Florence Arthaud

Florence Arthaud, (28 October 1957 – 9 March 2015) was a French sailor. In 1990, she became the first woman to win the Route du Rhum. She died in a helicopter crash in the Argentine province of La Rioja while she was participating in the filming of the reality TV show, Dropped, along with other French athletes. Florence Arthaud was the daughter of Jacques Arthaud, director of the Grenoble publishing house, Arthaud, during the 1970s, which published the memoirs of sailors Bernard Moitessier and Éric Tabarly. Arthaud started sailing at a very young age with her brother, Jean-Marie, and her father. She then sharpened her skills at the Antibes sailing club. In 1974, at the age of seventeen, Arthaud had a serious car accident, which resulted in a coma and paralysis. She was hospitalized for six months and her recovery took two years. During her recovery, she made her first crossing of the Atlantic at the age of eighteen with Jean-Claude Parisis, a French navigator. Florence Arthaud raced the first edition of Route du Rhum, which took place in 1978. She placed 11th. In 1986, she diverted from the race to try to assist Loïc Caradec, but found the catamaran Royale capsized and no trace of the sailor. In August 1990, she tackled the record for a solo crossing of the North Atlantic, held by Bruno Peyron. In 9 days 21 hours and 42 minutes, she beat the record by almost two days. In November of the same year, she won the Route du Rhum, reaching Pointe-à-Pitre in 14 days, 10 hours, and 10 minutes. However, following this exploit, she was unable to find funding to build a new trimaran, due to the real estate crisis from which her sponsor was suffering. She sailed in the 1989–90 Whitbread Round the World Race on board Charles Jourdan. In 1997, she won the Transpacific with Bruno Peyron. In 2010, for the twentieth anniversary of her victory, she could not find a sponsor: «I was a little disgusted. They had reopened the race for tall ships. It was the 20th anniversary of my victory and I intended to participate in it on a huge trimaran, Oman (30m). But I didn't manage to get this boat, they preferred giving it to a man (Sidney Gavignet who retired due to damage). It completely put me off and I was like ‘that's it, I'm done.’». On 29 October 2011, she fell from her boat in the middle of the night off Cap Corse. By chance, she had with her a headlamp and a waterproof mobile phone. Arthaud managed to call her mother who then called her brother. He then alerted the CROSS (the French Coast Guard) and three hours and twenty minutes after her distress call, she was located using the geolocation of her mobile phone. Conscious but in a state of hypothermia, she was airlifted to a Bastia hospital, from which she was released the following day. ... Source: Article "Florence Arthaud" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.