Editorial Who’d want the job?
Andrew Hurst
This issue includes an insightful interview (page 20) by Patrice Carpentier, multiple Vendée Globe and Whitbread veteran, with Imoca president Antoine Mermod. Justifiably, Mermod celebrates the most successful edition yet of the Vendée Globe, an over-subscribed entry, the speed of the race and above all the greatly improved
reliability of the fleet. It was an extraordinary race and, while the fleet spread out dramatically from the beginning, most skippers enjoyed private battles with a few boats of similar performance. Like big multihulls before them, the latest Imocas are now fast
enough to ‘play’ with weather systems rather than simply try to avoid the worst conditions. They can catch a low and ride it in a manner inconceivable for any monohull even 10 years ago. But as in every high-performance fleet, from foiling Moths to Ultim trimarans, higher speeds make for bigger gaps. Jean Le Cam, wise old seadog that he is, has already started
feeding in ideas for the big solo race in 2028. His first, wider sug- gestion was for a class split between foiling and non-foiling designs. This sounds obvious in terms of prizes but the issue goes a lot further. As class president Mermod is rightly nervous about doing anything
with the Vendée Globe that detracts from the simplicity of the challenge. One fleet, starting together and, metaphorically speaking, with nothing more for organisers to do until the boats return two or three months later. For the sailors too, as one once told me: ‘The great thing about the start of the Vendée Globe is that it is the moment when you stop spending money.’ Obviously, with the cost of modern comms those days are long gone but you get the point. Start, lap the planet, finish. A simple and beautiful concept. But as Imoca sailors are aware, deciding who gets the prizes is
Ocean, this time the speed differences were breathtaking. The genie is off and running. No one felt this more than Jean Le Cam himself; he came so close to winning last time in an old but well-optimised non-foiler that he built one of only two new non-foilers for this race. The results were painful. No more such boats will ever be built. On Day 45 of the 2024 VG the spread from first to last place
was already more than 7,000nm. There was a 1,000nm void between the two biggest groups in mid-fleet and a ‘sub-spread’ at the back of the fleet of 2,500nm covering places 28th to 35th. This fleet may not go as far south as it once did, we can fool
ourselves that bad weather is no longer quite so bad. Ice zones play a big part in keeping the fleet out of mischief, if not the ice, notable by its absence once again. You won’t find anyone stupid racing an Imoca 60, nor in the
Vendée Globe organisation. No one is deluded enough to forget what happened in the 1996/97 race, the storms that ripped apart the mid-fleet, saw boats capsize and sink and tested the Australian rescue services to the limit. And cost Gerry Roufs his life. Taken in isolation, the modern Imoca fleet would fare better en
not the main point. The way the latest VG fleet spread out was as astonishing as it was potentially alarming. Grant Dalton says that, distilled to its core, the America’s Cup and the Whitbread/Volvo Races have almost nothing in common. In one you simply do every- thing possible to beat, destroy even, competitors. Racing around the world, you are as driven to win but aware that should the worst happen it is your competitors who have most chance of saving you. More so, the Vendée Globe. We have seen extraordinary rescues
in previous editions. Peyron/Poupon, Soldini/Autissier and, most extraordinary of all, the rescue of Raphaël Dinelli by Pete Goss, the Italian skipper ‘stepping’ off the top of his coachroof as his boat slipped beneath the waves. Almost always it is a competitor who is first on the scene to offer assistance – if only via VHF. Historically, Vendée Globe fleets were smaller. They always
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figure out – Ainslie
spread out, but nothing like they did this time. We now have three or more Imoca ‘divisions’. The latest foilers with the hardest-driving skippers. Previous-generation designs pushing hard but not in con- tention for the top prize. From there back to the non-foilers and then the lowest-budget entries, typically the oldest boats. The front two ‘classes’ and the rest could be completely different types of boat. The gap will never close. Unlike in the previous race, when the foilers could not, or did not, show their potential in the Southern
No, sometimes it won’t just buff out, nor will a couple of rolls of duct tape solve everything. Fernando Alonso catches his breath
masse, and be more likely to avoid the worst weather. But this fleet no longer sails ‘en masse’. Rewind the tracker and over Christmas- New Year there were singlehanded Imoca skippers spread literally all around the bottom of the world. It’s not the award of prizes that Antoine Mermod and his sailors know they have to address. I wish them well; not everyone will leave the room happy.
MANY A TRUE WORD Jim’s [Ratcliffe] definitely behind
the team – Ben Ainslie, Barcelona, after the Match
offer yet – rumours abound that Aston Martin will offer Max Verstappen a $1bn contract
haven’t received the
Quite what that looks like I think we’ve got to
AND JUST LIKE THAT Do you know who I am? I’m the heavyweight
champion of the world – Mike Tyson is interrupted making advances to a young Naomi Campbell
And I am the former Wykeham Professor
of Logic – Prof AJ Ayer (76) We are both pre-eminent in our fields and I suggest we talk about this like
rational men – Ayer (and they did)
FINANCE Team GBR to receive £25 million for the LA
2028 Olympic cycle… – David Munge When I went out to LA in 1984 as alternate crew I got $50/day plus a bunk at Brooks
Girls’ School – Munge And it wasn’t even
term time – Munge It would be nice, but I
AI PERIL My J2 and J3 are in
scissors – Sam Goodchild has broken the auto-translate
Sam has shown great skill with his calm and
limpid navigation – so has the Vendée Globe media office
IN HUMAN Isn’t that beautiful. I am going to get to Les
Sables d’Olonne – Sam Goodchild hoists a repaired fragment of his destroyed mainsail
SHARPEN UP Coutts Jnr and the top
banned forthwith – Hollom
guys all used metal foils – Dave Hollom If the Moth class does not wish to destroy itself they should be
CONTEXT Before this we didn’t have any worries in
I mean, apart from missiles constantly
q
the world – Tom Hand (whose eight-year-old daughter was just returned by Hamas)
coming over our heads – Hand
SEAHORSE 11
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