Regatta: The Vendée Globe youngster: from Lake Geneva around the world again

With the 95 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 56 seconds that Alan Roura needed for his second Vendée Globe participation, he beat his own best performance from the 2016/17 premiere by more than ten days. He did this with an Imoca yacht from 2007, which repeatedly made regatta life difficult for him on his comeback. The Swiss was the youngest skipper in the fleet for the second time in a row. He crossed the finish line at 19.29 on Thursday evening, securing 17th place. In the previous edition, Alan Roura was the youngest participant in Vendée Globe history to finish in twelfth place. At that time, however, only 18 starters crossed the finish line. For the 9th edition, everything indicates that 25 skippers will finish. One of the heroes and heroines is once again Alan Roura.

The Swiss, who lives and trains in Lorient, can be counted among the regatta rather than the adventurers in the mixed field of participants. Although he sailed a more modern and competitive boat in his second race than in round one, technical problems made his three months at sea more difficult than expected, because the keel hydraulics went on strike early in the race and only the central fixing of the keel brought relief, but also a loss of speed.

Roura learnt to sail the traditional way as a schoolboy and Opti child on Lake Geneva. By the age of eight, however, the seas had already become a place of life and learning for the child of a family of cruising sailors. Life on boats was his normality. Mini Transat sailors inspired him so much as a teenager on Lanzarote that he bought his own Mini 650 and sailed it solo in the Caribbean and learnt to train on his own. Alan Roura joined the Mini circuit in 2009 and worked his way up the ranks as a single-handed regatta sailor. He sailed his first Route du Rhum in 2014. He sailed to tenth place in his first Transat Jacques Vabre in 2015. Roura has always been more of a regatta sailor than an adventurer. You could call him a "tough dog" with a clear conscience. He proved his fighting qualities once again in his second Vendée Globe attempt, despite shedding tears of despair in the meantime. Back in 2016, Roura had already secured his arrival at his Vendée Globe premiere by replacing his broken rudder following a UFO collision in 45 knots of wind.

He wanted to show more in the second round, which ended today. His boat was the one in which Armel Le Cléac'h - winner of the eighth edition of the Vendée Globe - had finished second in the seventh edition in 2008/09. Roura had set his sights on finishing in the top third of the fleet. To achieve this, he had also given the Finot/Conq design from 2007 a few new wings. But they were of little help when he suffered his first keel problems in the form of an oil leak at the end of November. While the front-runners pulled away, Roura fought his own battle on the repair front to the point of despair and reported south of Madagascar of a "sadness deep inside me that I find hard to accept". The next oil leak came as a nasty present on Boxing Day. The second major repair led to the decision to fix the keel in the centre. Roura had to go into the mast, he had to repair his hydrogenerator and was never allowed to take his eyes off the keel, stating just a few weeks ago: "I'm in survival mode."

With this in mind, Roura's arrival today is a great victory over the technical hurdles that this ocean marathon has repeatedly put in his way. Not even the weather conditions were on his side on the Atlantic climb back to the finale. They were tough and capriciously changeable. With some stoicism, the Swiss sailor reported on his never-ending battle: "My rivals out here have their worries too, but I really feel that my situation is the worst. I see this Vendée Globe very much as a mental and physical test." For Roura, the challenge ended with a sweet match race against Stéphane Le Diraison, which the Swiss "La Fabrique" skipper won in the final nautical miles with a good two hours to spare. "That adds flavour to the whole thing and is really cool," he reported before crossing the finish line from the sea. The duel also brought a sense of déjà vu: two years ago, Roura and Le Diraison were separated by just 4 minutes and 43 seconds at the finish line of the Route du Rhum.

Roura is here to stay: The Swiss regatta sailor wants more and can do more than his ranking shows, which is not everything in a royal race like the Vendée Globe anyway. Anything other than his comeback at the Vendée Globe 2024/25 would be a big surprise. Despite his ambition, Roura is also a romantic, as can be seen from his many wonderful reports from on board during this and his first circumnavigation. Vendée Globe fans who followed the eighth edition of the Vendée Globe four years ago will perhaps remember his "Love letter from the Southern Ocean", which Alan Roura, who was only 23 years old at the time, made public. If you want to savour it again, find it here (please click!). Alan Roura has now completed 28,603 nautical miles over ground at an average speed of 12.51 knots on his second circumnavigation. If he can increase his total sailing time from the second to the third round like he did from the first to the second, he should be as far ahead as he wants to be in his third attempt.

The next sailor expected in Les Sables-d'Olonne on the night of 12 February was British Medaillia skipper Pip Hare.

Click here for the tracking and the results of the 9th Vendée Globe (please click!).