Vendée Globe: the cruel Atlantic

It was baptism of fire for the 33 skippers taking part in the Vendée Globe.

After an emotional departure from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday 8 November, they enjoyed two days of favourable conditions before sailing straight into a 45-knot front, with gusts over 50 knots and waves of seven metres. Even for these experienced sailors, it was a battering that left many of them shaken. Boris Hermann on SeaExplorer/Yacht Club de Monaco admitted he spent most of the night “consumed by doubts” over whether he was pushing too hard in the conditions. Sébastien Simon on Arkea Paprec was seasick for the first time in his life. Clarisse Crémer sounded close to tears. The storm caused damage across the fleet, notably for Armel Tripon on L’Occitane en Provence, one of the new foiling yachts launched this year. He turned for Spain to make repairs, but after considering the difficulty of picking up a mooring on his own in an IMOCA 60, thought better of it and turned south again with the rest of the fleet, hoping to make repairs on the go. All the skippers reported having had little or no sleep since the start.

But the big news was yet to come. On the morning of day three, the race tracker showed that Charal, the boat of Jérémie Beyou, was taking an unusual course. A few minutes later his team confirmed that Beyou, touted by many as the favourite, had sustained serious damage and was returning 600 miles to Les Sables d’Olonne for repairs. Their statement said: “It started around 2pm on Tuesday when a sheet block tore off, which sprayed carbon all over the cockpit. Jérémie had to do a little repair, he got in the boat to get it all set up, and while he was inside the boat he hit something. In so doing the boat gybed it ended up on the other side. He then realized that the starboard rudder was damaged.”