Update
It’s easy to forget just how extraordinarily experienced Jean Le Cam, the Vendée racer and rescuer of PRB skipper Kevin Escoffier, is. Here he is at the start of the 2004-05 race on Bonduelle when he finished runner-up to Vincent Riou skippering a boat called… PRB. Le Cam had led at Cape Horn but Riou slipped past coming back up the Atlantic. This was his first VG… the latest race his 5th. Before the Vendée Globe ‘Le Roi’ had won the Figaro three times, dominated every season in the Formula 40 multihulls, raced the Whitbread with Eric Tabarly and been a familiar face on every type of ocean racer from the IOR maxis to the record-breaking foiler L’Hydroptère
sometimes as long as 4,000 words, which clearly touched the American skipper, who ended up calling Desjoyeaux ‘my professor’). Horeau’s soft spot for Alex Thomson, Sam Davies and Ellen
MacArthur is also conspicuous, and this chimes with the fact that in his view the race does little to encourage foreign skippers, or to make their journey towards the Vendée Globe easier – something it urgently needs to fix, he suggests. So, sure enough, a linear reading of the book does generate
inevitable repetitions, but they also underline Horeau’s personal stance. Beyond the highly entertaining and informative flurry of episodes that make the book such a joy to read fundamental questions arise about the future of the Vendée Globe, its identity and the values it may be at risk of betraying if some soul-searching isn’t done soon. And of course, as a looming presence pretty much everywhere, there is Jean Le Cam – but we’ll get back to him later.
Seahorse:Denis, when the Vendée region took over the organisation of the race in 2004, following Philippe Jeantot’s ‘fiscal troubles’, it officially became a ‘public good’. It belongs to all Vendée citizens and the organisers really push that dimension: in a world of over- commercialisation it all sounds very noble, and also somewhat reliant upon keeping the true spirit alive… Denis Horeau: That dimension is very important. The event benefits from a staggering level of support from the local stakeholders, and that’s true at political and public opinion level as well as when it comes to the corporates. All the big Vendée businesses rally around it with an immense sense of pride, sparing no effort when required. The structure is that the person holding the reins is the président du département, and that département’s economic fabric is made of local SMEs: this means that all ROI-based decisions have the Vendée in mind but there is little incentive to look beyond the horizon or to think about internationalising the event. When Philippe de Villiers acquired the race from Jeantot in 1989
(ed: leaving the organisation to Jeantot’s company until 2004, as previously mentioned), he had a clear vision: to make a maritime counterpart to his highly successful Puy du Fou venture, a historical theme park based on carefully crafted re-enactments, drawing
20 SEAHORSE
millions of visitors. It succeeded – all the Vendée département’s ambitions have been fulfilled for the ‘first circle’ of stakeholders. But look beyond it and you’ll find that the second circle, which
I see myself as a part of, has been pushing to adopt a more global outlook. Yet that group, which includes the Imoca class, does not have the ear of the people at the top of the management chain… And there is a clear hiatus right here, if you think that some teams invest upwards of ⇔15 million (Charal and Hugo Boss come to mind), surely they wish for greater international coverage? I tabled the idea of creating a Vendée Globe Ambassadors’ Corps,
representing the 15 or so different countries that have taken part so far: they’d promote the event on their respective turfs, commu- nicating the passion they have for the race. I’m thinking the likes of Rich Wilson, Norbert Sedlacek, Nick Moloney, Conrad Colman… those sailors have a highly infectious, visceral attachment to it. But at management level that never caught on, there was no
interest for the principle, let alone the details! The only conclusion is the organisers consider there is nothing to be gained by going global, otherwise they’d have done it long ago. While race director I pushed countless proposals their way but always to no avail. It’s slightly different but equally puzzling to see that the links
between the Vendée Globe and the marine leisure industry are non- existent: the département is the biggest exporter of pleasure craft in the world, and in the race they’re nowhere to be seen?!? It could be due to personal differences of opinions at the top, but the fact that these could not be resolved is telling. And why is the Vendée Globe not present at the various international boat shows? There’s a clear tendency to navel gaze on the part of the organisers. SH: I have to stress that this is pretty subtly tackled in the book, which is absolutely not an effort to point the finger… as you clearly remain in awe of and passionate about the Vendée Globe. The event resonated with your personal values, and you’ve dedicated 30 years to it. One can’t help but feel that you also think it’s sailing away from the original spirit, through an increased focus on technology that gradually eats away at the principle of ‘no assistance’. DH: I left in 2016 for a variety of reasons – one of which being I wanted to avoid holding the helm for too long… It’s always tempting
BENOIT STICHELBAUT
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