We thought it was a shark, but we didn't know for sure because it was night
Grant Dalton
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On board the speedboat, I do what I can.
I hold on to a handhold, I move little, I look ahead, I have taken a Biodramina. As we move at 30 knots (about 55 km/h), I gaze at the shoreline of Valencia. The wind is calm, barely reaching six knots, the breeze caresses my face.
When sailing, we look for the silhouette of the sailors, seven boats of the 69F class (6.9 m in length) that are playing for victory in the Algebris 69F Cup Europe.
Sometimes I watch the rest of the boat crew. I stop at Jessica Berthoud.
It looks like a cat.
It is a cat.
Jessica Berthoud goes from here to there connecting the dots, raising and lowering the defenses, following the instructions of Pierre Mas, the sea lion who has signed her and the rest of the Groupe Atlantic team for this competition.
(There are Italian, British, Swiss, French boats from Groupe Atlantic here, even a team from Antigua and Barbuda...; at the close of the competition, Groupe Atlantic takes the GP).
“I'm not racing today, but I'll be there again tomorrow,” Jessica Berthoud tells me later, after the day's racing, when we're already on shore.
We have sat on the pier.
I can still feel the ground moving under my feet. The earth move.
Jessica Berthoud is 21 years old and has the deep gaze of a navigator.
He tells me that he has inherited his passion from his father, Nicolas Berthoud, a 59-year-old Swiss sailor who makes a living from sailing and has won titles and trophies.
In the old days, Nicolas would take his wife, Kim, and their young daughter, Jessica, to watch the regattas.
Now, Jessica Berthoud is older, so she navigates on her own.
–Since I was a child, I have always been on a boat. I see myself at Lake Leman, any given Sunday, watching my father haggling,” Jessica Berthoud tells me.
And wouldn't you have liked to do other things?
I did other things! Until I was fourteen years old, I combined sailing with Swiss gymnastics (a discipline that combines four apparatuses: floor, horizontal bar, vault and rings). What happens is that the passion for sailing was superior to gymnastics. And he ended up imposing himself on me.
And do you live from this?
He smiles politely and shakes his head no.
He tells me that he lives from his shop, a candle construction and repair business that he opened in Geneva and that his passion finances him.
–I haven't made it yet, but I dream of being a sailing professional.
-Like his father?
I see very little of him, you know? Sometimes I get home and he's just gone on a trip. We cross paths in the portal, I come back and he leaves. Right now, if I'm not mistaken, my father is sailing in Italy. We spend our time outside. I sail 180 days a year, sometimes on the Leman. I estimate that I spent more than 160 days.
– Do you want your father's life?
-Why not? When I sail, everything is happiness. I can't conceive of any other way of living. My father instilled in me the passion, but he has also supported me. When I decided to stop studying to focus on sailing, he gave me the OK.
"I couldn't say no..." I observe him.
Jessica Berthoud laughs outright.
–My parents understand me so much that they don't even call me every day. They expect me to do it.
– And you call them?
"At least once every two days."
-And where do you want to go?
I dream of going to the Olympic Games. But first there is the Copa del América next year in Barcelona.
(For the first time in its 172-year history, the America's Cup will contest a category for women and another for youth: four crew members will sail in AC40 class boats, 11.3 m in length).
Jessica Berthoud intends to join Alinghi Red Bull Racing. To join the team, she needs to pass three physical, technical and technological procedures. At the end of the year she will know her future in the medium term. If she makes the team, she'll spend 2024 in Barcelona, as far from home as ever.
