Although not the roughest edition on record and certainly not the fastest, this Vendée Globe was another race of heroes. And is there a greater hero than two-time Paralympic gold medallist Damien Seguin, constantly harrying the leading group before finishing 7th only 15 hours behind Charlie Dalin on Apivia? Seguin had raced as high as 2nd on his positively geriatric 2008 daggerboard design but lost ground towards the end when the weather eased, allowing the newer boats to press harder
more, otherwise I would sink. Hubert [the original name of Le Cam’s boat referring to Hubert Desjoyeaux, the builder and brother of Michel who died of cancer some years ago] brought me back and I helped him.’ Jean suffered major damage and he
succeeded in managing it. That is so much the story of the Vendée Globe. What can also be remembered about the
the lock for the important J3 headsail. And when the lock failed the crucial sail was destroyed as it fell into the water. Armel finally succeeded in replacing the unusable J3 with the J4, or storm jib, hoisted to the mast but without a furler. The small J4 remained there throughout the race. But the lack of a J3 was really a big
handicap when the wind freed and also under the gennaker. Later on Armel badly damaged his FRO as well before Cape Horn. Then in the last fortnight corrosion caused the failure of the pump for the keel ram and Armel finished the race by manually actuating the ram hydraulics! But the Manuard design still had the
opportunity to show her potential with a nice ‘remontada’ and even more by making the best time between the two passages of the Equator. Sam commented: ‘The optimi- sation loop of many new boats launched in 2019 and 2020 shows that foilers are not at all easy to use to their maximum. ‘They can be very fast in a limited range
of conditions. But it’s hard to get the full potential of solo boats in heavy weather. Are the foils dangerous? It is not necessary to generalise. It depends on the type of foils. ‘Full C-shape foils can be mainly
retracted. On Occitane we had the possi- bility of playing with the potential of our own ‘demi-C-foil’ concept: it was one of the priorities in the design brief. ‘There were times when both foils were
raised and it worked very well. Armel was never bothered by the foils when he did not want to use them. When raised our foils have a lot of “ground clearance”. Then as soon as the boat is flat on the water or slightly heeled they help to smooth out the speed and avoid the big accelerations (and the sudden braking afterwards) generated by submerged foils. It makes an easier ride for the skipper. ‘Can we imagine a foil optimised for a
particular course? This is not easy because you are a little limited in the dynamics of the foil depending upon the location of
46 SEAHORSE
the foil case… However, I do not like excessive “consumerism”. I believe the ethos of Imoca is to limit the number of parts to control the cost. ‘Moreover, to start with a particular set
of foils designed for one race seems to me a trick. The pre-Vendée Globe years must help you get to know your boat better in all weathers so it is bad to keep changing foils and systems so much. ‘But I would say in conclusion that, yes,
it is possible technically to build specific foils but it is not recommended and I do not know if it will be allowed by the rule.’ If a prize were to be awarded on the VG
for the spirit of battle it would go to Louis Burton who, despite repeated problems, always came back into the game. He con- stantly drove his boat with vigour and deter- mination especially in the southern seas. A trophy for stubbornness or rather
bravery is also naturally due to ‘King’ Jean Le Cam, when he told us on finishing that he had raced with a broken boat: ‘I have experienced a lot of difficult things in my life but never have I known the impossible. Somehow we get there. It’s always amazing. ‘But it is a miracle that I am here today!
The day after dropping off Kevin Escoffier (embarked on a military vessel) I discov- ered that the bottom of my boat had badly delaminated at the front. The crack was about 1.4m by 70cm along the starboard side. The hull shell was opening up by about 5mm. And in this situation if it breaks you sink. ‘I repaired it a first time, cutting out the
water ballast bulkheads. I had carbon up to my neck, but I didn’t have enough resin. ‘After that it broke again. We went fur-
ther north and there I stopped for a second time to allow the repairs to dry better… And after that, every day, I crossed my fin- gers that the hull does not bang too hard. ‘I didn’t even dare to go forward on the
deck. I no longer used water ballast because I had cut one tank through the middle so I couldn’t open the valve any
ninth edition is the huge impact of the numerous videos sent by the competitors. They all play their role with their character. During the race we get to know and appreci- ate them better, we share their life onboard. This contributes to the huge media coverage of the VG and its popular success. For my part, I always looked with inter-
est at the messages of Pip Hare (Medallia) whom I did not know. She is in a commu- nicative mood and as she smiles most of the time her sailing is all about felicity. From a weather point of view, I also
noticed that the boats behind the leading group frequently came back to the front. VG 2020 was not a race where ‘the rich got richer’. Routeing expert Christian Dumard said this time there was only a small window when the leading foilers approaching the Indian Ocean could have got a push to run away and clear the fleet, as happened during the two last editions. It is a reason, not the only one, why the
best conventional boats with daggerboards could play a key role all the way around. But the Vendée Globe is not yet finished
and some of the boats are already for sale (even Hugo Boss). Newer boats are said to be ordered soon (Code O shipyard is building a Sam Manuard design in the mould of L’Occitane). For the sailors wanting to win a foiler
remains a must, but for people who do not have the money to buy a new or second- hand foiler a conventional daggerboard design looks to be a good option. Michel Desjoyeaux owns the Imoca
chartered to Banque Populaire and skip- pered by Clarisse Cremer; she is known to be the fastest daggerboard design and was sailed by François Gabart when he won the 2012 VG. Desjoyeaux says he is now receiving a lot of enquiries about this boat! In 2016 the foilers were a mixed genera-
tion. For 2020 boats were more radically made for flying earlier and faster but only across a limited range of conditions. The next generation will probably be
designed differently knowing that the foils are only a part of the game. Especially rounding the world solo.
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