Monday May 31 at 12:08 a.m. (metropolitan time), Nils Palmieri and Julien Villion won the 15th Double Transat – Concarneau – Saint-Barthélemy after an intense and close battle against the 17 other duos entered. The TeamWork pair completed this first transatlantic voyage in a Figaro Bénéteau 3 in record time: 18 days 05 hours 08 minutes and 03 seconds. They were welcomed in a crazy atmosphere as they approached the finish line then on the port of Gustavia, in front of a very large audience, enthusiastic and happy to share this beautiful festive moment, at sunset.
Ultimately, it was the northern option that was the winner. Combative, tenacious and strategically inspired, Nils Palmieri and Julien Villion achieved a masterstroke for their first participation in the Double Transat – Concarneau – Saint-Barthélemy, ahead of a multitude of other high-quality duos. Both aged 33, the sailors won a great and beautiful victory in a very tough event. After Pietro d'Ali in 2006, Nils Palmieri becomes the second foreign skipper to win the event. In Gustavia, they received a welcome worthy of their performance and their investment. Before celebrating their coronation with dignity, they delivered their first reactions, obviously eagerly awaited. Selected pieces.
Nils Palmieri: “It’s a sick thing, we still can’t get over it! »
“Winning a transatlantic race has enormous value. I’m super happy for Julien and for me. Julien really deserved it because he's a really good guy, he's super strong. It's a sick thing, we still can't get over it! In addition, we have had three or four horrible last days with lots of sargassum and grains. Since I knew that I was sailing with Julien, I said to myself that this Double Transat was for us. I felt like we really had something to play for.
The boat is super well prepared, Julien is super talented. I am starting to know Le Figaro well and from the start, I understood that we had left nothing to chance. We really had a great card to play. We were on it all the time, we worked very, very short shifts. We were always going to the coal to free the keel from the sargassum and to catch the good laughs. Julien and I are quite jack-of-all-trades, quite versatile. There were plenty of moments in the Transat where we found ourselves saying: “we could adjust the boat like this or like that”. There has never been a disagreement, there have always been compromises because we come from the same school.
Julien is a great meteorologist. Everything he said, I understood and vice versa. This victory is truly magnificent because it has everything, especially the competition. We both had it together. It was a great emotion. This arrival warms the heart. We are happy with Julien to give good energy to this arrival, it's fabulous! »
Julien Villion: “This deckchair is open, it’s hard, it’s beautiful”
“The Figaro Bénéteau 3 is not at all the same commitment as the previous one. I don't think I've ever given myself as much as I have in the last 48-72 hours. I thought we weren't going to make it. It's a long transatlantic and we had no weather information on this part of the Atlantic, at the end, until a few days before making the decision to go north. We had preserved our chance to be able to play different things.
We had a long aperitif one evening when the weather files were released and I presented my idea to Nils. I told him, this is the state of affairs, I feel that way and we have to go. It was the right choice. I spent a lot of time thinking about Jean-Yves Bernot (editor's note: meteorologist with whom Julien Villion worked) on the water. I can't wait to call him! I promised myself that I didn't want to be in the router box and I wanted to show that I could also win on the water. It's done and it's very good! We were confident in our chances, confident in our duo.
This deckchair is open, it is hard, it is beautiful. In any case, we suddenly forget everything, because what an arrival! I will remember this arrival in Saint-Barth all my life, it blew us in the face. Two hours before seeing the first boat, we were under a squall, we thought everything was stopping. That increases the time of arrival tenfold. We felt that it was the end of the tunnel... We saw a boat, then two... I never would have imagined so many people! »
Numbers :
Arrival time: 00:08:03 (metropolitan time)
Race time: 18d 05h 08min 03s
Number of miles traveled: 4239.41 nm
Average speed: 9.70 knots
Comments