Violette Dorange and Samantha Davies seal their alliance by launching “Initiatives-Cœur”

With a thousand precautions, the crane extracts Initiatives-Cœur from its cradle to place it, like a toy, in the racing yacht basin of the former submarine base in Lorient (Morbihan). It is 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 13, when, under the fixed and jaded gaze of a few sea birds and in the presence of a handful of early-rising admirers, the red and streamlined mount of Samantha Davies ( ^13th out of 40 in the 2024 Vendée Globe) returns to the sea, after three months of work.

Superbly indifferent to the pouring rain, the team of around ten people – who dismantled and reassembled the steed piece by piece for weeks to erase the scars of the British sailor's fourth solo, non-stop, unassisted round the world voyage – are busy re-masting the Imoca (monohull of over 18 metres) with foils (lateral lifting surfaces allowing it to fly on the water).

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