No Vendée Globe has ever been like this one. Although each of the nine editions so far has been a new, different and completely unique adventure, never before have the organisers had to overcome so many adversities in times of a global pandemic. Nevertheless, a record fleet of 33 participants took up the challenge. This diversity in the field and the intensity of the very different individual stories will be remembered for a long time to come. Not least because Boris Herrmann, the first German participant in history, was a strong protagonist who ensured that the waves of enthusiasm in this country were high.
The first and, for many, most important victory of the Vendée Globe 2020/21 was the start of the race itself. To achieve this, the organisational protocols had to be constantly updated and the starting port adapted to the ever-changing situation. For the unenviable organisers, it was all about meeting national requirements for safe events and putting protocols in place to ensure the safety of staff, partners, visitors, skippers and teams. All the pre-event measures culminated in the unfortunate necessity to hold the start itself 'behind closed doors'. However, 93 per cent of previous Vendée Globe visitors reported that they felt safe given the measures in place to protect their health.
Boris Herrmann's team released this video of the premiere today, 16 March. It is full of exciting memories and pictures worth seeing...
NEVER BEFORE HAVE SO MANY STARTERS REACHED THE FINISH
The organisers have mastered the race with dedication and success during the pandemic, giving fans an exciting piece of sporting history in times when many other things were not possible, but the desire for adventure was great. Another plus point: never before has a Vendée Globe ended with such a close and thrilling finale. The race also provided its fans with exciting "races within a race". A sign of the increased reliability of the boats: never before - as in this solo round-the-world race - have 76 per cent of the starters been able to reach the finish line.
The record-breaking race had already begun in advance with more candidates than ever before: 37 men and women originally wanted to take part, 33 made it to the starting line. The previous record was set in 2008 with 30 participants. The six female skippers in the race also marked a new record. There were no women at the start in 2016 and two in 2012. With 25 boats in the classification and an additional two female skippers who reached the finish under their own steam but outside the classification, the highest number of arrivals in over three decades of racing history ensured enthusiasm and happy faces at the finish. The two-decade-old women's record for the Vendée Globe was also beaten: Clarisse Crémer's sailing time of 87 days, 2 hours, 24 minutes and 25 seconds was seven days faster than Ellen MacArthur's record in 2001.
CAPRICIOUS WEATHER BLURRED THE DESIGN DIFFERENCES
Four years ago, foils were still in their infancy and were considered more of an experiment. In this edition, they were bigger, stronger and offered a more balanced performance spectrum. They could also be developed in the direction of specific profiles. In the latest generation of boats, the hull shapes and structures were designed to match the foils. This new generation of boats had proved to be significantly faster in the two years leading up to the race around the world, but were not equally convincing over the entire duration of the race itself. They only achieved impressive top speeds in certain conditions.
The latest generation of foils did well, with Charlie Dalin crossing the finish line first and Thomas Ruyant fourth, before the time credits came into play for Kevin Escoffier's saviours. These two latest generation Imoca yachts had problems with their port foils for different reasons. In the racing phases when they were able to use their starboard foils in favourable sailing conditions, their foilers were extremely effective. The reliability of the new boats in particular requires time on the water, which not all skippers had enough of due to the pandemic-related cancellations of the transatlantic preparation races and other obstacles. Some of the skippers on younger foilers had to retire, including Nicolas Troussel on "Corum", which was the only one to lose its mast in this edition, Sébastien Simon on "Arkéa Paprec" after a collision with an unknown object in the water and Alex Thomson, whose "Hugo Boss" suffered from structural problems. Later in the race, Thomson had to retire with rudder damage.
Others struggled with problems that caused race interruptions of varying lengths. These included Armel Tripon's "L'Occitane en Provence" and Kojiro Shiraishi's "DMG Mori". Jérémie Beyou was forced to return to the start and finish harbour of Les Sables-d'Olonne with "Charal" for repairs. He tackled the race again nine days after the start of the field. Nevertheless, ocean sailing with foils will remain a rapidly growing topic for developers and masterminds in the future. The ninth edition of the Vendée Globe provided them with plenty of food for thought.
The older generations of yachts proved that they still sail very well. Boats with straight centreboards that had been well prepared by their technical teams were able to make it into the top ten. More than ever, the Vendée Globe thus offers scope for projects with more modest budgets, but plenty of drive and commitment.
Overall, however, there were a number of weather phenomena that almost stopped the race at many different points, or at least slowed it down. There were conditions in which the fleet experienced compressions or condensed into small groups. Memorable in this regard were Storm Theta near Cape Verde, the extension of the St Helena High into the southern Atlantic, areas of high pressure with light winds in the Southern Ocean, the heavy and choppy seas in the Pacific and - after Christmas - a remarkably long light wind phase in the Pacific. All these phenomena kept the fleet compact. In some cases, there were astonishingly large comebacks.
FOILER VS. NON-FOILER: SURPRISING BALANCE
At just 24 per cent, the ninth edition recorded the lowest cancellation rate in the history of the race. At the turn of the millennium, the figure was 37 per cent for nine tasks with 24 starters. The good results of boats from the 2016 and 2008 generations in the overall classification were striking. Boats between four and eight years old, whose skippers were able to realise their full potential, successfully completed the race. Yannick Bestaven on "Maître CoQ" won the Vendée Globe on a boat with foils from 2016. Louis Burton, who was in action with Armel Le Cléac'h's previous Vendée Globe winner "Banque Populaire" under her new name "Bureau Vallée 2", sailed to third place. Jean Le Cam took fourth place with the straight centreboards of his "Yes We Cam!" from 2008. And Boris Herrmann could have celebrated the race on the podium with the "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" (foiler from 2016), had it not been for the collision on the final evening.
Damien Seguin was the first skipper of the Vendée Globe with a handicap to steer his Imoca yacht from 2008 with its straight centreboards to a formidable seventh place - ahead of eighth-placed Giancarlo Pedote and his first-generation foiler, Benjamin Dutreux on his centreboard yacht in ninth place and Maxime Sorel in tenth place. Overall, the top ten included two foilers of the latest generation, four foilers of previous generations and four yachts with straight centreboards. Kojiro Shiraishi was the first Japanese and Asian to complete the race. Ari Huusela finished the Vendée Globe as the first Finn and first Scandinavian skipper.
MORE THAN ONE MILLION VIRTUAL REGATTA PLAYERS
Figures from the media sector show just how powerful the race and its characters were. Compared to the eighth edition, the latest Vendée Globe attracted 1.3 million more visitors to its website and mobile applications (11 million visitors vs. 9.7 million in 2016). The virtual race organised by Virtual Regatta also reflected the growing interest: more than one million registered players (1,068,908) more than doubled (+135%) the number of players four years ago (456,000 players in 2016/17). Although the game recorded 25% of international participants, including very high proportions from Germany and the UK, it was a Frenchman, Jean-Claude Goudon, who won this year. He set a new record of 69 days, 22 hours and 16 minutes.
The video enthusiasm of Vendée Globe fans has exploded: with 115 million clip views, an increase of 44 million views was recorded compared to the 2016/17 edition. Journalists and television teams in 190 countries on five continents reported on the event in words, pictures and moving images. Some of them will be there again on 22 May when the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe comes to a final close with the award ceremony.
And here we serve up a real treat for Vendée Globe and statistics fans: in YACHT 7 (on newsstands from 24 March), we have graphically presented the most exciting records, figures and times. To marvel at, remember and keep for the next edition. The 10th anniversary edition is due in 2024/25!
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
