News
3.8.23
The drive for diversity
In recent years The Ocean Race has made solid steps towards greater inclusion and diversity of participants in the competition.
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| Top performance | |
|---|---|
| Joined Imoca on | 2022 |
| Team | TEAM MALIZIA |
| Base | Lorient |
Axelle Pillain (32) is joining Team Malizia’s sailing crew for The Ocean Race 2022-23 as co-skipper.
The French sailor traded medical school for offshore sailing in 2019. By then she had already completed a PhD in applied mathematics for brain imaging. She fell in love with sailing when she was six years old. She went out in dinghies close to her hometown, next to Brest in the west of France.
After finishing a successful career in gymnastics, she started to compete in sailing, taking part in races like the Mini Transat or doing technical navigation on maxi trimarans like Spindrift and IMOCAs such as Corum L’Épargne.
Axelle can mostly be found on or in the water engaging in all kinds of sports. You might also see her running through nature, since she has been an avid sprinter for many years.
2019: Mini Transat - 31st
| Name | TEAM MALIZIA |
|---|---|
| Sail number | MON 1297 |
| Architect | VPLP |
| Construction | 2022, Multiplast |
| Former names |
| Length | 18,28 m |
|---|---|
| Beam | NC |
| Draught | 4,5 m |
| Weight | NC |
| Mast height | 29 m |
| Mast type | Wing mast |
| Foils | Yes |
| Sail area max. | |
| Upwind | NC |
| Downwind | NC |
In recent years The Ocean Race has made solid steps towards greater inclusion and diversity of participants in the competition.
•••New year, new foils, new round-the-world challenge: we have relaunched our Malizia – Seaexplorer IMOCA yacht after an intense three-week refit. In that short period of time, the technical team was confronted with major c…
•••A light wind day in Alicante proved testing for both fleets on first day of competition in The Ocean Race.
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