The Vendée Globe 2020 edition about to cast off

Published on : 08/11/2020 – 11:29Modified : 08/11/2020 – 12:19

The 33 skippers who will challenge the seas of the world for the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe take the start of this legendary race alone and without stopover on Sunday November 8 at 1:02 p.m. (12:02 GMT) in a unique atmosphere, marked by closed doors and technological prowess.

“We will have to be ultra focused because on a start like that, thirty-three boats, there are inevitably a lot of small errors, small contacts that can take place and we will have to put out a perfect performance so as not to have a trouble on the start, ”explains Jérémie Beyou (Charal), one of the favorites.

The time has come for concentration for the sailors who have been preparing for this round-the-world trip for many months, even if the popular festival which usually marks the exit from the Sables-d’Olonne channel will not take place due to the confinement.

“It adds a lot of majesty to this start, finally, the fact that it is completely empty, it will be super silent, that tells something”, said Fabrice Amedeo (Newrest – Art & Fenêtres) who, like all the other competitors , tested negative for Covid-19 during a final test on Friday.

Good weather at the start

The skippers, who have respected strict confinement, will benefit from a mild weather with a south-easterly wind to start this sporting and human adventure completed in 74 days four years ago by Armel Le Cléac’h.

“The Vendée Globe allows you to explore the potential you have and that’s what is great, we realize that human beings have extraordinary potential”, underlines the sailor Catherine Chabaud who took part in 1996 and 2000 to this milestone race for the “intensity” of the emotions felt or the beauty of “starry nights in the southern hemisphere”.

Among the 33 athletes who set off, the profiles are varied: with six women; a dean, Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!), who is competing at 61 for the fifth time in the race; a disabled sports skipper born without a left hand, Damien Seguin (Apicil); and a group of favorites embarking on brand new boats equipped with “foils” which propel them at nearly 40 knots (74 km / h).

“Life on these boats is maybe even more miserable than ours because they hit the waves so hard, they go so fast, these men and women are really tough,” said Ari Huusela (Stark), Finnish competitor who owns an older boat.

With Jérémie Beyou, Briton Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) is eagerly awaited for this edition after being on the podium twice in a row (2^e in 2016 and 3^e in 2012).

Its pink and black boat catches the eye with its fully enclosed cockpit to protect it from bad weather. Equally innovative, those of Charlie Dalin (Apivia), Armel Tripon (L’Occitane en Provence), Thomas Rettant (LinkedOut), Nicolas Troussel (Corum L’Epargne) or even Sébastien Simon (Arkéa-Paprec).

“A lot of uncertainties”

The couple formed in the city by Samantha Davies (Initiatives-Cœur) and Romain Attanasio (PURE-Best-Western) fascinates, since both take the start, but each on his own boat.

“We left our 9-year-old son at school on Thursday morning and then we left for Les Sables and afterwards, it was the grandparents who took over,” says Romain Attanasio.

With the pandemic which “made everyone sail less” and the unknowns around the technology of foils, there are “a lot of uncertainties” on the list, underlines Fabrice Amedeo, while in each edition there are many withdrawals. .

“Being able to go around the world is so against the grain of everything that is happening to us at the moment, I think we are even more privileged”, insists for her part Clarisse Crémer, the youngest. 30-year-old participants [le plus jeune des skippers étant le Suisse Alan Roura, 27 ans], recalling that the competitors will cross areas “where we cannot be picked up or in a very complicated way”.

With AFP