d’Olonne before heading out to sea again, four days behind the fleet. ‘I am very happy to take part in this extraordinary race again,’ he says . ‘Anything can happen during a Vendée Globe but the boat is ready and so am I.’
Boris Herrmann becomes the first German sailor ever to cross the start line of the Vendée Globe. Herrmann’s Imoca 60 Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco (previously Malizia) was the most recognisable sailing boat of 2019 when the team delivered the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic to the UN Climate Summit in New York. Herrmann will be wearing Musto for his circumnavigation, in which he hopes to be competitive with new foils on his 2015 VPLP design. ‘Competing in the Vendée Globe has been a dream of mine for over 20 years and I am honoured and excited to participate as the first German competitor. I feel ready for the race and we have managed to test the new foils and train hard on the boat even during these difficult times. The race means more to me than only the sailing as it also gives me the chance to further our scientific and ocean mission. With our onboard laboratory we will be measuring ocean CO2 throughout this whole journey and doing our bit to contribute to science.’ Vendée veteran Jérémie Beyou is in the Vendée for the win. Now on his fourth attempt, the 44-year-old wore Musto four years ago when he finished third. Now with his supercharged high-speed foiler Charal, Beyou is doing everything in his power to make it first back to Les
82 SEAHORSE
Sables d’Olonne in February 2021. Victory in a strong Imoca line-up at last year’s Rolex Fastnet Race along with victory in this summer’s warm-up contest, the Vendée Arctique, bodes well for Beyou’s preparations. He is looking to leave no stone unturned in his bid for Vendée glory and believes Musto remains his best option to carry him to victory. Beyou comments on the course that awaits them, saying, ‘all the course is challenging. The first days can be rough, and you really can be surprised by it after three weeks of stand-by in Les Sables d’Olonne. You won't win the race there, but you definitely can lose it… Our boats can sail between 10 and 25kts average boat speeds, so depending on the wind that you catch, you can win or lose more than 300 miles a day. So maybe these last weeks will be the most important.’ With a great offshore pedigree in his own right having completed three Solitaire du Figaros, multiple RORC class and overall victories and skippering a Nord Stream Race team, Musto’s marketing project manager Hugh Brayshaw has been the vital link between the five Vendée competitors and the company. ‘It’s my job to look after our Musto ambassadors and make sure they're getting the right kit for every stage of the race, from the Equator to the Southern Ocean. My degree in technical clothing design paired with my experience as a professional sailor are useful for relaying the feedback from the sailors back to the designers and the development team.’
While the hydrofoiling boats are another level faster and wetter on
Above: Sam Davies is a long-term tester of Mustoʼs
ocean racing kit whose feedback to the Musto design team informs the ongoing
development of the wet weather gear that the rest of us rely on. She endures the ʻfirehose effectʼ so we donʼt have to. And when you notice that your next set of HPX Pro Series trousers have more comfortable padded knees than the last ones, you can thank Sam for that
deck, the latest generation of Imocas have also been designed to minimise the time required for sailors to spend out in the elements. The aterproofing and breathability needs to be as high as ever, but a big push this time around is increasing flexibility, to enable the sailors to move around these bucking broncos with agility and in comfort.
‘In the last race Armel Le Cléac'h really loved the HPX trousers but would often wear an MPX top because it is lighter in weight and he wanted that bit more flexibility,’ Brayshaw says. ‘This time it could be even more extreme and they'll have an HPX bottom and an LPX top which is super lightweight and really breathable. Because the boats are going so fast they don't actually need to change sails that often so they're spending more time moving around their cabins; it's still a bit damp in there so they still need a layer of protection which is why they’re keen on the LPX for a lot of the time. But when they head into the Southern Ocean they’ll be fully into their HPX for the very highest level of warmth and protection.’ While the latest generation of Imoca 60s is very different from the type of boat a typical Musto customer might sail, Brayshaw says the Vendée Globe remains as important as ever to the brand’s principles and ambitions. ‘It proves that Musto is still the best brand to take care of you when you go offshore. We remain fully invested the very pinnacle of the sport and it ensures we continue to understand and deliver what sailors need as the sport progresses. That
INITIATIVES COEUR
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