Philippe Jeantot (born 8 May 1952 in

Antananarivo Antananarivo (French language, French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("An ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

) is a French former deep sea diver, who achieved recognition as a

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

for long-distance, single-handed racing and record-setting. He founded the ''

Vendée Globe --> The Vendée Globe is a single-handed (solo) non-stop round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. It is named after the Département of Vendée, in France ...

'', a single-handed, round-the-world, non-stop

yacht race Yacht racing is a sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marked by buoys or o ...

.''Philippe Jeantot''
from sevenoceans.com

Biography

Jeantot started his career as a deep sea diver, working on oil rigs; in 1977 he took part in the ''Janus IV'' dive of the COMEX during which Jacques Verpeaux and Gérard Vial broke the world record for

deep diving Deep diving is underwater diving to a depth beyond the norm accepted by the associated community. In some cases this is a prescribed limit established by an authority, while in others it is associated with a level of certification or training, an ...

, at . He became interested in sailing after reading

Bernard Moitessier Bernard Moitessier (April 10, 1925 – June 16, 1994) was a French sailor, most notable for his participation in the 1968 ''Sunday Times'' Golden Globe Race, the first non-stop, singlehanded, round the world yacht race. With the fastest circumn ...

's book ''The Long Way''; having learned to sail, he built himself a 13.5-metre (44 ft) steel

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

, planning to sail single-handed around the world. After cruising for two years, he entered the first edition of the ''

BOC Challenge The Velux 5 Oceans Race was a round-the-world single-handed sailing, single-handed yacht racing, yacht race, sailed in Race stage, stages, managed by Clipper Ventures since 2000. Its most recent name comes from its main sponsor Velux. Originally kno ...

'' (now known as the ''Velux 5 Oceans Race'') in 1982; he won the race, and broke the previous record for a single-handed

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Mage ...

with a time of 159 days, 2 hours. In 1984, Jeantot entered the ''

OSTAR The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) is an east-to-west yacht race across the North Atlantic. When inaugurated in 1960, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race; it is run from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island in ...

'', sailing in a new catamaran, ''Credit Agricole II''. He was forced to retire after a capsize, but saved the boat and entered the 1984 ''

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

— St. Malo'' race, in which he set a new 24-hour speed record. In 1985, he had success in the ''Grand Prix de Brest'', ''La Baule'' and ''Round Europe'' races. In 1986 he again entered the ''BOC Challenge'', sailing ''Credit Agricole III'', and was again victorious. In 1989, Jeantot founded a new, single-handed, non-stop, round-the-world race, the ''

''. He entered the race in ''Crédit Agricole IV'', and finished in fourth place. In 1990, Jeantot once again entered the ''BOC Challenge'', sailing ''Crédit Agricole IV'', and finishing in third place, thus completing his fourth solo circumnavigation of the world. After the race, he announced that he was retiring from sailing to manage his boat-building business. In November 1990, Jeantot was given a suspended two-year sentence and fined €15,000 (£9,900) for tax evasion. Jeantot appealed but the verdict was upheld. In 2006 Jeantot was charged with financial irregularities which alleged avoidance of corporation tax by his SailCom company, forgery and the misuse of the 'company assets'. Forensic accountancy allegedly found that in excess of €1 million (£660,000) passed through an Irish account rather than SailCom's bank in France. SailCom was set up by Jeantot to run long distance competitive sailing races.''Jeantot in deeper water''
UK Daily Telegraph

Bibliography

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeantot, Philippe 1952 births Living people People from Antananarivo French male sailors (sport) Vendée Globe finishers