Berliner Boersenzeitung - Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe

EUR -
AED 3.84909
AFN 70.983076
ALL 98.168084
AMD 408.033489
ANG 1.877746
AOA 956.772304
ARS 1045.934567
AUD 1.608014
AWG 1.888917
AZN 1.780997
BAM 1.956142
BBD 2.103608
BDT 124.501747
BGN 1.96788
BHD 0.392672
BIF 3077.56693
BMD 1.047943
BND 1.404259
BOB 7.239401
BRL 6.098928
BSD 1.041892
BTN 88.430422
BWP 14.233758
BYN 3.409661
BYR 20539.683689
BZD 2.100107
CAD 1.461529
CDF 3008.644792
CHF 0.933707
CLF 0.036935
CLP 1019.137039
CNY 7.592031
CNH 7.595984
COP 4600.207983
CRC 530.697762
CUC 1.047943
CUP 27.770491
CVE 110.899218
CZK 25.334232
DJF 185.535949
DKK 7.457456
DOP 62.791567
DZD 139.877767
EGP 51.749446
ERN 15.719146
ETB 127.546696
FJD 2.385066
FKP 0.827159
GBP 0.83215
GEL 2.871065
GGP 0.827159
GHS 16.552662
GIP 0.827159
GMD 74.404001
GNF 8980.654359
GTQ 8.08725
GYD 219.183481
HKD 8.154967
HNL 26.32885
HRK 7.475249
HTG 136.765194
HUF 411.595345
IDR 16624.306486
ILS 3.879155
IMP 0.827159
INR 88.307488
IQD 1364.864451
IRR 44092.203499
ISK 146.344923
JEP 0.827159
JMD 165.980576
JOD 0.743093
JPY 161.794551
KES 135.676997
KGS 90.649326
KHR 4194.772734
KMF 495.143365
KPW 943.148344
KRW 1467.769713
KWD 0.322609
KYD 0.868268
KZT 520.220796
LAK 22885.434193
LBP 93300.07746
LKR 303.238754
LRD 189.101446
LSL 18.801143
LTL 3.094303
LVL 0.63389
LYD 5.087986
MAD 10.539574
MDL 19.003682
MGA 4862.942225
MKD 61.540749
MMK 3403.678134
MNT 3560.910412
MOP 8.353519
MRU 41.455637
MUR 49.074871
MVR 16.201526
MWK 1806.650049
MXN 21.359806
MYR 4.668554
MZN 66.973635
NAD 18.801143
NGN 1769.410365
NIO 38.337062
NOK 11.559514
NPR 140.70592
NZD 1.790636
OMR 0.401068
PAB 1.047692
PEN 3.95069
PGK 4.194773
PHP 61.7584
PKR 289.326398
PLN 4.334357
PYG 8133.57593
QAR 3.820851
RON 4.978251
RSD 117.724856
RUB 108.694151
RWF 1422.262
SAR 3.934395
SBD 8.785488
SCR 14.270629
SDG 630.340687
SEK 11.508746
SGD 1.410154
SHP 0.827159
SLE 23.819809
SLL 21974.846653
SOS 595.409683
SRD 37.195668
STD 21690.30525
SVC 9.116766
SYP 2632.988191
SZL 18.794642
THB 36.22582
TJS 11.157609
TMT 3.667801
TND 3.328435
TOP 2.454385
TRY 36.218374
TTD 7.076236
TWD 34.002924
TZS 2777.049042
UAH 43.103352
UGX 3871.138521
USD 1.047943
UYU 44.554803
UZS 13366.334712
VES 48.817231
VND 26630.85264
VUV 124.413904
WST 2.925428
XAF 656.077858
XAG 0.034259
XAU 0.000393
XCD 2.832119
XDR 0.792554
XOF 656.077858
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.90718
ZAR 18.9268
ZMK 9432.745885
ZMW 28.781577
ZWL 337.437233
  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe
Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe / Photo: Loic VENANCE - AFP

Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe

Yannick Bestaven already knows what it feels like to win the Vendee Globe but the 51-year-old Frenchman cannot resist the call of the solo, non-stop round the world yacht race, which sets off from Les Sables-d'Olonne on the Atlantic coast on Sunday.

Text size:

"For me, this race is the holy grail of solo racing," he told AFP.

"It's a personal challenge to circumnavigate the globe in a yacht, alone on board.

"Even after a victory, it's still a challenge. The story will be different: you're in the unknown when you set out to sea."

Bestaven won the last edition of the race, completing the 24,300 nautical mile-course -- that's 45,000 kilometres for the land-lubbers -- like a seaborne Phileas Fogg in 80 days, three hours and 44 minutes in 2021.

But he is right to be humble: it goes with the territory.

All 40 skippers that will start this tenth edition will be eager to outwit and outsail their opponents and snag the 200,000-euro ($214,000) winner's cheque. They know, however, that the main challenge will be a communal one -- the sea.

Occasionally she lends a helpful hand allowing the 60-foot Imoca monohulls to glide on their foils at near 40 knots; at other times she will rise like a ferocious monster the size of a mountain ready to crash down and crush the boats below.

"There's an element of randomness, things you can't control, technical problems, retiring, hitting an unidentified floating object," says Charlie Dalin, skipper of MACIF Sante Prevoyance.

"You never know what's going to happen to you in a Vendee."

Every skipper is well aware of the dangers that lie in wait in the 'Everest of the Seas'.

One skipper, Nigel Burgess, died in the second edition in 1992-93 while Mike Plant perished while crossing the Atlantic to reach the French start point for that race. Four years later the Canadian Gerry Roufs disappeared, his boat turning up on the coast of Chile six months later.

Four years ago Kevin Escoffier came within a whisker of joining them, his boat snapped in two. He was lucky, picked up by veteran Jean Le Cam who at 64 will be the oldest of this year's competitors.

"You need a mind of steel, a demanding team that has prepared the boat well and a good failsafe because, as usual, the boats will all end up battered," British skipper Sam Davies told AFP.

Davies is one of six women entering the race, each of them looking to emulate Ellen MacArthur who remains the only woman ever to make the Vendee podium when she came second in 2000-01.

Another is first-timer Violette Dorange who, at 23, is the youngest skipper in the race.

She is one of 15 skippers making their Vendee debuts. The others include 35-year-old Jingkun Xu, who only saw the sea for the first time at the age of 12 and is now the first Chinese sailor to take on the Vendee Globe.

- 'Magical marathon' -

The Vendee Globe started life in 1989, set up by French yachtsman Philippe Jeantot. Of the 13 boats that started only seven finished with another Frenchman Titouan Lamazou winnings in 109 days.

The French influence remains as strong as ever with the race still waiting its first 'foreign' winner.

The Vendee will grip the nation from start to finish. Twenty-seven of the 40 skippers are French, the media will track the race from start to finish and hundreds of thousands of people will have been to view the boats by the time they set off up the canal on Sunday to start their three-month voyages.

It will make a welcome change to the eery, empty silent quays that saw the boats off four years ago when the race started during the Covid lockdown.

The flotilla of high-tech Imocas, highly-advanced 60-foot monohulls, follows the old clipper route down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. They then swing around Antarctica before rounding Cape Horn and heading for home, back where they began in Les Sables-d'Olonne.

"The Southern Ocean and rounding Cape Horn are quite a challenge," says Bestaven who will be competing in Maitre Coq V and hoping to nudge closer to the record of 74 days as he takes part in what he says will be his final solo race.

"We cross some wild places, there aren't many humans sailing there. These places are quite magical. The light, the wildlife, the albatrosses that follow the boat... It motivates me to relive those exceptional moments of four years ago.

"But the Vendee Globe as a whole is an extraordinary race. It's the one that lasts the longest. You come to think of a transatlantic race as a sprint, the Vendee Globe a marathon."

(Y.Berger--BBZ)