Opposite: ominous for most… Charlie Dalin celebrates both his 40th birthday and a very comfortable victory in this year’s New York Vendée singlehanded west-east transatlantic race. Dalin had been off games earlier this season for undisclosed reasons of ill health but in the last big solo test before the Vendée Globe he and Boris Herrmann broke away from the rest of the 28-boat fleet to finish two days in front of 3rd-placed Jérémie Beyou on Charal. It seems remarkable that Dalin’s Macif is the only new Verdier design in this year’s Vendée – a question we expect to be revisiting when the race finishes in February. It would not be an exaggeration to describe Clarisse Crémer’s (above) journey to the start of her second VG as turbulent. The big story was onshore and a ‘gender controversy’ that with a lighter touch could frankly have been avoided. Crémer’s sponsor Banque Populaire not unexpectedly walked away from the race altogether, the French skipper then being rescued in a deal with Alex Thomson which sees her racing the former Apivia of Charlie Dalin – line-honours winner in 2021 – but now in the colours of L’Occitane… Armel Tripon’s sponsor in the 2020/2021 edition!
Antoine Koch he has learnt perfect control of his boat which has been optimised and developed further since Thomas raced her. He will be a formidable competitor.
Young and old Violette Dorange was born on 17 April 2001. The youngest participant in the race (and one of six female entries) has been sail- ing for ‘a while’ and before going offshore she was a successful dinghy racer. Inciden- tally, she crossed both the English Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar in an Optimist! She has worked very hard to compete in
the Vendée Globe. She also raced the Mini Transat, has participated in three editions of the Solitaire du Figaro and at just 22 Vio- lette launched her Vendée Globe project after acquiring the boat of Jean Le Cam (named Yes We Cam!) in 2020 and now called Devenir. It is the old Foncia, a Farr design launched in May 2007 and on which Michel Desjoyeaux won the 2008 VG easily despite having to restart a few days late. ‘Le Roi Jean’, the oldest competitor in
the race at 65, is embarking on his sixth VG participation (a record). On this
occasion Jean will sail his new boat, a David Raison design but without any foils – like her sistership helmed by Eric Bellion.
Vital statistics A full one-third of the VG competitors are non-French, with two countries (England and Switzerland) having three skippers. Two candidates have disabilities. The Vendée Globe village is expecting more than two million visitors. The race record of 74d 3h 35m 46s, dating from 2016, is still held by Armel Le Cléac’h. Michel Desjoyeaux is the only skipper to have won the Vendée Globe twice. Twenty-four of this year’s 40 boats are equipped with foils of various different generations.
Last time around The ranking of VG 2020/2021 was extra- ordinarily close, the first eight boats classi- fied on the same day after 80 days at sea. 1. Yannick Bestaven in 80d 3h 44m 46s (net of redress) 2. Charlie Dalin in 80d 6h 15m 47s (Charlie was actually the first finisher) 3. Louis Burton in 80d 10h 25m 12s
4. Jean Le Cam in 80d 13h 44m 55s (net of redress) 5. Boris Herrmann in 80d 14h 59m 45s (net of redress) 6. Thomas Ruyant in 80d 15h 22m 1s 7. Damien Seguin in 80d 21h 58m 20s 8. Giancarlo Pedote in 80d 22h 42m 20s 9. Benjamin Dutreux in 81d 19h 45m 20s
10.Maxime Sorel in 82d 14h 30m 15s Diverted for the rescue of Kevin
Escoffier off the Cape of Good Hope, three sailors received a time bonus: Boris Her- rmann, Malizia SeaExplorer: 6h; Yannick Bestaven, Maître Coq IV: 10h 15m; Jean Le Cam, Yes We Cam!: 16h 15m. These bonuses were automatically deducted from the actual race time at the finish line.
When Imocas became foilers Among the 40 skippers 13 will start on an Imoca designed by VPLP (nine of them designed in collaboration with Guillaume Verdier). So a perfect opportunity to revisit the historic relationship between the design office and the solo race, and in particular the appearance and then spread of foils. The eighth edition (2016) of the Vendée
SEAHORSE 57
GILES MARTIN-RAGET
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