When the sailing community heard that French multihull phenom Yann Guichard was dating billionaire pharaceutical heiress Dona Bertarelli, plenty of jaded sailors smiled knowing smiles for the Frenchmen’s good luck. Six years, an engagement, and a hundred thousand miles or so later, we’ve all accepted that Dona ain’t just another ultra-rich swiss sailor, and in this 15-minute interview with Mr. Clean shot last week in Sweden, the fastest female sailor on the planet shows that she’s the real deal and then some.
The down-to-earth Dona talks about women in professional sailing and her LadyCat program (and whether we’ll see it on the M32 circuit), where the Spindrift name comes from, the great (and not so great) things about racing around the world with your lover, whether the World Match RAcing Tour will once again become the feeder for the America’s Cup, and just how likely it is to see a second Bertarelli and the first-ever female-owned team challenging for the America’s Cup. Clean’s obviously crushing on this amazing role model pretty hard; watch above and you might be too.
You can watch Dona’s soon-to-be husband racing all next week in the million dollar finale to the World Match Racing Tour in Marstrand, live (with Clean’s gravelly voice on the mic) from the 4th to the 9th. More here.
