After the accident of his sailboat, Nicolas Rouget sets course for the highest peaks and the Vendée Globe 2028

Le projet Demain s’est loin ne s’est pas brisé en même temps que la coque du voilier éponyme. GUILHEM CANAL

Le Sétois espérait prendre le départ du Vendée Globe 2024, conclusion d’une aventure sportive et artistique profondément ancrée à Sète. Le projet va rebondir en altitude.

Le projet Demain s’est loindid not break at the same time as the hull of the eponymous sailboat. This is the message carried today by its skipper Nicolas Rouger, this Sétois whose dream of participating in the 2024 edition of the Vendée Globe took off on August 5, 2023 in at the same time as his Imoca 60 hit the ground. Then in dry dock to finish his preparation for the  Transat Jacques Vabre – the race which was to confirm his participation and that of his skipper in the solo, non-stop round-the-world sailing trip, the departure of which is scheduled for November – the boat had been overturned by the wind.

Legal proceedings initiated

Eight months after this extremely rare accident, Nicolas Rouger had to announce the abandonment of the project… for 2024. "There was once talk that I could continue the qualifying phase with another sailboat, but the rules of the Vendée Globe are strict: it’s one man, one boat. The pill was extremely difficult to swallow. "Tomorrow is far away", it’s a little more than a sailboat. It is my work tool and the center of a collective human adventure. We couldn't close the book like that…", confides the sailor, who abandoned the world of sailing for that of the courts.

And has initiated proceedings against the shipyard, which it considers responsible for the accident beyond the simple climatic hazard. He hopes to obtain from the courts payment of the repair costs, i.e. 600,000 euros, in order to prepare a new registration for the Vendée Globe 2028 (the event takes place every four years). Always with the desire to finance his offshore races thanks to Art and more precisely to the works of Hervé Di Rosa.

The "Seven Summits" before the Vendée Globe 2028

The painter from Sète, the skipper's partner from the start, had agreed to paint a sail canvas then sold in small pieces to individual art lovers. "I’I am extraordinarily lucky, since’Hervé assured me of his support, as did the rap group IAM. The Paul Valéry museum has also agreed to keep the paintings, the sale of which will continue until 2028", explains Nicolas Rouger. Who doesn't plan to remain inactive until then, quite the contrary!

In June, he will move away from the sea to climb the highest peaks of the seven continents. Called "Seven summits" and imagined by the American mountaineer Richard Bass, this challenge must take the Sétois to the four corners of the world. The adventure will begin with Mont Blanc, the legendary summit of the Alps, and its 4809m. "I’will have the chance to be accompanied and supported by the Chamonix High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon. I already climbed Mont Blanc twenty years ago. But at 44, it will be another story, slips the adventurer. It’s very symbolic for me. Somehow, I want to gain some height to show that we did not crash." Nicolas Rougier promised to bring a funny Sète flag in your pack. A painting by Hervé Di Rosa!

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