the boat, the forward cockpit allows a lower floor which increases headroom, helpful when standing up and a big plus compared to most cockpits in which the skippers are folded in half. ‘Having a separate, remote living area
also makes life “off watch” a little less wet and uncomfortable,’ adds Antoine. Boris Herrmann wanted to launch the
boat in the summer of 2022, so these choices had time to be validated, and the SeaExplorer team achieved a dominant victory on the long third stage of The Ocean Race, in the deep south, plus a new 24-hour monohull record set during the final transatlantic leg from Newport to Aarhus (641.13nm, 26.71kt average). Boris then finished second in The Transat CIC and in the New York Vendée, in May and June 2024, both of which were sailed solo. So what to do now in this 10th Vendée
Globe to achieve an equally successful performance? ‘Boris’s results and feedback are reassuring, but with the Vendée Globe we learned a long time ago to remain humble and manage our expectations,’ says Quentin Lucet… Who, with the rest of the VPLP design team, is already now working on the next 2028 generation of the Imoca with two build slots for new boats bought and paid for!
A race without assistance? Jean-Yves Chauve has been the official doctor for the Solitaire du Figaro since 1987, and then for the Vendée Globe from 1989 until 2020. As a doctor and sailor he has advanced health and medical treatment in offshore racing with numerous studies including on sleep, alertness, nutrition and teleconsultation, of which he is a pioneer. The famous doctor recently told Course
60 SEAHORSE
au Large magazine: ‘Generally when your phone rings it is because there is a problem onboard. There may also be periods of depression for skippers, this is quite common for reasons that are self-evident. ‘And then there’s a point where you can
go from psychological support to medical assistance. However, today most skippers will first call their coach. There are so many people around now: the medics, the mental coach, the sports coach, plus the support of the families. They are always there. ‘When we say the VG is a race “without
assistance” there is in reality no skipper who gets more assistance than the sailor in the Vendée Globe. Some have a staff of 15 people on permanent standby to jump in and help solve a problem. As a result I am no longer so certain where the individual human performance sits in all this…’
TWO FAVOURITES On the eve of the Vendée Globe we have chosen to interview two of the race’s great favourites: Charlie Dalin and Yoann Richomme. Both are the same age, are longtime friends, went to university in the same place and often sailed together. They have an outstanding record. The differ- ences are that one, Charlie, has the experi- ence of a Vendée Globe completed in 2021 on his previous boat, taking line honours, while the other, Yoann, is a round-the- world rookie. They each have a different Imoca and a different personality.
FAST AND WISE – CHARLIE DALIN Seahorse: When did you know that the official victory in the last Vendée Globe was going to go to Yannick Bestaven? Charlie Dalin: On the final afternoon I thought I would be the winner, because I
crossed in front of Louis Burton (who finished third) in Biscay. In fact, I had less wind from the east
than expected on my last tack between Spain and the finishing line, so instead of pointing directly at Les Sables I often had to sail higher. Thus I saw Yannick Bestaven coming in from the NW at full speed in a straight line towards the finish. At that point I thought it will be a bit complicated for the final scores given his redress of 10h 15m which had already been announced. Crossing the finish line I started my
chronometer just as I would in Le Figaro. Pretty soon I thought ‘the carrots are cooked’: Yannick is arriving too fast. But it was great to see Les Sables again
after 80 days, to see my little son, my wife, the team, my sponsor. I did not have the outcome I expected crossing the line and the pill was a bit hard to swallow. Not at the time, but later on. At the press confer- ence there were portraits of the previous race winners on the wall and I realised that mine would never appear there. SH: Do you think it is still your best performance in Imoca? CD: There have been others since. The two- handed Jacques Vabre in 2019 with Yann Eliès, when the boat (Apivia) was brand new. And more recently in the single handed New York-Les Sables onboard Macif. Fin- ishing 17 hours ahead of the second boat is a nice memory. SH: And if you had won the VG in 2021, what would you do today? CD: That’s a good question! And I don’t have the answer. SH: So now your second Vendée Globe… CD: I am happy to go back knowing now what it is all about! I had never spent more than 20 days at sea before my first Vendée,
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