Seahorse’s own three-time Vendée Globe veteran Patrice Carpentier starts his final race in 2004. Patrice had raced his Adrian Thompson-designed ‘little yellow canary’ Open 50 to an impressive 11th overall in the previous race against the theoretically faster 60-footers; however, in 2004/2005 he was forced to stop in New Zealand to repair an unfixable broken boom, retiring from the race but completing the course several weeks after winner Vincent Riou
improved his score by one place in 2012/2013 during the seventh edition but a 29-year-old young navigator, François Gabart, at the helm of a VPLP/Verdier design named Macif, will prevent it. The match between the two leaders was intense from the beginning to the end with a rich Atlantic comeback pending. Only three hours (the smallest gap ever recorded between the first two skippers of the VG) separated François and Armel at the finish, with a new race record (78d 2h days) swal- lowed at an average of 15kt and a new record 24-hour run recorded at 534nm. Britain’s Alex Thomson took third
place in 80d 19h. Jean-Pierre Dick, against whom he was fighting, lost the keel of his boat, Virbac Paprec 3. ‘The tall blond guy’ managed, however, to reach the finish without assistance and to keep his fourth place ahead of ‘King Jean’ Le Cam. Nine of the 20 starters retired with,
running out of food and having to ask for prohibited outside assistance. Michel also gave a nice lesson in resourcefulness using his mainsheet to start his engine when the starter failed. Michel had to find a solution or be forced to abandon the race. In 2004-2005 everything brought Vin-
cent Riou’s victory closer to that of Michel Desjoyeaux. The boat is the same (Finot- Conq design) as that of 2001, as with the sponsor, PRB. As for the skipper appointed by Michel, he is somewhat the spiritual son of the Professeur. He is a technician – who has contributed greatly to the construction and development of the boat – plus an eminent Figariste, and he will prove to be quite a sailor despite the pressure that weighs on his destiny. Passing the Ste-Hélène High, Riou takes
the lead from Jean Le Cam and his Marc Lombard-designed Bonduelle. The two friends and rivals managed it wisely through the Roaring Fifties, and when they reached the Horn Le Cam was in the lead. Riou follows serenely 3h 30m behind, then Mike Golding (Ecover) far behind but for a while comes back into the game. The ascent of the Atlantic is exciting
between these three sailors. It ends on 2 February in favour of PRB, credited with a record time (87d 10h, an average of 12.73kt) and a tiny advance of 6h 30m on Le Cam’s Bonduelle. Ecover, not far behind, is awaited at Les
Sables. She has just lost her keel… But the British skipper keeps his boat upright.
58 SEAHORSE Three other boats experienced keel
problems earlier in the race despite ‘nor- mal’ weather conditions. Their skippers had to give up, including Roland Jourdain, one of the big favourites. In 2008-2009 the sixth edition had a
double record: the number of participants (30) and… of retirements (19). Within hours of the start in very bad
weather, three boats dismasted and others returned to Les Sables – including Michel Desjoyeaux on his new Farr design Foncia! It would take his shore crew 40 hours to repair the leaking from his ballast tanks and solve several major electrical problems caused by the water… Despite this heavy handicap Michel will
get back to the fleet and overtake the com- petitors one by one to round Cape Horn with a big lead. A great lesson given by Professeur Desjoyeaux. It must be said that this edition also saw
a lot of damage: several dismastings (includ- ing Mike Golding’s boat while he was in first place), loose keels (including once again the boat of Roland Jourdain, then second), weakened rudders, torn sails, UFO collisions, capsizing and serious injury for Yann Eliès who was very lucky to be saved. The winner started the 2008 VG 40-
hours late, but will have to wait five days before the arrival of the second, Armel Le Cléac’h on his BritAir, designed by Finot- Conq. Desjoyeaux completed the course in record time at a 14kt average speed. Armel would have liked to have
once again, keel damage, dismasting and three collisions, two of which occurred with fishing boats shortly after departure near the Iberian coast. After placing second and third Armel
was naturally among the big favourites at the start of the eighth edition in 2016, especially since his new Banque Populaire is equipped with foils which provide much more lift than conventional daggerboards, and which give a notable speed advantage in certain conditions (five boats are equipped with foils in the last VG). In fact, a close duel took place between
the two foilers, of Armel and Alex Thom- son, out in front of the rest of the fleet. When the Briton loses use of one foil shortly before reaching the Indian Ocean it is thought that it is a win for the French. But it’s a mistake to think that: Alex sets a crazy pace with his Hugo Boss (with a new 24-hour record of 536.81nm) and will remain a threat for the Frenchman until three days before the finish line that Armel crosses after 74 days of sailing. After Jérémie Beyou, ranked third,
arrives a very tight peloton of three skip- pers: Jean-Pierre Dick, Yann Eliès, first of the ‘daggerboard group’, and Jean Le Cam. They are within only three hours after 80 days at sea. Unheard of! This time 18 of the 29 participants rep-
resenting 10 nationalities are ranked. The 11 retirements include five collisions with UFOs, including for Vincent Riou and Kito de Pavant, once again evicted from the Vendée Globe, four dismastings, foil damage, and a keel system failure for Paul Meilhat who was leading the ‘daggerboard class’ before his incident.
q
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/DPPI
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