Jean-Yves Chauve

The famous doctor Jean-Yves Chauve, who has followed all the skippers in the Vendée Globe ever since the first edition of the race back in 1989, and all the other major international offshore events.

On 20 October 2012, he declared, "I remember the start of the first Vendée Globe; I was overseeing it as race doctor. There were thirteen of them, and the date was 26 November 1989. Thirteen yachtsmen, setting out alone to face an immense desert of water, where there is no real place for mankind, a place where they are face to face with themselves, with their solitude, their fears, their survival or their pain.

Remote medicine was still in its infancy, our radio communications were difficult, it was hard to hear the words over the noise, and there was a great deal of anxiety about getting the diagnosis right. With my ear glued to the radio, I got the skipper to repeat my prescriptions word for word, without really knowing what he had actually understood."

Foto Archivio © Edizioni Mare Verticale