After a successful solo around the world - after 77 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes and 24 seconds - you cross the finish line on a Sunday afternoon and would normally be celebrated by thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of fans. But on this Sunday, nothing was normal in Les Sables-d'Olonne. The Vendée Globe organisers had already had to close their race village the evening before in winds of more than 50 knots. And it stayed that way on Sunday.
Storm gate reactivated as Vendée Globe finish line
The "Guyot Environnement - Water Family" skipper Benjamin Dutreux and Clarisse Crémer ("L'Occitane en Provence"), who followed him in the evening, still had to fight their way through the Bay of Biscay, which was whipped up by storm Herminia, to the finish line at the weekend. Benjamin Dutreux reached the "Porte Tempête", the storm gate that the race management had reactivated further out than the smaller classic finish line, at 16:41 on 26 January in tenth place.
This meant that Dutreux completed the top ten without a big station. Even the team boats stayed in the harbour. Immediately after crossing the finish line, Dutreux continued on to La Rochelle because his canal journey was not possible for safety reasons. The skipper, his team and the race organisers had decided this together beforehand.
Vendée Globe: Protection in La Rochelle instead of a party in Port Olona
The official statement said: "Due to the unfavourable weather conditions forecast for Sunday and Monday with strong southerly winds and powerful swell making the fairway of Les Sables d'Olonne impassable, the skipper of 'Guyot Environnement - Water Family' and his technical team, in consultation with the organisation, have taken the decision to sail towards La Rochelle after passing the finish line of the Vendée Globe."
"The sea conditions, which are less unfavourable in La Rochelle, will allow the team and the boat to get to safety for the next 24 hours." Vendée Globe
Clarisse Crémer will have to complete the same extra challenge later in the evening after crossing the finish line in 11th place in the Vendée Globe, probably between 9pm and midnight. She too will have to wait for the well-deserved welcome parade in the canal and the honours in Port Olona until the conditions have calmed down a little more.
In the evening, the two skippers, who had been sent on, caused a lot of traffic between Les Sables-d'Olonne and La Rochelle, which is 100 kilometres away by car. Many friends, fans and journalists wanted to see and greet the two skippers during the night.
The performance of Benjamin Dutreux, who had already finished ninth at the last Vendée Globe with an older boat, is also remarkable this time: With a rather small budget and the oldest Imoca in the top ten, the 34-year-old skipper, who is based in the Vendée, showed that he must be counted among the extended performance circle of the Imoca class.
In the top ten of the Vendée Globe for the second time
Over ground, Benjamin Dutreux completed 28,514 nautical miles at an average speed of 15.40 knots. He crossed the finish line 12 days, 8 hours, 16 minutes and 35 seconds after winner Charlie Dalin. His Imoca, designed by VPLP Verdier, was built in 2015 as the "Hugo Boss" for Alex Thomson's 2016/2017 Vendée Globe.
Dutreux also became better known to German sailing fans when he shared the skipper role with Robert Stanjek in the Guyot team for the Ocean Race 2023. Their fellow competitor Sébastien Simon was also a member of Team Guyot. The friend and companion of Benjamin Dutreux also raced to third place in this Vendée Globe with a broken foil, surprising himself and everyone else.
After Benjamin Dutreux, can Clarisse Crémer also achieve this in the evening?we report here in the live ticker - this will also be a great personal success for her. Although she lost the female Vendée Globe record she set at the 9th Vendée Globe to Swiss powerhouse Justine Mettraux, who finished eighth on Saturday, she stayed close and is likely to improve her twelfth place on her debut by one place.
Brutal Bay of Biscay conditions in the Vendée Globe
Even more importantly for Clarisse Crémer, her project had started late and involved a number of qualification hurdles. She had also suffered damage in the Transat CIC and had to make a technical stopover in the Azores. She then had to fight her way to the finish for a long time. Which is why it was all or nothing for her in the subsequent New York Vendée with a view to the Vendée Globe. But as a young mother, Clarisse Crémer had also mastered this challenge.
When she reaches the finish line this evening - at 7pm she still had 87 nautical miles to go, travelling at around ten knots in 25 to 30 knots of wind and strong swell - all eyes will once again be on Boris Herrmann and Sam Davies. The skippers heading for Les Sables-d'Olonne in twelfth and thirteenth place have a task that is as complicated as it is demanding: they want to reach the finish line as quickly as possible, but the route there will remain very stormy in the coming days.
Even more problematic. the increasingly heavy swell in the Bay of Biscay. "That's less of a problem out at sea than in the Bay of Biscay, where everything is pushing together," explained Boris Herrmann. It was still not certain on Sunday when and how Herrmann and Sam Davies, who sailed around 350 nautical miles west of the Azores on the 78th day of the race, would be able to make it north to the finish at just under 770 nautical miles.
Herrmann remembers the storm off Cape Horn
Boris Herrmann had recently expected an arrival between 28 and 29 January, but urged caution. It could also be a little later. "It's not certain yet. If there is too much wind and too many waves, I might still not be able to get there or into the harbour," said the "Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper.
Boris Herrmann recalled his Vendée Globe premiere and said: "Last time I had 50 knots of wind off Cape Horn when I broke my mainsail." On Sunday evening, Team Malizia's skipper reported that the waves were already six metres high and expected them to increase further by Monday.
Sam Davies, who had already made the painful decision in favour of good seamanship on Saturday night and added holding patterns to her course because, unlike Dutreux and Crémer ahead of her, she would not have been able to get through the increasing storm, explained her situation and emotional world: "It's mentally difficult what I'm doing here. But when I look at the weather, it's like the forecast. So it's not like it would have calmed down and I could have actually made it."
It's better to wait where it's quiet than where there's already a war going on." Samantha Davies
Sam Davies, who felt so close to the finish line and yet so far away, continued: "It reassures me that I made the right decision. There was no other way for me, it would have been too dangerous. I stopped the clock for almost two days. I was able to recover a little after my food poisoning. But I find it hard to rest because I'm always looking for a way to get there. I'm constantly asking myself questions, it's stressful..." The same applied to Boris Herrmann's situation on Sunday evening.
A heavy storm paralysed the race village in Les Sables-d'Olonne on Sunday and made it impossible for Ben Dutreux and Clarisse Crémer to enter Port Olona:
