Page 49 - MG_Magazine 22ED_WEB

Never has sailing been so feminine as in this ninth edition, and on the top of this we have

been able to enjoy the closest regatta finale in its history.

he Vendée Globe celebrates the sailing the highest number of women (6) and the highest number
circumnavigation of the planet, alone and of finishes: 25 in regatta and 2 out of competition. Regard-
without any assistance or stopovers, and ing its duration, on this occasion the record set in 2017 by
its last edition has proven to be one of the Armel Le Cléac’h in 74 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes and 46
most exciting sailing competitions. Never seconds has not been broken. This year, the first arrival took
before has the Vendée Globe brought to- place during day 80 and the last at day 116, which gives us
Tgether so many skippers with a chance an idea of the vicissitudes and difficulties that all skippers
of achieving victory within hours of reaching the finishing must face. Not surprisingly, the Vendée Globe is accessible
line, in Les Sables d'Olonne, the coastal town in the Vendée only to the most prepared sailors, as its hardness and dura-
French department that sponsored the event. tion (almost three months) makes it one of the most difficult
regattas.
At the end, the Frenchman Yannick Bestaven aboard his
monohull, Maître Coq IV, has been the lucky winner. He ar- Heroicity and toughness are therefore two of the qualifi-
rived on January 28 , a day after Charlie Dalin and Louis ers that best define this transoceanic competition, as well
th
Burton, but he was proclaimed the winner after a time com- as the unusual fact of seeing impressive monohulls that
pensation was applied to him, as well as to Boris Hermann fly over the waves and that are not necessarily sponsored
and Jean Le Cam, the three skippers who came to the res- by large multinationals, if not by franchises of bakeries,
cue of another colleague, Kevin Escoffier. It was a dramatic French dairy cooperatives or Vendée chicken producers,
case, but with a happy ending. 1,000 km away from Cape as in the case of the winning boat, the Maître Coq IV. These
Town, a wave at 27 knots hit his boat, splitting it in two and are facts that surprise us about sailing, specially as it is not
causing it to sink rapidly. an economic sport. Each of the IMOCA class sailboats has
budgets ranging between 500,000 and 3 million euros.
Along with Kevin, in the course of the competition seven And some of these boats reach up to 7 million euros.
other participants have had to withdraw for various rea-
sons, including two women. But despite this, the last edition Another feature of the Vendée Globe is that it has had the
is the one with the highest number of participants (33), same type of boats since 1989. They are 60 foot monohulls

MG MAGAZINE 49