Samantha Davies

INITIATIVES-CŒUR 4 - N°109

An engineering graduate who studied at Cambridge university, Sam began her career in competitive sailing at 24 with her 1st crewed round the world (Jules Verne Trophy 1998).

It was in France that she chose to settle in order to live out her passion. There she learnt her trade on the Mini 6.50 and then the Figaro circuit. However, Sam really made a name for herself in the Vendée Globe 2008, securing a brilliant 4th place on the IMOCA ROXY. Her experience and her positive attitude earned her a place as skipper for Team SCA during the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15.

After two Transat Jacques Vabres alongside Tanguy de Lamotte, Sam was chosen in 2018 to take over the helm of the IMOCA Initiatives-Cœur, based in Lorient.

With a cheerful disposition and totally at one with the sea, she loves sharing her passion with the public, as evidenced by the funny and at times crazy videos she sends during each race. An accomplished athlete, Sam swims, cycles and does yoga and Pilates.

Within the project, Sam plays an active part in the technical developments on the boat Initiatives-Coeur. A perfectionist and persevering, she’s a speed demon and gives her all in competition. Making no secret of her competitive ambitions, Sam Davies, who is also the mother of a little boy, doesn’t forget the raison d’être of the Initiatives Cœur project. The boat sports the colours of the Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, a Foundation based in France, which enables children with heart malformations but no access to treatment in their own countries, to be operated on.

Together with her son and her partner, sailor Romain Attanasio, she lives in Tregunc in southern Finistère.

On November 8, 2020, the Initiatives-Cœur project started its 3rd Vendée Globe, the 3rd also for Sam Davies. After a start that was up to her abilities, the British skipper was forced to retire on December 5 off Cape Town following a collision with a UFO that caused structural damage around the keel of her boat. However, Sam does not give up and chooses to finish her circumnavigation of the globe out of the race. It is full of motivation that she launches out in this new challenge, very different from the one of departure. She completes the race on February 28, 2021, achieving a personal victory, but also for the cause she supports after Heart Surgery Sponsorship, since her trip raised enough money to save 102 children.