A passionate competitor

Anne Liardet clearly has a passion for the sea. We just have to look back to when she took part in the 2004-2005 Vendée Globe to see that. For 119 days, the sailor from the western tip of Brittany is an unparalleled storyteller, able to fascinate with her adventures and share her amazement at witnessing the beauty of the elements. But Anne does not stop at making the public dream. She has also shown herself to be a determined competitor, who is able to get herself out of some tricky situations. Grabbing eleventh place, she became just the third woman to complete the race and be ranked in the history of the Vendée Globe after Catherine Chabaud in 1996-1997 and Ellen MacArthur in 2000-2001. No mean feat.

Twenty years earlier in 1985, Anne Liardet had already become the first yachtswoman to complete the Mini Transat, which at that time was raced double-handed. After two Solitaire du Figaro events (in 1986 and 1987), an attempt at the record between New York and San Francisco on a multihull (in 1989) and a Route du Rhum (in 1990), she left the sport for a while to take care of her children. But the passion for ocean racing was to get the better of her, and she made her comeback in the 2003 Atlantic Challenge before competing in the 2004 Transatlantic Race from Plymouth aboard a 60-foot IMOCA monohull. That is when her dreams of taking part in the Vendée Globe began to take shape.

Eighth in the 2005 Transat Jacques Vabre, then in the 2006 Route du Rhum, Anne Liardet now only has one goal: getting back in the Imoca circuit to line up for her second non-stop solo round the world race on 10th November 2012. If she pulls it off, she is bound to have another fine tale to tell and she will give it her all to be there at the top of the rankings.