Retour à La Base: Boris Herrmann on course for the Vendée Globe - the winners and losers of the season finale
Boris Herrmann has made an optimistic start to the new year, at the end of which his second solo circumnavigation beckons with the 10th Vendée Globe. The 42-year-old owes his good feeling to his performance in the Retour à La Base. Shortly before Christmas, he finished fourth in the Transat Solo, giving himself confidence and self-assurance. First place next to the podium felt like a victory for Herrmann after technical problems. Trouble with the alternator and the fight against masses of water in the cockpit, which flowed into the boat through defective drains, had demanded stamina from him: "I was in the red zone."
Because the power supply on board was jeopardised, Herrmann dispensed with the automatic bilge pump and scooped the water out of the boat by hand for days. He is taking two valuable insights with him into the new year: after the Ocean Race team experience and the missions with co-skipper Will Harris, he also feels comfortable solo on board, saying: "I didn't struggle with loneliness like I used to, I was in a good mood in my little bubble." Even more important to him: "Malizia - Seaexplorer" remains his favourite: "The boat is great, the concept works. It can also win the Vendée Globe."
New foils in the new year for Boris Herrmann
The good mood was not dampened by the fact that three skippers were faster on the Retour à La Base. Herrmann saw what he wanted to see: He can score points with his boat before the new foils arrive in April.
The podium was made up of three co-favourites: Yoann Richomme shone with his Koch-Conq rocket "Papric Arkéa" after finishing second in the Transat Jacques Vabre with a solo victory in 9 days, 3 minutes and 48 seconds. He was followed by Jérémie Beyou on "Charal" (2022) and Sam Goodchild on "For the Planet" (2019).
Beyou had initially led the race when technical failures caused him to stumble. His report: "I lost my VHF antenna, my wind sensor and the Oscar camera - everything was gone." He thought about turning back, but then managed to push on with repairs at high speed.
Material damage: Top favourite Thomas Ruyant only in 17th place at the Retour à La Base
Sam Goodchild, who is only 34 years old, won the season championship of the class with a fifth third place in an Imoca regatta. The shooting star had mostly achieved his successes with the clever design head Antoine Koch - and confirmed them solo at the end of the year. A junior member of Thomas Ruyant's TR Racing team for just one year, Goodchild has made a rapid ascent. His credo: "We are on a par with the new boats and very experienced skippers. That gives us security."
Boss Thomas Ruyant started the final race of the year as the top favourite. He set a marvellous 24-hour world record for soloists on monohull yachts: 539.94 nautical miles! He then paid the price for his speed with broken sails, finishing in 17th place.
Damien Seguin and Sam Davies also impressed. Seguin because he brought a VPLP Verdier design from 2015 to the top in fifth place with "Groupe Apicil". In single-handed mode, the Paralympic champion was the only one to actually use only one hand in a sport where holding on and working at the same time are standard, showing what is possible at sea with will and skill. Sam Davies was the best skipper in sixth place in the Atlantic concert of 32 Imocas on "Initiatives Cœur": Her thoughts during the Atlantic ride: "And then you think, oh my God, in the Vendée Globe you have to do it seven times as long. It's going to be hardcore!" As the second-best skipper of the Retour à La Base, "Macsf" skipper Isabelle Joschke sailed into the top ten in ninth place. The tenacious Franco-German and her VPLP Verdier boat from 2007 remain a duo to be reckoned with at the Vendée Globe from 10 November 2024.
Sébastien Simon's mast breaks, Pip Hare stranded - "I'm devastated"
Others, on the other hand, had to bid farewell to the top positions they had hoped for in the grand season finale. Louis Burton, for example, who risked a daring northerly gale in the second half of the race. It worked until the sails of "Bureau Vallée" gave way. It remained in seventh place. Sébastien Simon on "Groupe Debreuil" was hit harder. Team Guyot's ocean race navigator initially sailed in the leading group until a head injury and subsequent total electronic failure on board the former Mālama, which Simon had only bought shortly before the Transat Jacques Vabre from the US team 11th Hour Racing, forced him to make an emergency stop on the Azores island of Flores.
He fought his way back, but only 10 nautical miles before the finish line, he suffered another severe setback: his mast broke! The accident caught the Frenchman and his "Groupe Dubreuil" in 25 knots of wind and heavy seas. He still wanted to finish the race to secure his qualification for the upcoming Vendée Globe. And Simon also made his second comeback on his first solo with the new boat. The 33-year-old crossed the finish line off Lorient in 19th place after 11 days, 18 hours and 36 minutes under emergency rigging.
Shortly before that, Pip Hare had also been hit hard in the early hours of the morning - albeit after crossing the finish line. The eleventh-placed Retour à La Base had set off directly for the return passage to Poole in the UK, but then ran aground off St Austell due to fatigue. Only with the help of the RNLI and the Coastguard was it possible to bring her "Medallia" back into safe waters. After a brief assessment of the damage, the team decided to sail the boat to the base anyway, which they reached late the same day. "I'm devastated," said a visibly shaken Pip Hare in a video posted on social media during the transfer. She had slept and apparently missed many of her Imoca's alarms.
Delayed start: Jean Le Cam far behind with non-foiler
The 49-year-old explained that there were also financial reasons why she wanted to sail home alone immediately afterwards: "We are a small team, we have to take cost-saving measures wherever possible." Other teams often use crew or shore teams for transfers to relieve the skipper. However, she did not initially consider the 300 additional nautical miles after a transatlantic race to be too great a risk. That was a mistake, she now admits.
Only three of the 32 ships that started are still on course. One of them is being skippered by Jean Le Cam, who is well behind schedule. For his sixth Vendée Globe campaign, the 64-year-old 2004 Vendée Globe runner-up and winner of the 2015 Barcelona World Race had a non-foiler built. The transfer of the Raison design to Martinique for the start had been delayed. As usual, Le Cam did not lose his cool and will clearly finish the race in last place. The Breton still has around 1,900 nautical miles to go.
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