A coveted top-10 finish in classic Vendée Globe for French skippers Beyou, Meilhat, Lunven & Ruyant
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 26 Jan 06:49 AEDT
25 January 2025
Vendée Globe © Jean-Louis Carli / Alea
A top-10 finish in the Vendée Globe - in any edition of this classic race - is a major achievement in the world of solo offshore racing, but in the current race, with its record-breaking 40-strong entry, these are more valuable than ever.
And that's not just because of the size of the field that set sail last November, but also because of the competitiveness of the IMOCA fleet. Podium finishes, top-five finishes and top-10 finishes are all more sought after currencies than they have ever been.
Just ask Jérémie Beyou, the Charal skipper, who led the second group of finishers after the top three, as he crossed the line off Les Sables D'Olonne in fourth place in the early hours of Friday morning.
"There are fourth places that feel like defeats, but this one feels more like a victory," said the 48-year-old skipper originally from Morlaix. "It took me a bit of time to accept that it would only be fourth place, but in the end I'm proud."
Beyou arrived after 74 days and 12 hours at sea and did so nine days and 17 hours after race winner Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance). He was exhausted after a demanding run-in which saw some of the worst weather of the race for Beyou and those chasing him.
The three-time Figaro champion, for whom this was his fifth Vendée Globe, had dreamt of finally winning this marathon after having to re-start in the last race and finishing 13th, but it was not to be.
The next man across the line about 11 hours later, Paul Meilhat on board Biotherm, could not have been more proud of his fifth place. "What I was seeking in this Vendée Globe was the culmination of a collective effort over three years," he said. "In the end, it's me standing here in front of you. But this result is thanks to so many people - my team, partners, family and friends. I wanted to show that it's possible to succeed by taking this approach."
Then came Nico Lunven on board Holcim-PRB, a sailor who, like both Beyou and Meilhat, had to contend with many technical issues to keep his race on track. But like them too he was delighted with his sixth place. "Finishing is already a victory," he said. "I'm super-happy to have made it to the finish line, even though it wasn't always easy...finishing sixth, the objective was achieved," he added. "In any case, I'm satisfied with a job well done. I (did my best) and I fought hard all the way."
In seventh place, Thomas Ruyant on board VULNERABLE, another sailor who dreamt of winning after finishing sixth last time out, was in more philosophical mood back on dry land. Ruyant sailed a competitive race but his winning chances evaporated in the Southern Ocean when he could not stay with Dalin, Yoann Richomme (second on Paprec Arkéa) and Sébastien Simon (third on Groupe Dubreuil). He then suffered the loss of his J2 headsail in the Atlantic when it disintegrated in a 55-knot squall off the coast of Uruguay.
"If someone asked me to sign for seventh place before I set sail, I wouldn't have done so," Ruyant said at the finish. "But today I regret nothing. I did my best during the whole race and I am happy to be here today and I don't want to have any bitterness about it at all," he said.
Like Ruyant, Beyou's chance of winning ended when Dalin, Richomme, and Simon, built a lead heading across the South Atlantic and into the Southern Indian Ocean which the Charal skipper was never able to claw back.
"Charlie and I came out of the Doldrums together," recalled Beyou. "After that, I couldn't keep the speed up. I ended up with a physical problem with my knee which meant I might not have been performing at my full potential." Once he had fallen behind the leading three Beyou fought in vain to catch up again. "The gap cost us dearly," he said. "Then it stayed blocked the whole time...it kills your morale, but there's nothing you can do."
Beyou endured a tough final run-in to the finish and clearly found the stress of keeping his race on-track difficult to cope with. He said the technical problems on board his boat were a constant worry. "I had a lot of issues with the deck gear and electronics from the very start," he said. "I ended up with just one working wind vane out of four. There were also problems with basic components: blocks, furlers, hooks, hydraulic rams. Lots of technical issues that shouldn't happen. Psychologically, it felt like a sword of Damocles hanging over me, which made it hard to manage at times."
Meilhat was delighted that after having had to retire from his first Vendée Globe eight years ago, this time he was able to race all the way around the world, despite a broken forestay coming back up the Atlantic. He was always contending with boats around him and seemed to have enjoyed almost every minute of it.
"The others (his rivals) were my driving force," he explained. "I said before the start that I was here to race, to compete against the others. The final result wasn't that important to me - and I got what I wanted. This is the first time we've had a Vendée Globe with 40 skippers and, on top of that, the competitive level was very high. Throughout the race, I always had another boat near me and I crossed paths with a boat on AIS almost daily."
Meilhat said he needed all his strength and staying power to keep his boat in one piece during the final battering in the Bay of Biscay before the finish. "I'm thrilled to be here because, honestly, last night I had nothing left. I was hit with 40 knots of wind again, the boat broaching three times, lying on its side. I knew resilience was my strength, but I'm so relieved to be here," he said.
Lunven, meanwhile, paid tribute to Beyou after a long battle with him throughout the race, one of the sub-plots behind the leading trio that was no less intense than Dalin's rivalry with Richomme and Simon. "For much of the Vendée Globe, I was racing side-by-side with Jérémie. It was fantastic to have that friendly rivalry. We used to compete a lot in the Figaro and now here we are doing the same in IMOCA. It was really great," he said.
The Holcim-PRB skipper was asked if he is already thinking about coming back in four years time for another go at this uniquely demanding race. "It's hard to say no," he said. "We always tend to forget the bad moments and hold onto the good ones, so it's something that quickly comes back to mind."