Launched for the first time 34 years ago, the Vendée Globe is heading towards its tenth anniversary edition. Although the number of starting places has been increased by 21.2 per cent to 40, it is outstripped by the number of applicants. 45 single-handed candidates, including six women, want to show up at the starting line. It will be a tight race for the tickets to the Imoca summit race around the world.
Boris Herrmann on course for the Vendée Globe
Eight of a total of twelve qualifying regattas, in which the candidates in the battle for the Vendée Globe starting places can collect qualifying miles, have already been completed. Boris Herrmann (8,844 qualifying miles) has already cleared the Vendée Globe hurdles thanks to the automatic selection of the 2022 boats and their performances.
The same applies to "Mile King" and "Biotherm" skipper Paul Meilhat (11,719 qualifying miles), "Queen of Hearts" Samantha Davies (10.816) on "Initiatives Cœur", the brash "Charal" skipper Jérémie Beyou (10,120), defending champion and "Maître Coq" skipper Yannick Bestaven (7,067) and "V and B - Mobana - Mayenne" skipper Maxime Sorel (4,697).
39 starting places and one wildcard
The sextet will be followed by 39 candidates in the current list positions 7 (Damien Seguin with 11,404 qualifying miles) to 39 (Kojiro Shiraishi with 3,285 qualifying miles). The 40th place will remain vacant for the time being and will be filled at the end of the long qualifying period from 2021 to 2024 by the organisers, who have reserved a wildcard for themselves.
Notable Vendée Globe candidates have also not yet qualified: In "red" places 41 to 45 are - as yet - "Paprec Arkéa" skipper Yoann Richomme (1,384 qualifying miles), "L'Occitane en Provence" skipper Clarisse Crémer (642), "Devenir" skipper Violette Dorange (294), veteran Jean Le Cam and Briton Phil Sharp. These two have not yet been able to collect any qualifying miles with their very new boats.
Jean Le Cam, Nico Lunven and Phil Sharp transfer to the Caribbean
Four regattas remain for the candidates to top up their Vendée Globe accounts. These include the ongoing two-handed race Transat Jacques Vabre, in which a maximum of 2,700 nautical miles can be earned per participant at the finish. As well as the return race Retour à la Base, where a maximum of 3,463 qualifying miles are up for grabs. Anyone other than the six certain qualifiers and the most diligent mileage super collectors who fail in the Transat and therefore may not be able to take part in the return race will have a hard time.
Good to know: Jean Le Cam ("Tout Commence en Finistère - Armor Lux"), Phil Sharp ("OceansLab - Cleantech Accelerator") and ex-Malician Nicolas "The Brain" Lunven ("Holcim - PRB") are not taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre, but are transferring their boats to Martinique to then take part in the Retour à la Base on their Imocas.
Vendée Globe: two more qualifying regattas next year
The last two chances to collect miles for the dream of a Vendée Globe start are the Transat CIC in April 2024 (maximum 3,000 qualifying miles) and the New York Vendée - Les Sables d'Olonne in May (maximum 3,200 qualifying miles). This means that major shifts in the candidate ranking are still possible between now and summer 2024.
Boris Herrmann, meanwhile, can concentrate on his own schedule without having to worry about qualifying. He is sailing the Transat Jacques Vabre with Will Harris and the return regatta from the Caribbean to France because he wants to "determine his position as early and as well as possible" before the turn of the year. "I wanted to have this assessment at the beginning of the winter. I want to know where I stand solo and how I can get back into single-handed sailing after the Ocean Race," said the 42-year-old from Hamburg a year before his second solo round the world.
Today a little celebration with Will on board and maybe even a little espresso" (Boris Herrmann)
For the five-time circumnavigator, theStart of the one-year countdown will be a special day in the ongoing Transat Jacques Vabre until the start of the Vendée Globe on 10 November 2024, despite the ongoing regatta. "I think there will be a little celebration today with Will on board and maybe even a little espresso," said Boris Herrmann on the eve of the milestone date.
It has now been 1,016 days since Boris Herrmann crossed the finish line at 11.19 am on 28 January at his Vendée Globe premiere. The jubilant reception was preceded by a dramatic final night in which his final sprint captivated an audience of millions on screens in Germany and around the world. No Hollywood director could have created a more thrilling final thriller that put fans to sleep.
Vendée Globe 2024/2025: a new boat for Team Malizia's future?
With 24 hours to go before the finish, anything up to a podium place or even more seemed possible. However, Herrmann's unleashed run was abruptly shattered by the night-time collision of the "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" with a fishing boat. In the end, what remained were shocking moments, a lightning repair at sea, a last stand, fifth place at the finish and a nevertheless happy Boris Herrmann, who only briefly wondered whether he could come so close to the chance of a podium place again in the future.
As always, the family man will provide the answer to this question in his own way with "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and a set of new foils, which will be ready in April, for another "80 days around the world" during his second Vendée Globe mission. The fact that Germany's best-known skipper, who likes to think strategically, has long been planning beyond the Vendée Globe 2024/2025 is also shown by his thoughts on a new build.
In the Transat Jacques Vabre back on course after technical problems
Looking at the current "Malizia - Seaexplorer", which is supposed to carry him around the world as quickly and safely as possible in the Vendée Globe, Herrmann says: "I have no regrets. She is a very good and strong boat. But it's also the first one we've built ourselves. There is still room for improvement, because development is always going on. Our intention is to run our campaign for the long term. It would be strange if we weren't thinking about a new build." Boris Herrmann and Team Malizia are already in talks about this.
Boris Herrmann - currently with Will Harris - has often proven that he can fight. And now he's doing it again: after the technical problems with the compasses and autopilot, the German-British duo have their boat back under control and are ready to attack. "We're back in the match," announced Herrmann on the evening of 9 November. At one point, his team had actually considered turning back to Lorient or La Coruña "because none of our compasses wanted to work any more".
These fibre-optic compasses must not be switched off, because then they can no longer find their direction" (Boris Herrmann)
Herrmann finally got a compass to work. Then, in consultation with team technician Axelle Pillain, Will Harris found a solution on land with "a pretty smart workaround". Herrmann and Harris were initially unable to determine exactly how the failures had occurred.
Boris Herrmann: "We had another little upset: we suddenly had a lot of water in the ship."
"We often lay still in the sea and tried to let ourselves drift calmly in order to calibrate our main compass," says Herrmann. The compass had previously switched itself off, which led to a problem: "You can't switch off these fibre-optic compasses because then they can no longer find their direction again. They are complicated compasses, just like in a helicopter."
The entire chain of problems "really knocked his team backwards", says the skipper. He continues: "We still have two reserve compasses, but our pilots didn't want to steer with them at all. Which is very strange, because of course we tested it extensively and repeatedly in different conditions. Otherwise it always worked well." Then the instrument system also failed.
We are in a much better position than we were on Wednesday" (Boris Herrmann)
"We have redundancy here - system one and system two," says Herrmann, "system one failed completely, which also unsettled us a little. But then we realised that a 24-to-12-volt converter had been mangled. We were able to replace it. We had a spare part on board. Now everything is running quite normally again. We are about 30 nautical miles away from a good position, i.e. at the end of the group of top ships. We're still in the match, we can still get something out of it, we're in a much better position than we were on Wednesday afternoon."
The day after the start was not a good one: "We steered by hand for many hours, tried to solve the problems, didn't eat, didn't sleep, were pretty exhausted. Now we've had a good rest, although we had a minor upset on Thursday night. We suddenly had a lot of water in the ship. It had got into the ship via our ocean lab. A hose had slipped off. It's strange that things like this are happening to us now that we haven't experienced during the entire Ocean Race."
Harder "slamming" than in the Ocean Race
According to Herrmann, this indicates how tough the transat conditions still were in this initial phase after the storm postponement. "The slamming in the last two days was tougher than ever in the Ocean Race. We also tore all the padeyes at the stacking nets, where you stack the sails in the foredeck. Those were very hard knocks here on board. But we're through that for now."
On the night of 10 November, "Malizia - Seaexplorer" was back in the top ten and was one of the fastest boats in the Imoca fleet for long stretches. Also very noteworthy: The Swiss Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion had fought their way up to second place with "Teamwork.net" very early on Friday morning and attacked the front runner "Charal".
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Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
