STORM CHASERS

HOW BIG A GAMBLE WOULD YOU TAKE TO WIN THE VENDÉE GLOBE? HELEN FRETTER FINDS OUT HOW THE SOLO SKIPPERS USE STORMS IN THEIR RACE STRATEGY

- HELEN FRETTER

On the morning of 13 November, the middle of the North Atlantic glowed a deep magenta on the weather maps. Some 200 miles south of the Azores, around 470 miles north-east of the Canaries, and bang in the way of the Vendée Globe fleet, tropical Storm Theta was deepening, with 45-50 knot winds whipping up the grey waves.

Avid Vendée Globe followers, overlaying the race tracker with the forecast, couldn’t help but notice the hot pink icon of Hugo Boss pointing directly at the swirling arrows and dark crimson that indicated the centre of the storm. Just a week after the fleet had left from Les Sables d’Olonne, would this be a defining moment in the 24,200-mile race?

Nothing about the beginning of this year’s Vendée Globe was as might have been expected, even for an event as unpredictable as this one. Shortly before start day on 8 November, France went back into lockdown. The Vendée Globe village drew down the shutters, and strict rules against public gatherings forbade spectators even from cheering the 33 competitors from afar along the walls of the famous channel. Armed police stood silent guard instead. Les Sables d’Olonne did its best to rouse an atmosphere, with indefatigable fans balanced on garden gates, banging saucepans out of balconies and blasting ships horns to show their appreciation instead.

NOT NORMALLY LIKE THIS

Then there was the weather. “The best way to describe it is that this year was all about the Azores Low, instead of the Azores High,” said navigator and racing router Wouter Verbraak. “Where you normally had a high pressure system, now there was a low pressure system in the same position. So you couldn’t be further upside down from a normal situation.”