Amélie Grassi, only woman in Class40 at The Transat CIC: “The smallest stupidity can become a big problem”

Amélie wants 1000 lives. Everyone will be busy, intense, passionate. Amélie Grassi is like that, a woman of character who needs to do things thoroughly. So as not to miss the essentials. To live fully.

Right, Mini 650, Class40, Imoca

After brilliant studies in law (she has a Master 2 from the Sorbonne and Assas), she could have set her sights on a thesis – “I liked the idea” – but she changed radically. Sailing on a 6.50m walnut hull for two seasons, one of which is marked by a Mini-Transat initiation. Another two years followed, this time on a slightly larger boat, a Class40.

On the Route du Rhum 2022, bad luck reminds her that sailing is a mechanical sport: she slows down, takes a hit to the head, but gets back up. To see what the other oceans around the world are like, she sets out with Paul Meilhat on three stages of The Ocean Race 2023.

A real badass who took the start at The Transat CIC on Sunday, his first transatlantic race via the north side. A mountain. “On the first English Transat in 1960, we thought they were crazy. In 2024 we are still considered crazy, so nothing has changed. We know it’s always difficult.”

“Nothing can happen to us”

Amélie Grassi could have chosen the second transatlantic race, the Niji40, contested by three, heading to Marie Galante in Guadeloupe, pushed by warm winds, the famous trade winds.

She obviously chose side B, which consists of going solo, against the prevailing and chilly winds of the North Atlantic. “We’re going to take more punches in the face, but I’m not afraid. I know my boat well, nothing can happen to us.”

La Rochelaise believes that this Transat between Lorient and New York ticks all the boxes, “it’s a bit legendary after all! » The skipper of La Boulangère Bio likes this extreme side, the idea of ​​surpassing oneself, the element of adventure too. Everything solitaire offers. “In single player, the smallest mistake can become a big problem.”

Grassi, who says he’s a diehard, wouldn’t give up his spot for anything in the world. Surrounded by twelve men who won’t give her any gifts, she knows she’s going to suffer: “But I’m happy to be here.”

Top 5 goals

Although there are only 13 on the starting line, there are almost ten who can take the final victory. “We have a crazy field,” says the person who would have been satisfied with a top 5. The Italians Beccaria and Bona, the French Lipinski, Delahaye and Tréhin are, according to her, big customers. There is also Vincent Riou, winner of the Vendée Globe 2004-2005, who is coming with an innovative new Class40. All these little people will be exposed to the same regime, namely headwinds: “Upwind, our boats are terrifying. Comfort level, we’re hitting rock bottom.” Also, its Class40 with its cow-shaped bow is reinforced everywhere: hull bottom, stringers and bulkheads. It’s gonna hit, it’s gonna hit, it’s gonna hit. Amélie Grassi knows it. She also knows that a nice place in New York would be an additional argument to talk about the future with her sponsor: Imoca, Ocean Fifty, Ultime? “Ah, but I would like to do all that! » When we tell you that she wants 1000 lives.