Drive It Like You Stole It

There’s No Holding Back on the Vendée Globe Race as Skippers Go All Out at Record Speeds. Elaine Bunting Reports.

- Elaine Bunting

Before dawn, people started to gather along the channel that leads to the inner harbour at Les Sables d’Olonne. Heedless of the hour and the piercing November northerly, thousands came early to stake a vantage point. It is a pilgrimage repeated once every four years to witness the solo sailors of the Vendée Globe committing themselves to race round the world. These are among some of the most poignant moments seen in any sport. Sailors unabashedly shed tears as they say goodbye. Alex Thomson, setting off for the fourth time, knew what to expect. “For me it is the hardest day of the race. It’s massively emotional.

“And it’s emotional because people have a sense that you are leaving and perhaps you maybe won’t come back.”

Yet as soon as mainsails are hoisted and the support teams get off, everything changes. The race is on. Thomson told a different story then. “I’m going to drive it like I stole it!” he grinned.

With 29 yachts in the fleet, six of them newly launched for this edition, the pace of this Vendée Globe is predicted to be faster than it was four years ago, when first-time competitor François Gabart won in 78d 2h. One big, important thing is different now compared to 2012: the latest yachts have foils.

In a race famous for technical innovations from canting keels to wing masts, the introduction of foils to the latest designs to generate lift and reduce displacement is arguably the biggest step-change yet.