Few skippers’ journeys to be at the start of the Route du Rhum are as impressive or as varied as that of the 33 year old Chinese skipper Jingkun Xu. He comes from a remote mountain village some four hours from Qingdao. There his parents grow grapes and he was already involved in their business until a terrible accident with a firework at the age of 12 required the amputation of his left forearm.
“When I lost my arm everyone told me ‘you can’t do anything, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t find work. But that the thing that is worse than that is to say to yourself ‘you can’t do anything’. But my father told me ‘if you want to be a strong man, if you want to be a hero, you have to be close to strong men. And so look here I am among my heroes.” Xu said last week at the official inauguration of his IMOCA China Dream-Haiko.
As with many of his previous sailing adventures, this one started with one bag, a big dream and an ocean of positive belief. The same simple philosophy served him well when he came to France and fell in love with the Mini 650. He took a boat which no one else wanted, fixed it up and got hold of a lot of surplus kit and took 30th place in the MiniTransat’s Series fleet.
His offshore sailing has already included rescuing a catamaran which he refitted and sailed around the world between 2017 and 2020 with over 1000 days at sea in total visiting 40 countries and crossing the Equator four times with no autopilot.
And so he turned up back in France last year
“I came here with a bag and a big dream. I took a flight to come here. And I did not have a team, I did not have a boat and I did not have any sponsors. But now we have a lot of French friends and I have a boat and a great team and sponsors. We make the dream come true. That is my boat is called China Dream. That is why I want to make people dream and I think anything is possible. Just do it.” he told the assembled spectators last week.
In the aftermath of his accident China were looking for future talent for the Para sailing team, regional and national sailing teams. He raced at the 2008 Paralympics and finished 10th in the Sonar. He was then inspired by the feats of Ellen Macarthur to venture offshore and dream of big ocean races.
Ten years ago Xu set the record for “the first sailor to circumnavigate the China Sea unassisted with one arm”. Then in 2015 he was the first sailor to complete the MiniTransat with one arm and the third Chinese ever to compete.
And having arrived last year with nothing but his bag and a dream here Xu is in Saint Malo, ready to go racing on Alan Roura’s former 2007 Finot Conq IMOCA now and enough sponsorship to keep his programme rolling,
“ I’m feeling a little bit of pressure, but also excited.” Xu smiles on the dock in the Saint Malo drizzle, “The weather will not be very good, so we’ll be under pressure at the start. I already have the objective of doing the 2024 Vendée Globe. That’s why I had begun to organise everything, the boat, the team. In the beginning we had no money. I came to France in September and got the boat in May. In the beginning I was alone with my own personal money from working. We have a sailing school in the south of China. Now I have some sponsors with Haikou.”
He is undaunted by the size of the challenge and draws a lot on his Mini experience, “II have sailed around 2000 miles with the boat, mainly on the qualifier. Before, I took part in the Mini Transat. It had the same course as the Route du Rhum, so that helps. For the Mini Transat, I had to do everything myself. The boat, the technology, the technical things, so that was useful, as now it’s the same with the IMOCA with the preparations, the technical things. I used the same knowledge to prepare this boat.” He explains, “There’s a big difference though and it’s very hard. But I really love the I like the speed, just like everyone else. Everything is fast and heavy. The main objective is to finish the race. I would like to go fast, but don’t want to push the boat too hard, as this is a long-term project and I want to use the boat in other races.”
Although he is a past Chinese Sailor of the Year and well known in sailing and watersports in China, this project has catapulted him to a massive following at home on the social networks. “There is a platform in China where people talk about their troubles. I said I would take all their troubles with me on the race course and throw them all in the ocean. This was a subject that interested many people. One day we had thirty million views for this. It’s called “throw your troubles in the ocean.” It’s nice to have so many fans and it doesn’t add any extra pressure. That said I’m surprised there are so many people following me, because in China the Route du Rhum is not famous. That’s why we have done a lot of communications and used social media in China.”
His project now has over 60 million followers at home in China, so taking such a huge level of home support when he heads across the Atlantic Wednesday he will scarcely feel alone!