Saving the best for last
by Mark Jardine 14 Nov 09:00 NZDT
Sam Davies on board Initiatives-Coeur on Monday 11th November during the 10th Vendée Globe © Sam Davies
2024 is being a veritable feast for big events in sailing with SailGP giving us our hors d'oeuvre as nibbles throughout the season, the Paris 2024 Olympics in Marseille as our starter, the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup the main course, and we're now enjoying the Vendée Globe for dessert.
You'd have thought we'd have had our fill after such a menu, much like Mr. Creosote in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life but, like a classic French Tarte Tatin, it's impossible to resist taking a look at the tracker and seeing where the forty-strong fleet are and who is making a move.
The fleet's departure from Les Sables d'Olonne is a ritual for the sailors and fans, with thousands lining the channel and watching from the beach, in scenes more reminiscent of a rock concert than a sailing race. For the sailors, the juxtaposition of being surrounded by so many to then being completely alone must be startling.
This is the tenth edition of the Vendée Globe, and while it has been an institution in France from the off, it is only now beginning to really make inroads internationally. It is rightly known as the 'Everest of the Seas', and attracting forty skippers (it was actually over-subscribed) is no mean feat. Encouragingly, eleven of the skippers are non-French and six are female.
The race started in a near flat calm, with the yachts ghosting across the line to start the 24,000 nautical mile odyssey. There are bragging rights for getting the best start, and there was congestion at the pin end with everyone jostling for prime position.
Team Malizia's Boris Herrmann managed to cross the line with some pace, clearing his air to lead the fleet away. He'd enjoyed his time on the Dock Out, taking selfies and savouring the crowds in Les Sables d'Olonne.
Soon into the crossing of Biscay the breeze came in, building as the fleet gybed and jostled for the lead. Charlie Dalin on MACIF Santé Prevoyance is classed as the favourite by many, and he soon eked out a 24 mile lead on his nearest competitor before passing Cape Finisterre.
This was short-lived, as Great Britain's Sam Goodchild on Vulnerable powered south down the Iberian peninsula to overhaul Dalin.
The high pressure system which has left Britain windless for weeks extends down the Atlantic and has a corridor of stronger pressure squeezing around the north west corner of Spain, extending down to the Island of Madeira; staying in this was key to progress. You could go further west, but the seas would be rougher.
No-one seems to have told Nicolas Lunven that the Vendée Globe is a marathon, not a sprint. There's no doubting his IMOCA HOLCIM-PRB is fast, holding the crewed 24 hour monohull record at 640.48 miles, which was set during The Ocean Race in 2023, and now also holding the solo monohull record.
Lunven took a course past Cape Finisterre considerably further west than his competitors and in stronger winds, clocking 546.60 nautical miles in 24 hours on Wednesday - this is just over 1,000 kilometres.The record needs to be ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, but it goes to show that the latest generation of IMOCA yachts are seriously fast.
Attrition is a big factor in the Vendée Globe, so managing yourself and your yacht is key for the skippers. Sleep cycles are often 4 hours awake with a 30 minute kip, but when the boat is slamming in the waves it's all too easy to become exhausted. That can lead to mistakes, both tactically and with the boat handling. The former results in lost miles, but the latter can result in potentially race-ending damage.
Managing the boat, knowing when to push and when to take your foot off the gas, is what wins the Vendée Globe. Right now all the skippers are pushing hard, but as we get further into the race we will see breakages and running repairs at sea.
As always, we are bringing you all the news from the Vendée Globe on Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com, with a combination of editorial, news from the teams, photos and videos. New for this edition we are providing frequent studio-style videos, with analysis of the tactical decisions being made, as well as breaking news from the race, such as Lunven's record.
Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest, and thank you to the thousands who are already watching these updates. Our video coverage is constantly evolving, and we welcome your feedback. Feel free to email me with your thoughts and suggestions, as many of you already have.
Next week sees METSTRADE, the annual gathering of the marine industry in Amsterdam, and probably the best place to see the latest technologies available for sailing. Back in 2021 I wrote Why METS matters, as I travelled over to The Netherlands with the city under a Covid curfew, talking about the innovations that are showcased, and then the collaborations that arise from meetings between the industry's great minds.
I freely admit I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to METS and I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the evolution of bio resins and usage of flax fibres, electronics and safety devices doing more and more, and fittings being designed to address sailors' needs.
For Mr Creosote the 'wafer thin mint' was a step too far, but don't forget the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts on Boxing Day and will close out the year. It's always a massive draw with our readers and the sight of the yachts leaving Sydney Harbour is one of the iconic images in world sailing.
2025 will start just as strongly as the Vendée Globe fleet will still be racing and we'll be following them all the way back to Les Sables d'Olonne.
Mark Jardine
Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com Managing Editor