The skipper of Charal won with a tiny advance over his pursuers, this Tuesday evening, in Les Sables-d’Olonne, after more than ten days at sea.
Imagined as an emergency during confinement by the Imoca class to compensate for the cancellations of the English Transat and the New-York-Vendée, victims of the Covid-19 in the spring, the Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables is not intended to settle in the ocean racing landscape. It was simply to allow the skippers to sail for the Vendée Globe and some of them to validate their qualification for the round the world trip across the Atlantic to Iceland.
50 minutes apart with his dolphin
And yet, its first, and undoubtedly unique edition, will leave sacred memories with its participants, Jérémie Beyou in mind. With a perfect firework finish on this National Day. The Charal skipper won Tuesday evening after 10 days, 05 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds (3284.32 miles at 13.39 knots on average) after an epic battle with his small competitors Charlie Dalin (Apivia) and Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut). Dalin crossed the finish line in front of Les Sables d’Olonne only 50 minutes after the winner for a Solitaire finish in Figaro. Loud completed the podium, twenty minutes later “It was really intense,” breathed Beyou in front of Les Sables. Each solo victory is deserved but there it was a new format. With Charlie and Thomas, we raced together. We almost never lost sight of each other. A blow to you, a blow to me. They also sailed super well. I was really tense. Do not let go of anything on a Figaro, it is useful ”.
A skipper in osmosis with his boat
A jibe with little onions on Monday – “everyone followed behind” -, an ultimate perfectly wedged trajectory and a last edge “champagne” on the flat sea and a boat “which sent wood”, this is how the triple winner of the Solitaire made the difference in the money time, at the helm of a mount now tamed. “Everything went well in the end with maneuvers in osmosis with the boat, without being scared when it hit. We had to link the Charal-skipper pair. It’s been a long time since last year it was double and therefore radically different. The Vendée Globe is fast approaching. If you do not trust the boat, you cannot make a result, ”continues Beyou.
“There, I put my bags down a bit”
Jérémie Beyou
After a big disappointment on the Transat Jacques Vabre last year – trapped in the Doldrums with Christopher Pratt and dreams of victory gone – and before a Vendée Globe (departure on November 8) where he will only aim for victory after a 3e place in 2017, the Finistérien admits to having put “a lot of pressure” for this preparatory race around the world. “Between the Jacques Vabre, the winter construction site and the containment, I no longer had my bearings. And in these cases, I am under pressure. So you had to do it right, manage to win. There I put my bags down a bit. I will no longer have this pressure at the start of the Vendée. I know where I’m going and how to get there, he concludes. This is a great victory. ” Until a much bigger one this winter.
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