The 2024-'25 Vendée Globe will feature more non-French sailors than ever before
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 24 Sep 2024 20:57 BST
10 November 2024
Boris Herrmann, TEAM MALIZIA © Marie Le Floch / Team Malizia
The 2024-'25 Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race, which starts from Les Sables d'Olonne on the French Biscay coast on November 10th, will see the largest contingent of non-French entrants since the race was founded in 1989.
With 14 of the 40 starters hailing from outside France, this will be a truly international competition with sailors taking part from as far afield as Switzerland, Hungary, Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand, Japan, USA, Belgium and Germany, but also for the first time from China.
Non-French sailors include some of the most competitive among the foiling boats. They include Boris Herrmann of Germany (Malizia-Seaexplorer), and Sam Davies (Initiatives-Coeur) and Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) of Great Britain, who will each be aiming to become the first sailor from outside France to win the Vendée Globe.
Antoine Mermod, the President of the IMOCA Class, said the number of non-French competitors in the 2024-'25 race is the latest evidence of the way in which the IMOCA Class is broadening its appeal internationally. "We are delighted to see so many international sailors taking up our biggest challenge in the Vendée Globe," he said. "I hope we will see more single-handers take inspiration from what these men and women achieve on the course this winter and join the race in 2028."
Also among the international contingent this time is the Hungarian sailor Szabolcs Weöres, who is the second yachtsman from his nation to take on the Vendée Globe, as he follows in the footsteps of the great Nándor Fa who started three Vendée Globes and completed two. Alongside José Luis Ugarte of Spain, Fa enjoys the distinction of being one of the first two non-French sailors to complete the Vendée Globe in the 1992-'93 edition.
Fa has been Weöres's inspiration for this campaign. "He is my mentor - he has helped me a lot," says Weöres, taking a break from a busy build-up to the start. "For sure, his previous experience being in the IMOCA Class has really helped me from the beginning. I think people in Hungary really like the idea that there is a newcomer who is continuing what he started and there is still a solo sailor who is participating in this event."
Weöres, 51, a six-time Ironman competitor, is sailing the 2012-vintage Owen Clarke-designed New Europe, and he wants to race, not just get round. "The dream is definitely to be a Vendée Globe finisher - that is my main goal. However I am a competitive type so I hope that I will find some competitors to race against. I am pretty sure it is going to be in the third part of the fleet, but I want to sail my boat to its full potential," he said.
The biggest national representation in the non-French entry this time is from Switzerland, with three sailors taking the start - Alan Roura on Hublot, Oliver Heer on Tut Gut.Sailing and Justine Mettraux on Teamwork-Team SNEF. Roura loves the fact that his landlocked mountainous nation, famous for its winter sports prowess, is so well represented in the Everest of solo yacht racing. "It's the first time we have three Swiss sailors, so that's pretty cool," he said.
Swiss interest in ocean racing and solo ocean racing goes back to the old days of the Whitbread Round-the-World Race in the late 1980s when three Swiss crews took on the forerunner of The Ocean Race. That, in turn, inspired single-handers, and IMOCA legends, like Dominique Wavre and Bernard Stamm to race alone on the ocean.
"I think we just fell in love with it," said Roura who, at 31, is preparing for his third Vendée Globe, having finished 12th and 17th in the last two editions. "We wanted to sail on the Atlantic because sailing on the Lake (Geneva) is small and when you taste single-handed sailing, you just want to keep going. And then you start dreaming of the Vendée Globe...so it has become part of the Swiss mentality to do offshore sailing."
The three Swiss sailors know each other well. Roura did the 2013 Mini Transat alongside Mettraux and, when he bought the former Hugo Boss from Alex Thomson, the boat captain at the time was Heer. So they are competitors but also friends. "We talk to each other because we have known each other for quite a long time," said Roura.
Like so many others in older boats, Roura has carried out major modifications to his IMOCA for this race, including changing the bow profile, the ballast distribution, the profile of the stern and the keel. He wants to "play," as he put it, with boats of his generation and is hoping to have a competitive race against the likes of Clarisse Crémer on L'Occitane En Provence, Pipe Hare on Medallia, and Damien Seguin on Groupe APICIL.
The young Swiss sailor will tackle the race with a new mentality too. "In my first Vendée Globe I wanted to do it without thinking about performance and I enjoyed it so much," he explained. "I lost that on the second one. I wanted to race and I forgot to enjoy it, so I really want to enjoy sailing on my boat now. That's the way I will sail well too. So I just want to feel free. What I learned is that you live the race, hour-by-hour, and every one could be the last one of the race, so just enjoy every moment and don't think of the next day or what has just happened - think of now and have fun..."
Historically, Italian sailors have been the fourth most populous non-French in the Vendée Globe alongside sailors from the USA, with six entries by five sailors (including the 2024 edition). This time, as last, the sole Italian entry will be the irrepressible Giancarlo Pedote who finished in eighth place on Prysmian four years ago.
Pedote says although he is not a French sailor, the distinction around nationality is not that important to him, after having been living in Lorient in Brittany, where the IMOCA Class is based, since 2012. "Of course I am Italian, I am a foreigner and I represent my country, but it is not obvious like it was before that you are a foreigner in the Class, especially given the fact that I have been living here for a long time," he said.
The 48-year-old yachtsman from Florence says he has a big following back home and in the Italian media. "My career began with the Mini 6.5 and of course now with the Vendée Globe, the fan base is bigger and bigger. I try to communicate daily about my adventure, my programme, the race and the training. And I have seen that people are following - it's a win-win doing this kind of a global race," he said.
Like Roura, Pedote's boat has had big modifications, with a new bow and new foils, and he is hoping that it will show its paces in the big seas of the Southern Ocean. He does not like to talk about a target when it comes to a finishing position, but says he will try to do the best he can and after that his destiny will be "in the hands of God."
"We are still racing with the 2015 class of boats, but I am very happy with the re-fit I have done," he said. "I like it so much and I think the boat has a good tone of voice to have a good performance. It is strong, we have reinforced different areas and I think I have in my hands the keys to do better."
Among the non-French entries this year the race sees its strongest ever representation from Asia. Kojiro Shiraishi of Japan is taking on the Vendée Globe for a third time on DMG Mori Global One, while Jingkun Xu, the remarkable one-armed sailor from Qingdao, will be the first Chinese sailor to attempt the race when he sets sail on Singchain Team Haikou.
NON-FRENCH SKIPPERS IN THE 2024 VENDÉE GLOBE
- Denis VAN WEYNBERGH
- Kojiro SHIRAISHI
- Alan ROURA
- Conrad COLMAN
- Sam DAVIES
- Boris HERRMANN
- Pip HARE
- Szabolcs WEÖRES
- Giancarlo PEDOTE
- Jingkun XU
- Oliver HEER
- Justine METTRAUX
- Sam GOODCHILD