Next Sunday, 6 November, the time has come: at 13:02, the starting signal will be given for the eighth edition of the legendary Vendée Globe. 29 single-handed sailors will set sail to conquer the "Everest of the seas" on board their Imoca 60 racers. Around 25,000 nautical miles and at least 80 days at sea alone lie ahead of the skippers and yachts - figures that indicate a real endurance test for man and material. But how do the sailors live on their Open 60s during these three months? What is it like below deck and under the carbon bimini? We were at the Race Village in Les Sables d'Olonne and had the opportunity to take a closer look at the cockpit and interior of some of these truly special boats, which the participants will soon be sailing in the most extreme weather conditions.
You might think that all 29 ocean racers should be more or less similar, differing only in their hull colours and years of construction. Ultimately, we are also talking exclusively about the Imoca 60 boat class in the context of the Vendée Globe. But it's not that simple, because the 29 boats in the fleet actually only have two real things in common, which are related to the Imocas' box rudder: the length of 18.28 metres and the draught of 4.50 metres. Beyond these fixed numerical values, things start to get exciting: Cockpit layout, spray deck design, mounting location, number and size of winches, skipper's seating positions, general interior design, navigation centre layout, location of sleeping berths... In short, no two boats are the same.
So what exactly are the differences when it comes to the navigation stations inside the boats, for example? On board Romain Attanasio's Famille Mary-Etamine du Lys (the oldest boat in the fleet, built in 1998, on a par with Sébastien Destremau/Technofirst's Imoca - FaceOcean), the entire navigation centre, including radar, on-board computer, autopilot unit, general navigation instrumentation and electrical panel, is rigidly mounted at eye level on the main bulkhead. The individual screens cannot be rotated at will; the skipper sits in the centre of the cabin, wedged into his fixed navigation chair, directly in front of the wide electronics panel.
Skipper Kito de Pavant (Bastide Otio, built in 2010) and Jean-Pierre Dick on his new "St. Michel-Virbac" (built in 2015) also sit on chairs while planning their routes - although here we should rather be talking about navigation seats (similar to those used in motor racing). Jean-Pierre can fix the shell, which is customised to his body shape, to a carbon tube on the starboard and port sides and swivel his freely movable navigation unit in the desired direction.
The panel on board the "Bastide Otio", on the other hand, is fixed to the bulkhead, but the seat can be adjusted to the angle of heel of the boat by means of a tackle, thus offering the skipper the best seating comfort on every bow.
When it comes to seating comfort, the "Quéguiner - Leucémie Espoir" by Yann Eliès, the "Spirit of Yukoh" by Japan's Kojiro Shiraishi and the "SMA" by Paul Meilhat are all worth mentioning. You will look in vain for fixed seating on these three boats. Instead, large seat cushions are used, which can be positioned anywhere in the cabin and adapt perfectly to the body.
"This is the cosiest of all seating options at the navigation station," the technical team at Yann Eliès assures us. The on-board computer, satellite telephone, keel control, autopilot unit and the classic combined instruments with the SOG, COG, TWS, AWS, TWA, AWA, etc. are integrated into a compact navigation unit and can be swivelled freely to starboard or port, as on the "St. Michel-Virbac". Sébastien Josse can make himself even more comfortable on his "Edmond de Rothschild" and navigate directly from his height-adjustable berth.
On board the "SMA" (the winning boat of the last Vendée Globe under the name "Macif", skippered by François Gabart), the layout of the navigation unit is particularly interesting: instead of a straight electronics panel, the entire technology package is arranged in a triangular shape. The entire electronics unit and individual screens can be rotated in any direction as required by the skipper - a real technology park in the centre of the cabin!
In terms of technology and navigation electronics on the boats, it should be mentioned that all participants, with the exception of Sébastien Destremau, use Adrena navigation software. In terms of autopilots, the B&G models are favoured by almost the entire fleet, followed by the NKE pilots.
Although the boats are over 18 metres long, the sailors' internal living space is limited to just a few square metres, as strictly speaking only the area between the "main entrance" from the cockpit and the main bulkhead under the mast is "habitable". Bags weighing up to 20 kilograms each with food, safety equipment, clothing, first-aid kit, spare materials etc. are stowed along the starboard and port sides of the ship's side. The main navigation panel and one or two additional "tunnels" for routing the halyards from the mast to the cockpit hang in the centre of this "cabin": on modern boats, all the halyards and stretchers are not routed across the deck on the outside, but are simply laid in tunnels through the interior.
The front boat section between the mast and bow serves as storage space for the various furling headsails. As the boats in downwind mode have a sail area of over 600 square metres (in words: six hundred!), the space in this area of the Imoca 60s is actually needed to accommodate the sails. There are also numerous carbon cross braces and intermediate bulkheads to stabilise the entire hull structure. This area is therefore more reminiscent of a labyrinthine tunnel system compared to the open architecture of a classic cruising yacht. On board the newer Imoca generation, there are also the massive laminated boxes for the foils, which take up the space directly in front of the mast. The suspension for the swivelling keel is located directly behind it.
If you now work your way further aft, you come to the cockpit area. Here, more or less protected from the wind, cold and waves, is where the sailors will spend most of their time during the circumnavigation. Everything can be controlled from the cockpit, everything is at hand: tiller, halyards, sheets, outhaul, winches, rudder blade suspension, hydrogenerator fixation, foil adjustment, keel tilt electronics, autopilot, etc. Alongside the navigation centre inside, the cockpit therefore seems to be the second most important place on the boat, as everything comes together here and everything can be adjusted from here to get the best possible performance out of the boat. After all, sailing at maximum speed at all times is the goal of many participants. In this context, the technicians on the "Hugo Boss" tell us that Alex Thomson will actually remain in the cockpit at all times. His sat nav station can be swivelled out so far that the weather map can be studied even from the helm position. Even on an 80-day ocean race, it is obviously important not to waste time walking around inside the boat...
It is amazing how differently the respective cockpits of the boats are designed and structured - every single layout of the 29 boats is based on different philosophies and has been thought through down to the smallest detail by the skippers, architects and technical teams. No winch or halyard cleat is simply bolted onto the deck, everything is perfectly customised for the skipper and every little corner is used sensibly. So it should come as no surprise that curry clips are even fixed to the plastic cover of the life raft.
In general, there are two different cockpit layouts: one variant is to divide all halyards and outriggers equally on the starboard and port sides. Two winches are then positioned on the right and left accordingly, and the centre of the cockpit can be kept free. This type of design can be found on board the "PRB" (Vincent Riou), "SMA" (Paul Meilhat), "MACSF" (Bertrand de Broc) or the "Kilcullen Voyager Team Ireland" (Enda O'Coineen).
In the second variant, all the lines come together in the centre of the cockpit. In addition to the four winches on the right and left, the cockpits of the "Bureau Vallée" (Louis Burton), "Newrest-Matmut" (Fabrice Amedeo), "Le Souffle du Nord" (Thomas Ruyant) and "Spirit of Yukoh" (Kojiro Shiraishi) also have a large winch in the centre directly in front of the halyard clamps.
While the classic cruising sailor deals with a good ten lines on the deck superstructure (mainsheet, main halyard, dirk, three reefing lines, genoa halyard, spinnaker halyard, boom vang, outhaul), the Vendée Globe skipper works with more than 60 ends every day, all of which come together in the centre of the pilot saloon. After all, the running rigging on an Imoca 60 is over 2.5 kilometres long in total, so a well thought-out organisation and precise labelling of all ropes makes sense. This veritable "line spectacle" is particularly impressive on the "Edmond de Rothschild" or the "St. Michel-Virbac".
There are three different approaches to cockpit canopies on the Imocas: On the older boats, the canopies tend to be small and the cockpits remain relatively open (such as on the "Famille Mary-Etamine du Lys"). A second design is the sliding tops. The system is similar to a convertible in road traffic: in bad weather conditions, the top is closed by means of a rail - keeping the entire cockpit dry. However, it is also possible to sail with the top open in favourable conditions and thus have a much better all-round view from the steering position.
On the newer generation of boats, fixed canopies are used almost without exception. There can no longer be any talk of sprayhoods on these boats, because on foilers the canopy not only has to keep out spray, but also keep the skipper dry during a complete "dive" in the waves. In connection with the higher speeds of the foilers and the correspondingly hard impact of the boats in choppy seas, thousands of litres of water can hit the canopy - which is why the extremely stable design makes sense.
Even before the start, one thing is clear: the eighth edition of the Vendée Globe will probably be one of the most exciting in the history of the regatta. The field has increased by almost a third compared to the previous edition - we are sure to experience yacht racing at the very highest level in the coming weeks.
