. I am careful, and very attached to safety and my team members have all the necessary equipment on them. Valiant has its original sails, which are certainly tired but robust like the boat. "I am delighted to open a page in this new event, a course unknown to me as I know little about the Mediterranean, and I am delighted to discover the Strait of Bonifacio, Valletta and Malta, which everyone tells me is a jewel."