Sailing: “The colours, the smells, the light were very familiar to me…” assures Mathieu Claveau, the skipper who started in Palavas

For the Med Max, Mathieu Claveau (right) will team up with Christophe Fialon. Med Max – Robin Christol

Born in Ardèche, he grew up in Lozère and started sailing in Palavas. Now a Marseillais and a regular on the Mediterranean Class40 circuit, he wouldn't have missed the Med Max for anything in the world, which will set off from Port Camargue on Sunday, September 29.

His emotion is not feigned. Standing on his boat Prendre la mer-Agir pour la forêt watching the other Class40s moored at the Port Camargue pontoon, Mathieu Claveau enjoys the moment and remembers his younger years when the bay of Aigues-Mortes was his daily playground.

More particularly in Palavas where his family came to spend their holidays and “was lucky enough to own a boat…_”. “Learning happens here”, even more so when he goes to high school at Joffre in Montpellier. “I actually lived in Palavas in the apartment where I stay for Med Max.” Among his teachers, the maths teacher who admits he doesn't have time to correct papers because there's a regatta on the weekend…

The native of Aubenas will participate also… "Chatting a little on the pontoons., there is a crew that was incomplete and took me on board. And I sailed for two years with them." It comes naturally to him, who, in his childhood memories, has always been steeped in stories of water, even living in Lozère near Barre-des-Cévennes.

“My father is originally from Brittany. There were sailing magazines at home. Then, when I was about 8 years old, I remember the arrival of the Route du Rhum on France 3 with Laurent Bourgnon. And so, I started building these boats in Lego. But they broke in the wind, I made sails with Decathlon bags at the time…"

Time has passed since then and Mathieu is now having fun with real boats. However, he took the time to train first, and still in Palavas.”There are offshore racing yachts that have arrived. I said to myself: “These little machines are great.” I got in touch with one of the skippers. And I did my first Mediterranean crossing, Marseille-Algiers. It was really a revelation. I said to myself: “This is what I want to do.”

A logical progression for the engineer

A decision that comes right at the end of the preparation for the Albi School of Mines. “I was able to do the Mini-transat. Unfortunately, I sank in the middle because I hit a floating object. But hey, the bug was there…" He then won many podiums in Mini 650, then moved on to Diam 24 and finally to Figaro 2 where he finished best amateur in the Transat AG2R 2018.

“I like to progress step by step, not to burn the stages either”, explains the man who now lives in Marseille where he is an aeronautical project manager engineer. He has been sailing on a Class40 for five years and is taking part in the Mediterranean circuit, but not only that, as proven by his first places on the old boats of this class in the Transat Jacques-Vabre 2019 or the Route du Rhum in 2022.

The Vendée Globe 2028 and a Mediterranean stable

“By coming here, where it all began, I “the feeling that a loop is ending,” he explains with a hint of nostalgia but also looking towards an ambitious future. “My ambition for 2028 is to do the Vendée Globe. The goal is therefore to build an Imoca out of wood in an innovative way. My Class40 is called Prendre la mer-Agir pour la forêt. It is also to highlight the forest and this wood material that is dear to me, with which I made my first boats. It is also a whole part of laboratory, innovation, R&D, which drives me as an engineer.”