Cap pour Elles: From Mini via Team Malizia to Class40 - Axelle Pillain's new opportunity

When one door closes, another one opens. Athletes often console themselves with this phrase when things don't work out straight away with a project they've started, a job application to a crew or courting the favour of sponsors. That's what happened to Axelle Pillain. The former mini-sailor, who competed in the Ocean Race with Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia as an engineer in the tech team and sailed stage six on "Malizia - Seaexplorer", has recently been driving her career forward on her own again.

Cap pour Elles: Axelle Pillain moved up

Like Susann Beucke (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) alongside Frenchwoman Sasha Lanièce and the German duo Sophie von Waldow (Potsdamer Yacht-Club/Bayerischer Yacht-Club)/Oda Hausmann (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee/Bayerischer Yacht-Club), Axelle Pillain and Cécile Helleringer also competed for the female Class 40 project for the Transat Café L'Or in the third edition of the Cap pour Elles competition. But the winners were Aina Bauza and Caroline Boule.

However, the initially closed door has now opened again for Axelle Pillain. Following the undisclosed resignation of Caroline Boule, Aina Bauza has brought the experienced Frenchwoman into the ambitious women's project. The Cap-pour-Elles duo is now no longer Bauza/Boule but Bauza/Pillain. Both sailors bring mini-transat experience to the team. Axelle Pillain also brings valuable engineering expertise to the table.

Axelle Pillain, who comes from Brest, took part in the 2019 Mini-Transat, moved to the French sailing cradle of Lorient and built up a good reputation as a smart electrical engineer. In the winter of 2022, the woman with the clever maths brain and a penchant for ocean marathons joined Team Malizia, supported Boris Herrmann and the project on land and on the water and learnt a lot in the racing team of the six-time circumnavigator from Hamburg.

In demand as a sailor and engineer

But the urge to start her own project remained. Which is why Axelle Pillain set up her own business again last year after working for Team Malizia around the Ocean Race 2023. She had entered the Cap pour Elles competition with sailing partner Cécile Helleringer and was initially disappointed that her team didn't win. However, a phone call from Aina Bauza has since changed everything.

Axelle Pillain explains: "Aina suggested we go for a coffee in Lorient. I wasn't sure why. In my head, I had put the Transat Café L'Or to one side and was looking for a team to work as an engineer. Until Aina called me and asked me to form the new duo with her."

"Axelle's technical background is an advantage because I tend to destroy electronics!" Aina Bauza

Aina Bauza says: "The fact that Axelle has also applied for the Cap pour Elles project is important. Axelle knows her way around large boats and has a lot of experience. Everything is in place to form a good crew and be successful in a good transat race. The next step is to start training together as soon as possible."

The project has already started

With the support of their team manager Anne Combier, who has coached many ocean professionals in the past such as former Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven and whose work is part of the winning package in the Cap pour Elles competition, Axelle and Aina are already working together on the various aspects of their project to prepare for the Transat Café L'Or in the best possible way.

The programme then includes joint training and sailing to find the chemistry that will lead them from Le Havre across the Atlantic to Martinique in the best possible way. The ambitious women have just under seven months to create a good starting position. Their opponents in the Class40 fleet will include Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink from Team Next Generation Sailing when the Transat Café L'Or kicks off on 26 October.

The original application clip by Axelle Pillain and Cécile Helleringer: