Editorial Andrew Hurst It’s all there, it’s all been done before
At the end of the 19th century and in the first 20 or so years of the 20th, the British public, plus those in Nordic countries and to a lesser extent in the USA, became engrossed in the many Arctic and more prolifically the Antarctic expeditions being mounted by their countrymen. Then in the years following World War I they began closely
following the many and varied attempts on the high peaks of the Alps and Himalayas. The majority of Polar expeditions of the time were mounted by European explorers while assaults on the world’s great mountains were generally more international affairs.
And so to the 2024 Vendée Globe This year’s ‘Greatest Sailing Race’ sees the most international field ever. That international interest and with it commercial investment have grown steadily from the first Vendée Globe 35 years ago – even then there was one South African (Bertie Reed) and one American (Mike Plant) among the 13 skippers that started. We do not need to labour the vast public interest in every Vendée Globe; originally centred in France, now in 2024/25 the tens of thousands of daily hits on the race website, race tracker, interviews and onboard video are coming from every corner of the globe. It is timely that the 10th Vendée Globe follows closely on the heels
of the 37th America’s Cup. We argue strongly that these are now the two most important events in sailing, the Olympics slipping off the top steps with its four-yearly attempts to make the Olympic regatta TV-friendly (note to World Sailing: it’ll never happen). The Barcelona America’s Cup attracted more interest from non-
racer or cruiser, did not at least once see that TV coverage and briefly dream about sailing an AC75? But compared with the Vendée the America’s Cup is rather clinical.
Little or no interaction with ‘personalities’, no ‘obvious’ danger, but a good live show, potentially weeks of shoreside hospitality… all while staying dry. Yet because of the mountainous cost the Cup is currently doomed to remain dependent upon vastly wealthy private backers who see little commonality backing a Vendée campaign; the irony being that Vendée Globe budgets are much smaller while the events’ sponsorship pool is much bigger. The Vendée Globe invests heavily in building skipper profiles,
engaging the general public and building upon exactly the same values that 100 years on make those incredible stories of early Polar and mountain adventures such wonderful reading for any child whose ambitions go beyond success at Grand ‘Couch’ Auto.
sailors than any Cup before it. Many, many more sailors also followed the daily broadcasts than the increasingly tedious critics of the 2024 event wanted you to believe. Even so, drill down into the yet to be released media numbers and throw in the necessary ‘reality filter’ and compared with the Vendée Globe the impact will still be fairly tiny. Yes, the Vendée lasts three months and is constantly aggregating
numbers, but this year’s Cup ran for a similar period. So two completely different events, both increasingly successful
every time. But numerically what will always put the Vendée Globe way ahead is the pool in which it operates. For the foreseeable future the Cup will be a complex if now more spectacular event, largely but not only for sailing fans – physical attendance at both Cup (and SailGP) events remains tiny compared with the VG. Public interest spiked for Barcelona via the excellent TV but it has a long way to travel before ‘commercial sustainability’ could be a thing. Conversely 99+ per cent of the Vendée Globe audience is the general public. And the point of this analysis… Well, when looking forward to
improve any of these big events, first look back. And the fundamental reasons for the enormous success of the Vendée Globe are near-identical to the reasons for so much public interest in those Polar and climbing expeditions of 100 or so years ago. Neither Cup nor Vendée is better than the other. The Cup is now
brilliant in my opinion. What car driver has not wondered what it would be like to take an F1 car on a track. And what red-blooded sailor,
‘
‘Honey, I asked you to put the sails in the car please.’ The FD (and driver) escaped uninjured, unlike the Mercedes that was pulling it
Thanks, Keith Way back in 1975 a young British student built himself a Flying Dutch- man… cracking boat with all the trimmings. But by the time it was finished the lad had no money left for race-quality sails. His first event was a mid-winter open meeting at a freezing Grafham Water reservoir near Cambridge. He towed the boat there anyway and on Saturday morning roamed the boatpark asking for help getting afloat. One of the Flying Dutchman greats and a favourite for Olympic selection that year turned round, smiled and passed him an almost-new set of world-class FD sails. ‘Keep them’ was all he said. That was Keith Musto, I was the student.
VENDEE CHILLIN’ Q: What are you doing to pass the quieter times…? A: I am reading the last two issues of Seahorse, I did not have time
before we started – Yoann Richomme, Arkéa Paprec, live on French TV
I love that man – Editor
COST SAVING Think of how much the media could save on not having to buy extra wide-angle lenses so they can try to get two
AC75s in frame! – Three-time Cup tactician Andy Rose argues for 90ft planing monohulls
JOB APPLICATION During the pandemic they sent $38million of relief to people who were dead, sent $6million to promote tourism in Egypt and spent $477,000 on a study to examine the susceptibility of transgender monkeys
to HIV… – Elon Musk suggests that there are some financial savings to be found within the US Government
And they spent $8,000 on a single small lobster tank
– Elon Musk has only just got started
ENOUGH I am delighted to announce a change in
my relationship status – Emma Watson I am no longer single, I am now officially ‘Self Partnered’ – Watson And I want to thank Emma Watson for taking nonsense to
FFS – Nannini
q
a whole new level – Marco Nannini, former Italian Yachtsman of the Year
NURSE! A Trump victory could reverberate for a million years because this oligarch might break the planet’s
of a global cataclysm – obvs
THAT VERSTAPPEN MOMENT
climate system – The Guardian (obvs) And bring the real risk
What is the fastest lap? – Charles Leclerc to his race engineer, Brazil GP
Charles, don’t ask – Engineer Bryan Bozzi
Simply Lovely – Verstappen puts in one of the greatest wet weather drives of all time
SEAHORSE 11
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