Jeanne Mailhos Vitel

Jeanne Mailhos Vitel

Awards

World Championship

Third Mistral sailboard in 2001

European Championship

Raceboard European Champion 2016

Third Mistral sailboard in 2001

When and where was your first regatta?

My first windsurfing regatta took place on an inland stretch of water, I was last, and the broadside was parallel to the edge of the pond where all the walkers shouted and encouraged the participants and I thought it was great! It must have been 1988 or 87 in Ille et Vilaine.

The tactical move you're most proud of?

A round I won at the World Championship in Greece (2001), when I just had to mark Natasha Sturges, and I made a small tack that put me 6 or 7 places up. Pascal Chaullet (Editor's note: French Team Coach) wasn't too happy, I should have stayed just to windward of him, but I was sure of myself, I was going fast upwind and I finished 1st in the heat, which was great.

Your biggest problem?

My biggest problem was at the European Championships in Belgium - I've forgotten the year - when a zodiac rammed into me while I was drinking, sitting on my board with one leg on each side in the water... I fell into the water with a dislocated shoulder and a big scare. Luckily, German coach Diedrik Bakker was close by, and came and fished me out by the harness loop, and a French coach took me back to shore where a 4/4 was waiting on the beach to take me to the emergency room. Now, when it's cold and wet, like the grannies, sometimes I feel that shoulder and think it might give me trouble when I'm old!

The race anecdote that always makes you laugh?

I don't have too many race anecdotes that make me laugh... But we've laughed a lot during championships... or it could have been at Anzio when the wind picked up almost monstrously, the sea formed very very quickly, we took the start of a race, I found myself with Anne François wondering where the upwind buoy was "have you seen it? "This buoy had drifted under the effect of the waves and had arrived to leeward of the starting line by the time we got upwind. And that's when we realized the situation, the size of the waves and that everyone was in a catamaran, with the race committee ordering everyone to get ashore as quickly as possible. The return trip was the most impressive I've ever experienced: downwind in a swell that made the board in front of you disappear... I was very relieved to get ashore. Those who had been brought back in the zodiac had been even more scared than us, and I don't think the trainers were proud either. But I don't know if it's all that funny, I remember a friend of mine crying on the beach, nervous, relieved to have his feet on the sand!