Lina RIXGENS

Securing 46th place with a production boat on her Mini Transat debut in 2017, Lina Rixgens is making her race comeback this year and naturally hopes to raise the bar. “At the end of the second leg four years ago, I felt as if I was finally in a position to do the race! I was completely in tune with my boat and I’m keen to experience that sensation again. I still have so much to learn and to optimise!” says the German sailor, who has completed her medical studies in Belgium in the meantime and now hopes to become an anaesthetist-resuscitator.

“This time, I’m returning to the fray with a more modern and more competitive boat, still with the aim of trying to raise my game within the sphere of offshore racing”, explains the sailor from Hamburg, who has upgraded her Pogo 2 to a Ubaldo Wevo 6.50 design. “I’d be happy to rediscover the same great rhythm I recall from the last time I did this race and, if I finish in the Top 20 in Guadeloupe, I’d be really pleased”, says the skipper of Avanade, who’s previously completed a six-month tour of the Atlantic on a traditional 36-metre yacht, which is where she developed her passion for the open ocean, fleshed out by a dozen years at the top level on a Moth Europe.