Offered during this period of confinement to professional skippers as well as to the general public by Virtual Regatta, the Great Escape (Grande Evasion) - a single-handed transatlantic race between La Rochelle and Curacao - has brought together more than 120,000 players around the world, including Alexis Loison.

The skipper, who usually wears the colours of the Normandy region on the Figaro Bénéteau circuit, has indeed lent himself to the game, as he did last month during the big Solo Maître CoQ race, where he had already distinguished himself by finishing in 3rd place.

Once again, the Cherbourg native did well on the virtual platform, this time winning the event in the Imoca 60-foot category in the pros.

"What I enjoyed above all was confronting my friends, but also and above all exchanging with them via our WhatsApp group. It was a great atmosphere and we had a lot of fun. I must admit that I'm quite impressed by the first ones in the Scratch ranking. Of course, there are ways to program maneuvers, but some of them are really strong. For me, what I particularly liked was the start, when you had to choose your trajectory to the north, south or centre. I opted for the north and, at the beginning, some people teased me by asking me if I had decided to go back to Cherbourg. In the end, those are all behind me, and some are even far from the finish", laughs Alexis Loison on Yachting Art, who admits to having played the game from the beginning to the end of these 16 days of racing.

"I admit that during the night of Saturday to Sunday, I was a bit stressed to see some of my friends coming back. I put a bit of pressure on myself because I knew they wouldn't let up, and I don't like to lose," concludes the sailor.  Proof that even virtually, when you have the spirit of competition, you don't lose again..."