This race promises to be exceptional

One of the greatest challenges in sport – the Vendée Globe – has 40 solo skippers from 10 countries that will start the non-stop unassisted around the globe race on November 10, 2024.

The 2024-25 edition is the 10th since the first race in 1989-90, and promises to be exceptional, not least because it has attracted the biggest ever fleet of IMOCAs with the 60-footers filling the harbor to capacity at the start port of Les Sables d’Olonne, France.

The entry list includes 2020-21 winner Yannick Bestaven and fellow Frenchman Charlie Dalin who took line honors but finished second (due to Bestaven’s time awards). It includes no less than 13 new boats, most of them equipped with the latest foil designs, and there are six female entrants, among them potential podium finishers in Sam Davies of Great Britain and Justine Mettraux of Switzerland.

Held every four years, this Vendée Globe also sees the race reach further geographically than ever before in its starting line-up, with the first sailor from China attempting to complete the course, in the form of the remarkable one-armed skipper from Qingdao, Jingkun Xu. There are also sailors from as far afield as Japan, Hungary, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Italy.

The podium should be tightly contested as eight skippers finished the last race within 24 hours of the winner after 80 days at sea. Among those with serious podium chances are the Frenchmen Dalin, Jérémie Beyou, Nicolas Lunven, Yoann Richomme, and Thomas Ruyant, plus Boris Herrmann of Germany, Mettraux and Davies and her fellow British competitor Sam Goodchild.

While there are 15 sailors making their debut, including the youngest in the fleet – 23-year-old Frenchwoman Violette Dorange – three are making their fourth appearance in Davies and Frenchmen Arnaud Boissières and Bestaven. Then, in class of his own, comes Jean Le Cam of France – the oldest in the fleet at 65 – who is starting the race for the sixth time.

“The level of performance and competition has increased a lot since the last Vendée Globe because during the last four years we have seen many different winners in all the other races we have done,” said Antoine Mermod, President of the IMOCA Class. “At the same time the top-five and top-10 have been very open.”

Mermod believes the overall quality of a fleet, that includes the latest foilers and also a strong contingent of daggerboard-configured boats, has never been higher. “That is what is very impressive. It reflects a huge commitment from designers, technical teams, boat builders, skippers, and shore teams – in fact from all the IMOCA community to prepare for this Vendée Globe.”

Like many seasoned observers of the IMOCA fleet, Mermod is expecting the current race record – set back in 2017 by Armel Le Cléac’h at 74 days, three hours and 35 minutes – to be broken by the leading foilers, now that foiling design and technology have been more fully developed. But, he says, the skippers will still have to find the right balance between speed and reliability.

“They can be very fast, but also they need to be fast for a long time and they need to be reliable,” said Mermod. “And this is a hard balance for skippers to strike because if you push too much, you have a big risk of breaking down but, on the other hand, to win in this fleet you will have to push a lot.”

And Mermod is looking forward to seeing how this adventure plays out for the 40 skippers, their teams and families. “That’s the key to the Vendée Globe,” he said. “It’s 70 or 100 days of adventure, of success and also challenging times, and it’s like we open this big book and we start the story but we don’t know where it will go and what will happen and that’s what’s unique about this race.”

Details: https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/

Source: IMOCA