Vendée Globe Twists and Turns, Thrills and Spills
by Mark Jardine 10 Dec 2024 12:00 PST
Yoann Richomme on Paprec Arkea - 2024 Vendée Globe © polaRYSE / Paprec Arkea
I need to start with an admission... I'm addicted to the Vendée Globe. When I wake in the morning, I look at the tracker, and at each sked (it updates every four hours) I take a look.
Following the twists and turns of the Vendée Globe becomes an obsession for thousands of fans of the race, and this tenth edition is providing more than its fair share of excitement. The fleet of forty IMOCA yachts is a record for the race, and only two skippers have had to retire so far, which is remarkably low as the Vendée Globe traditionally has a very high attrition rate.
The Vendée Globe is very French. Starting and finishing in Les Sables d'Olonne, it is owned by the Vendée region and has only ever been won by a French skipper, which doesn't look set to change in this edition with the top six in the current ranking all being French. Sam Goodchild is currently the top 'international' skipper in seventh place and is sailing remarkably well in a previous generation IMOCA.
This brings me on to the latest designs of IMOCA - they are insanely fast. I lost count, but I believe that the solo 24-hour record for a monohull has been broken nine times so far during the race, and there's no reason to believe that the latest benchmark won't be broken again soon.
It all started on 13th November when Nico Lunven on Holcim-PRB took a flyer to the west while heading down the North Atlantic, covering 546.60 nautical miles in 24 hours. A week later, Yoann Richomme on Paprec Arkéa upped the ante to 551.84 nautical miles before being slowed by the Doldrums.
The followed a 'Manic Monday', where Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable), Nicolas Lunven (Holcim - PRB), Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance), Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) all pushed the mark higher and higher, with Richomme in the end achieving the highest total at 579.86 miles.
Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil then took things to a whole new level on 27th November, first smashing through the 600nm barrier, then continuing to go faster and faster, covering a staggering 615.33 miles nautical miles in 24 hours. This will need to be approved by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC), but the solo sailors are now within touching distance of the crewed monohull mark of 640.48nm.
How anyone sleeps on a yacht at these kinds of speeds, in a carbon hull that reverberates the sound, the foils screaming and the wind whistling in the rigging, is a mystery to me. The sailors who compete in the Vendée Globe are on a different level when it comes to endurance.
With forty boats in the race, the tactical options are fascinating. Watching how the sailors negotiated the first big storm in the Indian Ocean, as we saw the depression barrelling in, provided us with nervous moments. The visualisations of wind, where the colours go from green to yellow, then red to purple, as the breeze increases, leave you praying for their safe passage.
The latest foiling IMOCAs have the ability to outrun storms, so careful positioning has become more important than ever. It's almost like a surfer lining up for a breaking wave, but on the scale of a thousand-mile-wide low pressure system. As we saw in the Indian Ocean, Charlie Dalin on MACIF Santé Prévoyance managed to stay on the eastern side of the system, while Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil couldn't quite keep up, losing over one hundred nautical miles in the process, like falling off the back of wave.
Video has been playing an ever-increasing part in our editorial output, and the Vendée Globe has provided an ideal opportunity to grow our YouTube following. Earlier in the year I experimented with a studio-style presenting, which took a bit of getting used to, as well as a couple of modifications on the technology needed to make it work, but everything was in place to do daily updates from the race.
You never quite know with YouTube what's going to land well, and what's going to flop but, so far, our updates are going well on the channel, with 1.4 million views in the past 28 days. If you haven't already then please do take a look at YouTube.com/@Sail-World and, if you like, subscribe to be alerted when the latest update is out.
The Vendée Globe is one of those rare events, like the America's Cup, SailGP, Olympics and The Ocean Race, which can transcend sailing beyond its traditional audience of diehard fans. It's a real opportunity to find new participants in the sport, who might watch what's happening and say, 'I want to try that'. With the increasing number of international skippers in the race, and their armies of fans, I believe we really can use the event for the good of the sport itself.
I also think that it's becoming less and less important for events to be broadcast on traditional TV channels. The way people tune in for their video content has been changing for years, and it has got to the point where getting the right side of the YouTube algorithm is more important for sports than securing a broadcast deal. It's always tempting to go down the sensationalist route when chasing views, but thankfully there is still an audience for succinct and less-in-your-face video reporting.
The big question though is does our regular sailing bear resemblance to a modern IMOCA? The majority of sailing in the Vendée Globe now takes place inside the cockpit, which is fully enclosed. The tiller isn't used 99% of the time, with the autopilot taking care of that duty, and while the sailors are thrown around like crazy, much of the race is a desk job, studying wind maps and routing options. Has the Vendée Globe become a weird reflection of modern life instead?
Overall though I'm in awe of the skippers in the Vendée Globe. The IMOCA yachts are extremely powerful and require constant attention to stay operating. Failing to check everything continuously can lead to disaster. Pushing too hard can lead to fatigue, for both the boats and sailors, and we've seen record-breaker Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil lose his starboard foil in the past few days - are the two things related?
It's an amazing race, and if you're not following it already I highly recommend you do, but I must warn you... it's addictive.
Mark Jardine
Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com Managing editor