News Around the World
FRANCE The success is simply enormous Twenty-five days after the arrival of winner Charlie Dalin and while Violette Dorange, the youngest skipper in the race, was crossing the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne to loud cheers from upwards of 25,000 spectators, we interviewed Antoine Mermod, President of the Imoca class since 2017. Seahorse: We have seen you a lot in Les Sables d’Olonne these last weeks! Antoine Mermod: I have greeted almost all the skippers as they finished and it is a great pleasure to listen to each of them describing their latest adventures. I’m a fan. This race is a real catalyst of emotions at every level. It’s exceptional, and to look into their shining eyes delights me. Beyond the legitimate satisfaction of having completed a solo round-the-world voyage without stopping, I should emphasise that even for the tailenders the emotion now is about ‘racing all around the globe’. There has been a level of competitiveness that we never saw
before within each group in this amazing fleet. For example, the tiny 16-minute gap separating the top two non-foiling skippers, Benjamin Ferré and Tanguy Le Turquais, ranked respectively 16th and 17th, after 85 days of sailing. Or, a few days later, the 27-minute margin separating Louis Duc and Sébastien Marsset after 90 days at sea. We are witnessing a level of competition never reached before.
And also excellent reliability! This year there were only seven retire- ments out of 40 starters!! Two of those seven skippers, 2020- winner Yannick Bestaven and Eric Bellion, finished the course but had to stop for repairs and so are considered as retired. This is a historically low percentage of withdrawal. This Vendée Globe has really been something different. It is not
a competition to be compared with the previous editions, when there was always a lot of technical damage so that the results were heavily affected by the retirements along the route. We have reached a level of reliability that allows the vast majority
of skippers who start to compete hard against each other. And that, I think, is something quite remarkable in the dimensions of a round- the-world race.
20 SEAHORSE
Violette Dorange said on arrival, ‘I think we always give our
maximum energy, even if we are not at the front of the fleet…There is always a real battle. I never thought I could take an extra nap. I was really into my race from start to finish – and there was a hard race to the end. There was no possibility of easing up.’ Violette crossed the line on day 90, one of three competitors who finished within the space of just four hours. The Vendée Globe is a close and tough race at every level. Also,
an epic story enthusiastically told by skippers who have become actors in their own play through their onboard videos. A continuous show having considerable resonance in France and elsewhere, amplified of course by the media and social networks. The overall success of this 10th Vendée Globe is simply enormous. SH: There was still some damage… AM: Actually there was very little structural damage to the boats, thanks to a lot of work done over the years. We were, however, very concerned about the reliability of the masts because their design dates from 2012. Since then the power of the boats has increased significantly, especially with the introduction of foils. As a result they have been strengthened but the original design is little changed. Here too the balance is positive even if two masts broke (for
technical reasons still unknown). Out of the 25 foilers at the start, three boats damaged a foil for reasons that remain to be determined. But these breakages did not cause serious damage. Perhaps fatigue with ageing? I know that Maliziawas racing the foils she used in The Ocean Race. Ditto for Groupe Dubreuil, previously called 11th Hour. She was using the same foils as during The Ocean Race, knowing that one foil was damaged two years ago and repaired in South Africa. There was one surprising breakage: the inner headstay (J2) on
the boat of Jean Le Cam. The composite stay is made as a single piece. It’s the same on all the boats but Jean’s has given way. So this is not a systemic problem but a one-off. The real technical issue is with hooks and furlers. I am surprised
because the loads on the rigs are now well recorded, especially following the data crunching carried out after the boats rounded Antarctica during The Ocean Race. After that race the mast data (using fibre optic sensors) was collected from the boats to see how well it corresponded with the structural assumptions. However, the
SAM DAVIES
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