THE SPORT SCAN – Sébastien Destremau will deliver food and childcare equipment before returning to France with around thirty Ukrainian refugees.
The offshore racing world is mobilizing for Ukraine. Sébastien Destremau, two participations in the Vendée Globe on the clock (18and in 2017, abandonment in 2021), will leave Toulon this Thursday with a convoy of six vehicles to reach the border between Hungary and Ukraine. Accompanied by his daughter Jade and a few friends, the 57-year-old skipper will transport food and childcare equipment to Záhony, on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border.
The objective of the Toulonnais is then to bring back around thirty refugees to France. An operation for which he is appealing for donations that are a little special in the world of ocean racing. “To avoid having to spend too much money on food on this return trip to Toulon, I had the idea of asking the IMOCA class teams to provide us with freeze-dried meals, which are easy to store and prepare.explains the interested party to Voiles & Voiliers. The idea is to save as much money as possible on the budget that we will have managed to constitute until our departure in order to then be able to distribute it equally between all the refugees, to offer them a small nest egg when they arrive in France.” The call for donations has been heard since the skipper has already collected several bags in Lorient.