It ain't over til it's over

An edge-of-your-seat Vendée Globe thriller came down to the final hours, with a last minute drama that shocked millions

The ninth Vendée Globe had promised to be a lightning-fast head-to-head between two or three boats, a sprint around the globe that would surely lower the 74-day record and herald a new era in offshore racing.

In the event, the two big favourites had serious collisions that ended their podium dreams before the race passed Cape Town.

What we were left with was something far more open and arguably far more exciting, a group of nine or 10 boats that stuck together around the world, each successive attempt to break away reeled in by the pack.

And the finish, overnight on 27 January, was as gripping as sport could be, with the closest ever winning margin and a victor that nobody could predict even in the final hours.

Chess match

The global press woke up to the fact that this was likely to be a true epic in offshore racing as the fleet sailed up the south Atlantic towards the equator. Off Rio, on 12 January, there were no more than 120 miles covering the first nine places. The race was effectively reset – for the nine contenders, it would be a 4,000-mile sprint back to France.

The skippers readied themselves for a gruelling test where they knew the tiniest mistake might mean the loss of a podium position. Any of the leading pack had the ability and the desire to win, but what we didn’t know was the condition of their boats. After more than 20,000 miles at sea, all would be nursing tired machinery and given the high stakes, it was likely that not everyone was being 100% open about what disabilities they were carrying.