The Escoffier case: The consequences for Escoffier and for the sailing world
Jochen Rieker
· 27.03.2024
- From high-flyer to outlaw in just a few weeks
- Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for Kevin Escoffier, takes a stand
- Escoffier is heavily in debt
- How the media and sailing association reinterpret suspicion as fact
- Well-intentioned, poorly argued: The fight against the "Omerta"
- More equality, more competition - more scandals
- The distorted image of the overbearing womaniser
Looking at the Escoffier case in retrospect, with all its twists and turns and contradictions, all the statements and counter-statements, one question remains unanswered: the question of why. Perhaps there is no plausible answer because the sequence of events happened more by chance, driven by haste, fervour, zeitgeist and the echo chambers of the media, not just the social media.
That is why we are concluding this three-part series on the most prominent me-too affair in international sailing to date with a look at what can be described in concrete terms: the consequences and repercussions. They are serious and far-reaching.
From high-flyer to outlaw in just a few weeks
For Kevin Escoffier, the accused, all of whose sanctions had to be cancelled by the French Sailing Federation FFVoile due to serious procedural errors, it was the lowest possible case.
The mere, still unproven accusation by a PR employee of his sponsor that he had harassed her in a bar in Newport in mid-May was enough to destroy his previously outstanding career as an engineer and skipper - and that within a few weeks, long before the first witnesses had been heard or the FFVoile disciplinary commission's investigation report had been presented. In other words, at a time when the presumption of innocence should have applied to him as it did to everyone else.
Escoffier was out of work from one day to the next. His sponsor Holcim - PRB immediately stopped all payments to him; later, the Swiss building materials group even sued the exceptional skipper for damages due to the damage to his image. The Frenchman had to dismiss and compensate all team members who were employed by his company. He even had to pay for the replacement rig that he had shipped to Newport after the mast broke on stage four of the Ocean Race.
The mast breakage of Team Holcim - PRB
Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for Kevin Escoffier, takes a stand
"Unlike other sports, no athlete or sailing team can practise their sport without a sponsor, as the financing of ocean sailing is so crucial.
This system inevitably makes the skipper financially dependent on the sponsor, but not only that: it is clear that in addition to the finances, the skipper's sporting and professional career is de facto under the yoke of the sponsor: no sponsor, no boat, no team, no races. Everything can be over from one day to the next. This is exactly what happened to Kévin Escoffier.
When he was accused of sexual assault, the sponsor very quickly booted him out and cancelled the sponsorship contract in order to protect his image as much as possible. Regardless of Kévin Escoffier's challenges, regardless of the presumption of innocence, regardless of the personal consequences for the skipper, all that mattered were the financial stakes and the media presence.
Kevin Escoffier has not only lost everything, contract, income, career ..., but the sponsor has also left him heavily in debt and refuses to honour his obligations. We remember: On the fourth stage from Itajaí (Brazil) to Newport (USA), the Imoca 'Holcim PRB' as the leader in the overall standings.
On the instructions of the sponsor, Kévin Escoffier and his company Esco Voile hastily organised a replacement rig and paid all the associated costs in advance. To this day, Holcim PRB refuses to reimburse these costs, leaving Kevin Escoffier more than 800,000 euros in debt. This is a particularly problematic situation, all the more so when the athletes have no control over the terms of their partnership and - again due to their dependence on the sponsor - have not been able to negotiate their contracts properly."
Escoffier is heavily in debt
Escoffier sold his house in order to be able to pay the claims. He had to borrow the money for his defence lawyer from his parents. He was soon unable to find work in the French deep-sea scene, of which he was one of the most competent and successful players.
It was as if I had forfeited any right to exist."
Escoffier said this in an interview with YACHT last autumn. In an interview with "Le Monde", he described his situation as follows: "It's over and done with, I will no longer find a job in ocean racing, even if my innocence is recognised.
One minute he's the uber-skipper in The Ocean Race, a celebrated Vendée participant, the only sailor to hold the current 24-hour records for both monohulls and multihulls, and the next: it's me-too.
What would be inevitable for a convicted and sentenced offender, the 44-year-old from Larmor Plage experienced as soon as the president of the sailing association had announced an investigation into the matter: the maximum penalty long before proceedings were opened.
How the media and sailing association reinterpret suspicion as fact
The media has also played its part in this development. Due to the prominence of the accused and the fact that sexualised violence has become a highly emotional, ongoing topic in recent years, the case was scandalised at an early stage.
Rumours and slander were sometimes presented as facts, affidavits were accepted unquestioningly and presented as a chain of circumstantial evidence. Bloggers, including local ones, increased the reach of such publications by adopting them without reflection.
A report in "Le Canard Enchainé" is particularly interesting. In it, the satirical magazine, comparable to the German "Titanic", painted the picture of a serial offender for the first time on 14 June, just eleven days after Kevin Escoffier resigned from his position as Holcim PRB skipper.
The allegations, made under the cloak of anonymity, put Escoffier even more on the defensive. Three women and one man accuse him of further assaults. The publication is making waves in France, but not only there. The daily newspaper "Ouest France" speaks of a "bombshell" and calls the accusations "devastating".
In the report, one of the women is quoted as saying: "I didn't realise that others may also have experienced sexual harassment or even assault. Out of solidarity with the victims and to change the behaviour of men in this sport, I decided to give my testimony."
What nobody knows at this point is that the statements are partly abridged and deliberately omit important aspects. The quotes, as well as the entire report, are written in a diction that follows a clear perpetrator-victim perspective.
And it is precisely these allegations and the alleged incident in Newport that the Sailing Association later relied on to justify its sanctions - although none of them can be proven beyond doubt, and two are even refuted by witness statements.
Well-intentioned, poorly argued: The fight against the "Omerta"
The association was undoubtedly aware that the facts were indeed extremely thin on the ground. Despite the media hunt, not a single witness has been found to date. In autumn, the FFVoile set up an online address specifically for reporting sexualised violence in sailing. This was also without any new findings in the Escoffier case.
And another attempt to substantiate the allegations followed. A number of athletes and managers, including Holly Cova, director of Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia, wrote an open letter in September against the alleged "omerta" that lies over such offences because victims in the sailing scene do not dare to report incidents.
The action explicitly referred to the "Escoffier affair" as an example. However, the disciplinary commission did not publish its report until a month later; at this point, there was no court-proof evidence that an assault had taken place in Newport and, as is now clear, it is still missing today. Just another one of countless prior convictions.
This instrumentalisation has hit no one harder than Kevin Escoffier. But his case extends far into other areas of ocean racing. A veritable formation of camps has taken place across entire teams.
Numerous prominent skippers, technicians and preparers were reluctant to speak out about the events under their full names - out of concern for their careers and for fear of being singled out by the media. Those who did and made exonerating statements in favour of Escoffier had to reckon with reprisals within their own sailing team - and this in a sport that has always felt committed to camaraderie and mutual help.
More equality, more competition - more scandals
It has to be said that something has broken over this dispute that had been cracking for some time. Strictly speaking, there are two developments that actually have nothing to do with each other and yet have culminated together.
Firstly, there is the still predominantly male-dominated sport, which has always found it difficult to adapt to social developments, which for a long time kept women out of the clubs, or at least the functional levels, at whose club counters thigh-slappers are still performed today that would at best cause astonishment elsewhere.
In this ecosystem far removed from wokeness, women are fortunately at the helm today, demanding respect, equal rights and the certainty that no one will grope them or harass them with obscenities and worse. It is their right and a matter of course. But as dynamically as the sailing scene is developing, women are constantly coming up against slogans and gestures from the day before yesterday. This is one of the reasons why the fight against assault is sometimes fought so vehemently, with almost religious fervour.
The other, unrelated development is the ongoing professionalisation and commercialisation of sport. In France in particular, and especially in the Imoca class, which has been booming for two decades, huge sums of money are now being spent. Annual budgets of five to eight million are now common for the top teams. The battle for sponsors, talent, budgets, constructors, construction and starting positions has intensified.
What was once a bunch of like-minded crazy people is now working with planning tools from the industry and under immense pressure to achieve results and meet expectations. It is no coincidence that one indiscretion has recently followed another. This was the case with the "Affaire Cremer", when the Banque Populaire racing team wanted to boot out its skipper. It was the same with the "Escoffier affair", which was the centre of attention of the association, colleagues, media and sponsors.
The distorted image of the overbearing womaniser
Perhaps it's no wonder that the 44-year-old was hit so hard. He was the ideal victim for a me-too scandal: a man at the peak of his career, admired by millions, envied by many; experienced, determined, focussed, intelligent and highly entertaining to boot. He even mastered the mast breakage in the South Atlantic on the Ocean Race leg between Itajai and Newport in an exemplary commando action.
But he has an Achilles heel. Everyone close to him knows this, and he doesn't beat around the bush: "I have a weakness for flirting." This has cost him two marriages, the last as a result of the public controversy surrounding the allegations last year.
It is comparatively easy to declare a womaniser a philanderer, to deny him any respect for women. But there is a clear dividing line. In Escoffier's case, however, it was blurred beyond recognition because, as a womaniser, he was morally tainted from the outset, all the more so in a world that lives more freely but at the same time sets narrower limits of tolerance.
Of course, this disposition should never have led to him being hastily placed in a corner with sex offenders. After all, the presumption of innocence applies to everyone until proven otherwise, regardless of their permissiveness when it comes to relationships.
His ex-wife, Sabrina Millien, who separated from him last summer, did not recognise him in the media's distorted image. That's why she didn't hesitate for a moment to help him reconstruct the events following the alleged incident in the Fastnet bar in Newport.
In a statement, she expressed her support for him, describing him as a reliable, respectful family man - a remarkable thing considering that she had ended her relationship with him. But she can separate the one from the other. She says that he deserved her separation from him, because he bears responsibility for that, "but not for what he has been publicly accused of".
