Four years after Covid, the Vendée Globe finds its audience

A few days before the start of the 10th Vendée Globe, everything is almost ready on the pontoons of Sables-d’Olonne. After a 2020 edition that began in the sadness and silence of confinement, the skippers are expecting this time, on Sunday, an emotional exit from the channel.

Since the opening of the village on October 18, a dense and joyful crowd has flocked to the quays every morning to admire the 40 majestic Imoca boats setting off on a new world tour.

A striking contrast with the silent and somewhat gloomy atmosphere of the previous edition, the cannon of which was given without any audience a few days after the announcement of the second confinement, linked to the Covid epidemic.

“The race was great on television, but the village was closed for a good part of the time. Today you can see the sailors on their boat cheering them on.”smiles Huguette Chaussinand, a retiree from Vendée who came on Monday.

On this back-to-school day, she and her husband anticipated faster access to the skippers’ pontoon. Failed, after 40 minutes of waiting, the couple was still only halfway through the line…

Last navigations

Organizers noted Monday “rising attendance figures” on the village with 360,000 visitors during the first week, i.e. 20% more than in 2016.

“After eight years of waiting, the public’s enthusiasm is palpable”welcomed the president of the Vendée Globe Alain Leboeuf to AFP.

“It’s incredible to find this atmosphere again. This is madness”appreciates the navigator Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western), who completed the last two Everest of the seas.

Victim of a violent dismasting only two months ago, the 47-year-old sailor was able to arrive in Les Sables-d’Olonne on time thanks to the establishment of an online solidarity kitty which raised 163,000 euros and the purchase of a mast from a competitor.

“It’s so hard to get there. I’m not the first to say it, but it’s already a victory to be at the start of a Vendée”he emphasizes as he sets foot on his boat on Monday.

Immediately recognized and encouraged by around twenty students on a school trip, he takes a few minutes to greet the group of teenagers, before getting back to preparing his foiling sailboat.

With a shortage of sailing time, Attanasio wants to take advantage of part of the day to go out to sea one last time and “pull one or two edges”in light airs, to reassure yourself.

“The moment of a lifetime”

Several of the favorites like Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa), Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable 1) and Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable 2) also took the emblematic channel in the morning which, unlike the village, was still relatively deserted on Monday.

Sunday morning, it will be packed with people, as in all previous editions… except one. “For me it will be new. In 2020, the channel was empty. It was a bit like we had played the World Cup final behind closed doors.”remembers Maxime Sorel (V and B – Monbana – Mayenne).

“We’re more expecting a match at the Maracana”he predicts, in reference to the fiery atmosphere of the Rio de Janeiro stadium.

Fog horns, applause, banners of support, the rather discreet public of ocean racing has been enthusiastic since 1989 for these solo sailors who set off once every four years around the world, on a non-stop journey without assistance.

More than 300,000 people are expected on the day of departure. And the vast majority of professional skippers wish to take part in this “moment of a life, which has nothing to do with any other race”.

“We all find ourselves very small in the middle of the crowd. Everyone on the boat is crying, the people on the docks are crying, you can’t hold back, you’re overwhelmed with emotion all over.”says Swiss Alan Roura.

“And when you get out of the channel, it’s over”he adds markedly.

And at the same time everything begins: once the start is given off the coast of Les Sables-d’Olonne at 1:02 p.m. on Sunday, there will be 24,300 miles in front of the monohulls’ bows, some 70 days of sailing for the fastest.