The box is ticked in red on his calendar: that of the departure of the 17th edition of the Transat Café L’Or, on Sunday October 26. It was in fact on this day that Class40 n°195 of Pierre-Louis Attwell will set off from Le Havre, for this double-handed transatlantic crossing towards Martinique.
The skipper from Honfleur will, as usual, be accompanied by the Deauvillais Maxime Bens on this long and demanding race of 3,750 nautical miles with a passage of the Azores then a course towards Martinique with an arrival planned around November 6 in Fort-de-France.
The two skippers hope to shine again in the rankings and Pierre-Louis Attwell will take the opportunity to, once again, prove that “even when ill, everything is possible, and that performance can rhyme with disability. We know the boat by heart and the strength of our duo is that we know each other very well”.
“This illness could have destroyed his dreams of the open sea”
Aged 29, Pierre-Louis Attwell is suffered from Crohn’s disease since the age of 16. Locked in silence in the face of an invisible illness that has a profound impact on his daily life, he is engaged in this solidarity and sporting challenge with the aim of raising awareness among the general public about Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
“This illness could have destroyed his dreams of the open sea, but on the contrary, it has become a driving force,” adds the man who will set off for the fourth time on this Transat Café L’Or with the ambition of doing better than this 9th place achieved in 2023.
As explained by VidalCrohn’s disease is a disease of the digestive tract which is one of the chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. It develops in unpredictable outbreaks whose frequency and severity vary depending on the patient. Treatment aims to relieve flare-ups and prevent relapses. It does not cure the disease, but allows patients to maintain a satisfactory quality of life.
