The French Sailing Federation (FFV) opened a new disciplinary procedure on Wednesday August 9 for “inappropriate behavior” towards women targeting the skipper Kevin Escoffier, already targeted by a judicial inquiry for identical facts which occurred in May during the stopover of a race. “The Federation cell in charge of the fight against sexual violence has received reports concerning other inappropriate behavior by Kevin Escoffier towards women”wrote the Federation in a text sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
This procedure is in addition to the one opened in June, relating only to the “incidents that occurred during the leg of The Ocean Race from Newport”, we learned from the same source. These new testimonies, on which the Federation did not wish to comment at this stage, led Jean-Luc Denéchau, president of the FFV, to open a new disciplinary procedure.
An investigation was opened in early July by the Paris prosecutor’s office against the 43-year-old navigator, after a first report made by the FFV for facts “related to sexual assault”according to a source familiar with the matter. “After analysis of the first elements, the brigade for the repression of delinquency against persons was seized”, said the prosecution. Mid-June, The chained Duck had reported the testimony of several people describing “repeated slips” of the Breton navigator towards women.
Kevin Escoffier won The Ocean Race in 2017-2018 and also has the Transat Jacques-Vabre 2005 to his name, as well as the Jules-Verne Trophy in 2012, on the Maxi-Banque-populaire V by Loick Peyron. Before leaving the PRB-Holcim team, he wanted to take on the next Vendée Globe in 2024. He had been one of the heroes of the last edition. Shipwrecked in the storm off the Cape of Good Hope, he had jumped into his life raft before being rescued in extremis by another competitor, Jean Le Cam.