{"id":81807,"date":"2025-05-27T11:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=81807"},"modified":"2025-05-27T11:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:00:33","slug":"ambre-to-the-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/ambre-to-the-atlantic\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambre To the Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20230530141752_IMG_0953-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Ambre Hasson\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20230530141752_IMG_0953-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20230530141752_IMG_0953-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20230530141752_IMG_0953-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20230530141752_IMG_0953-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20230530141752_IMG_0953.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Ambre Hasson, who took to sailing in her late 20s, was drawn to Mini Classe racing.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Nora Havel<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>for most sailors, running aground and abandoning their vessel to the rocks, waves, and wind might be reason enough to pause ambitious plans to race singlehanded across the Atlantic aboard a caffeinated 21-footer. But Ambre Hasson isn\u2019t most sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe id=\"x8aa2rgac1\" src=\"https:\/\/Sailingworld.dragonforms.com\/x8aa2rgac1\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>While Hasson didn\u2019t grow up sailing, didn\u2019t race in college, and didn\u2019t take to the sport until she was 27, the Franco-American caught the sailing bug during the pandemic. In 2020, she traded her tech startup job in New York City for a prototype Classe Mini in Lorient, France. Hasson isn\u2019t reliant upon a trust fund or sitting on IPO trappings. Instead, she\u2019s fueling her campaign by working on other people\u2019s boats; soliciting sponsorship, donations, and generosity; and keeping her overhead low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along the way, she\u2019s racked up 15,000 nautical miles and some encouraging results, including a second-place finish in the Mini Transmanche 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasson was born in Paris in March 1993, but her family left France when she was 7 to travel. Three years later, they settled in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Hasson would eventually earn her BA in economics from the University of Virginia before moving to Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Hasson loved her Big Apple experience and \u201cfollowed the rhythms of the city,\u201d this changed with 2020\u2019s COVID lockdowns. \u201cI was losing my mind,\u201d she says, explaining that she flew to Florida and was working remotely when she decided to buy a sailboat. \u201cI have no idea where the idea came from,\u201d she says. While she had sailed \u201conce or twice\u201d as a kid with her grandfather, she had no experience. So she started volunteering at a sailing school in exchange for lessons, and she began perusing Craigslist.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This led her to an abandoned Newport 29.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasson joined the Great Resignation and spent the next two years living aboard and learning to sail. She also followed the 2020-21 Vend\u00e9e Globe and began absorbing information about IMOCA 60s, Class 40s, and Classe Minis. \u201cA seed was planted and began growing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shoots emerged in 2022. Hasson, who is bilingual, was traveling around France for the summer and experienced the Mini world firsthand. \u201cThere were all kinds of people,\u201d she says. Some of those she met had sailed all their lives and had amassed serious miles, while others were just going for it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo I decided to buy a Mini,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s when she found No.&nbsp;138, a 1995 Pierre Rolland-designed prototype, which she purchased\u2014layaway-style\u2014for about $24,000, with the dream of sailing the Mini Transat 2023.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This gave her about six months to get the boat sorted and sail the race\u2019s prerequisite miles. The Classe Mini\u2019s racing season began in April. Hasson started seven events but finished only four. \u201cI was starting to see a pattern,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, there were bright spots, including a second-place finish in the doublehanded Gran Premio D\u2019Italia, but her reality was that she was sailing an old boat on a thin budget, with limited time to complete her 1,000-nautical-mile solo \u00adqualifier before the event\u2019s July deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasson burned this fuse to the final 12 days, forcing her to accept a suboptimal weather window that required skirting four major depressions and sailing upwind in 35 knots. \u201cI was on the edge of control,\u201d Hasson says, describing sailing at 13 to 14 knots with a double-reefed mainsail and solent, once she was finally able to bear away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But she made it to Port Bourgenay, where she called for a tow to help her negotiate the port\u2019s tricky entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s when things went pear-shaped.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was surfing weather, not sailing weather,\u201d she says, explaining that while the channel is deep, shallows lurk outside the buoys. An inflatable was dispatched to help her, but it was struggling in the conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI kept going under my jib,\u201d she says. \u201cI had a bad feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A breaking wave caught the boat\u2019s port quarter, pushing it outside the channel. Hasson\u2019s keel found the bricks, and the ensuing compression loading from the seas turned her keel into an instrument of destruction. Seawater began flooding the bilge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s always a solution at sea,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I realized that there was nothing I could do.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasson grabbed her essentials, jumped overboard, and swam\u2014then crawled\u2014onto the beach. Worse, a peanut \u00adgallery had assembled atop the&nbsp;seawall.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere was a lot of rage,\u201d she says of the experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While her inclination was to repair her baby, she was told that it would cost anywhere from $62,000 to $83,000 to fix her $24,000 boat. She didn\u2019t need her UVA degree to \u00adcompute this cost-benefit analysis. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe months that followed were very hard,\u201d she says, explaining that she had put everything she had into the boat and her Mini Transat dream. Worse, she says, detailing a conversation with her mother, was her anxiety that without a boat, she couldn\u2019t sail.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So she did the logical thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wanted a boat that was beautiful, one that I could \u00adpicture myself on,\u201d she says. \u201cI&nbsp;didn\u2019t want a scow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She found No. 618 in Finland and agreed to buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The catch? Her insurance company hadn\u2019t paid her claim, and she didn\u2019t have the money. Fortunately, circumstance began intervening. As an example, she describes an impromptu dinner with a friend and his deep-pocketed \u00adbuddies. She walked away with a $10,400 donation, which she used to secure her second Mini in late\u00a02023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-IMG_9841-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image\" alt=\"Ambre Hasson\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-IMG_9841-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-IMG_9841-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-IMG_9841-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-IMG_9841-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-IMG_9841.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Ambre Hasson intends to race the 25th edition of the Mini Transat Race in September.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Nora Havel<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>Hasson was back in the game, but No. 618\u2014a 2006 prototype Finot-Conq named <em>On the Road Again II<\/em>\u2014was far more complex than her previous Mini; this one came with a canting keel, rotating mast, lifting rudders, daggerboards, and water-ballasting tanks. \u201cIt\u2019s an IMOCA, just one-third the size,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasson spent 2024 \u00adtraining with a group of Mini sailors. \u201cThey were serious and had more experience,\u201d she says of her first few months. \u201cI was never able to keep up with the group\u2014it was demoralizing, and I lost confidence.\u201d The only thing that kept her going, she says, was a breakthrough moment when she found her \u201cpositive anger\u201d and completed a tack inside of 3 minutes. This allowed her to finally keep pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More importantly, her confidence returned. \u201cI discovered how to sail the boat solo under spinnaker,\u201d she says, describing a race where she passed 20&nbsp;boats overnight.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, Hasson started and finished four races in 2024: the Mini Transmanche, the Mini Fastnet, the Mini en Mai and the Plastimo Lorient Mini. She also dispatched her 1,000-nautical-\u00admile solo qualifier. En route, she clocked 18.1 knots of boatspeed, learned to use her autopilot, and got comfortable pushing the \u201cfriction point\u201d of control. \u201cI\u2019m not scientific,\u201d she says, explaining that she relies on feel to know when the boat is balanced.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all sailors, Hasson has her weakness. Weather is one. The Mini Transat fleet uses single-sideband radios, not satellite communication systems, to access \u201cbroad\u201d weather reports. While skippers generally know where the lows and highs lurk, their \u00adlow-resolution information means they\u2019re essentially dead-reckoning their weather routing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enter sailing\u2019s ancient arts. \u201cI\u2019m learning how weather works,\u201d Hasson says, explaining that this includes studying clouds for meteorological telltales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the Mini Transat 2025\u2019s September start is looming, Hasson envisions less racing this season. \u201cIt\u2019s important to start the Mini Transat fresh,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ll do two, maybe three&nbsp;races.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, Hasson envisions ample on-the-water time. \u201cI want to cross that finish line \u00adknowing that I gave it everything and seized every opportunity,\u201d she&nbsp;says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked about her postrace plans, Hasson says that she can\u2019t see herself returning to the startup world. \u201cSailing is a bit of an addiction, but to get the same high, you need more drug,\u201d she says, adding that she\u2019s sailed aboard Class 40s and Figaro boats. \u201cIt\u2019s impressive how much more power they have. It\u2019s a bit intoxicating.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambre Hasson will be the only American on the Mini Transat 2025\u2019s starting line. Her course there was anything but typical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":81813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"David Schmidt","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[159],"tags":[632,250,2992,177,178],"class_list":["post-81807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-mini-transat","tag-offshore-racing","tag-print-spring-2025","tag-racing","tag-sailboat-racing"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}