A few years ago on his Jules Verne-winning cat Orange 2 Bruno Peyron completed the UK’s Round the Island Race as first finisher, then dropped off his guests, took onboard new VIPs and went around again. When he finished the second time he was still mid-fleet. This winter’s 2020/21 Vendée Globe threatens something similar, Patrice Carpentier predicts
To use as a reference the chronometers on the speed runs of the Défi Azimut held in Lorient in mid-September, we deduce that the Imoca fleet now demonstrate very con- siderable differences in speed with, on the one hand, one-mile covered at more than 23kt by L’Occitane, the record of the day, and on the other hand the modest 15.71kt
52 SEAHORSE
average for V&B Mayenne, the fastest of the conventional sailing boats with boards. Either a difference of 8nm per hour, or
190nm in a day or 13,000 miles for the 70 days of a Vendée Globe. That’s just huge! But be cautious, these runs were sailed
on flat seas and with 12-14kt of wind – conditions that completely favour the latest generation of foilers against the traditional Imocas that drag water. In short, the conditions that the skippers of the fly- ing boats would like to have all around the world but will probably have very little. That said, everyone agrees, starting with
the most interested parties, that it is a latest- generation foiler that will win the around- the-planet solo race (there are still eight of this kind at the start – they won’t all break down) and that perhaps a boat of the past generation, but equipped with recent foils, could be invited to the podium because pure maximum speed is not, far from it, the only criterion of success. Let’s not forget too that the average rate of retirements in the Vendée Globe is 52
per cent. One out of every two boats is not classified because of the draconian rules of the race which prohibit outside assistance of any kind, however incidental. Today we see that the latest-generation
Imocas have certainly reached an impres- sive milestone in terms of performance (with a much bigger jump forward than between the first generation of 2016 foilers and the previous non-foiled Imocas), but as a result have become vulnerable, some- times fragile and quite dangerous for the skipper. Inevitably it will be necessary to put the foot on the brake when the boat is too stressed (in particular, it is necessary to spare the one-design wingmast fitted to the newer boats which was never designed to support such a righting moment as that now reached by the foilers). The winner will be the one who best
balances speeds and loads. Who has the best feel for pressure. Not easy because the skippers of these weapons are furious competitors who will not be able to stand to slow down for long.
JACQUES VAPILLON/DPPI
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