Windsurfing champion Antoine Questel and young sailing whiz Miguel Danet are both Saint-Barth natives. They are now competing on the international level, representing the island as they continue to further their careers.
Antoine Questel took third place in the French Windsurfing Association (AFW) championships in early November. This three-part competition took place in the French towns of Gruissan, Saint Malo, and Crozon in Brittany. The 19-year-old Questel finished fifth, seventh, and third respectively, yet his combined times gave him the honor of third place in the overall standings. Questel also blasted the competition last March, closer to home, in the Fourth Annual Five Stars SXM Challenge in St Martin, where he took top honors in both the around-the-island race and the free-style competition. He is clearly a young talent whose star is rising!
Miguel Danet took a giant step forward when he participated in the Mini-Med 2004 last summer, in a race from Port Camargue in the South of France to Ajaccio in Corsica, and back. He competed aboard a boat baptized “330 Ile de Saint Barthelemy,” sailing with Fabrice Morin, a national sailing instructor in Antibes, France. They finished in 33rd place overall, and ninth in their class. The results were not as good as they had hoped perhaps, but the experience was an important one for Danet.
“This was my first race on the open seas and it allowed me to learn a lot of things, like how to manage sleeping, how to eat correctly, keep an eye on the long-range weather forecasts, and take care of the equipment,” Danet says. While he embarks on further training as a captain of a charter boat, he plans to continue sailing in the Mediterranean. And who knows, perhaps we’ll see Danet and Morin team up again for the exciting transatlantic race, the Ag2r, in 2006. There certainly would be a lot of fans cheering for them at the finish line in Saint Barth!
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