Zürcher Nachrichten - Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe

EUR -
AED 3.96156
AFN 73.468512
ALL 98.204644
AMD 416.336829
ANG 1.938697
AOA 984.170447
ARS 1071.815476
AUD 1.619884
AWG 1.944089
AZN 1.831561
BAM 1.955512
BBD 2.17196
BDT 128.551091
BGN 1.955982
BHD 0.406576
BIF 3175.603446
BMD 1.078551
BND 1.427177
BOB 7.459903
BRL 6.139975
BSD 1.075732
BTN 90.768228
BWP 14.362754
BYN 3.52045
BYR 21139.606501
BZD 2.168361
CAD 1.496948
CDF 3090.049583
CHF 0.941527
CLF 0.037434
CLP 1032.907086
CNY 7.709807
CNH 7.678525
COP 4662.847133
CRC 549.614059
CUC 1.078551
CUP 28.581611
CVE 110.249805
CZK 25.255329
DJF 191.560047
DKK 7.456969
DOP 64.669888
DZD 143.849857
EGP 53.168157
ERN 16.17827
ETB 132.422294
FJD 2.440817
FKP 0.825274
GBP 0.831493
GEL 2.939048
GGP 0.825274
GHS 17.642568
GIP 0.825274
GMD 77.105293
GNF 9274.549783
GTQ 8.30174
GYD 225.058982
HKD 8.380075
HNL 27.138756
HRK 7.430173
HTG 141.517872
HUF 404.823806
IDR 16890.114174
ILS 4.012421
IMP 0.825274
INR 90.940268
IQD 1409.205781
IRR 45412.404295
ISK 148.323433
JEP 0.825274
JMD 170.24338
JOD 0.765017
JPY 165.031838
KES 138.766853
KGS 92.979154
KHR 4370.316635
KMF 491.765501
KPW 970.695974
KRW 1493.394842
KWD 0.330781
KYD 0.896476
KZT 528.767124
LAK 23611.308013
LBP 96687.570801
LKR 314.760782
LRD 204.388988
LSL 18.80466
LTL 3.184682
LVL 0.652405
LYD 5.212185
MAD 10.638635
MDL 19.292983
MGA 4961.224237
MKD 61.550485
MMK 3503.09272
MNT 3664.917524
MOP 8.612013
MRU 42.857299
MUR 50.098529
MVR 16.620184
MWK 1865.308331
MXN 21.386164
MYR 4.72838
MZN 68.924822
NAD 18.805008
NGN 1813.616239
NIO 39.58381
NOK 11.743947
NPR 145.228291
NZD 1.794008
OMR 0.415271
PAB 1.075742
PEN 4.06604
PGK 4.317325
PHP 62.986863
PKR 298.972751
PLN 4.313827
PYG 8349.694398
QAR 3.92076
RON 4.976119
RSD 116.995859
RUB 105.697533
RWF 1474.269476
SAR 4.051156
SBD 9.00356
SCR 14.688696
SDG 648.750886
SEK 11.542768
SGD 1.426018
SHP 0.825274
SLE 24.580149
SLL 22616.679128
SOS 614.803866
SRD 37.700739
STD 22323.835402
SVC 9.412572
SYP 2709.892918
SZL 18.79906
THB 36.673437
TJS 11.435065
TMT 3.77493
TND 3.347592
TOP 2.526072
TRY 37.048026
TTD 7.296859
TWD 34.593473
TZS 2901.303353
UAH 44.473446
UGX 3948.455817
USD 1.078551
UYU 44.723214
UZS 13779.100939
VEF 3907108.934024
VES 47.592223
VND 27292.741965
VUV 128.047816
WST 3.021221
XAF 655.854447
XAG 0.031974
XAU 0.000396
XCD 2.914839
XDR 0.806574
XOF 655.854447
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.475818
ZAR 18.716479
ZMK 9708.254566
ZMW 29.152442
ZWL 347.293095
  • RBGPF

    0.0100

    61.4

    +0.02%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    13.08

    +0.15%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0500

    7.16

    -0.7%

  • NGG

    0.1800

    64.3

    +0.28%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.32

    +0.11%

  • CMSC

    0.1700

    24.68

    +0.69%

  • RELX

    -0.0500

    47.66

    -0.1%

  • RIO

    2.1400

    67.47

    +3.17%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    24.89

    +0.16%

  • GSK

    0.7600

    36.66

    +2.07%

  • BCE

    -0.6700

    28.07

    -2.39%

  • BCC

    -0.9100

    140.85

    -0.65%

  • JRI

    0.1200

    13.37

    +0.9%

  • BTI

    -0.2400

    35.4

    -0.68%

  • AZN

    0.8400

    64.69

    +1.3%

  • BP

    0.1300

    30.29

    +0.43%

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."

B.Brunner--NZN