The Vendée Globe, a goal since 2015
It is on the Mini 6.50 circuit that Isabelle Joschke started offshore racing in 2005. She participated twice in the Mini Transat and won the first leg of the race in 2007. Her numerous successes convinced her sponsor at the time to follow her on the Figaro circuit, where she will be racing for 8 years.
At the end of 2015, his sponsor is offering him a Vendée Globe, a project that in the end will not succeed. In 2016, she entered the Class40, before taking the helm of the IMOCA MACSF in 2017.
"The Vendée Globe has been my goal since 2015, which I'm finally going to achieve in just under three weeks."
His first participation in the Vendée Globe is therefore the culmination of a long journey, the fulfilment of a dream that has been long in the making.
"It's taken a long time to get here. I've been involved in ocean racing since 2005, and I've been dreaming of taking part in this race for a long time. It's the Holy Grail, Everest, but to take part in it, you need a sponsor who trusts you and a large budget. Not everyone has this privilege.
I had a first opportunity in 2015, my sponsor at the time offered me the chance to take part in this adventure. It didn't happen. I tried to go for many years, but I never got the chance. I had resigned myself a bit, I never thought I would do it.?»
When she finally gave up, MACSF contacted her to succeed Bertrand de Broc.
Finding abilities to go further
Realistically enough, the navigator knows what she hopes for and what she fears.
"I can't expect to experience a serene race from start to finish. It's like life itself. Especially in the Vendée Globe. It's a difficult route and it's because it is that I went looking for it. There won't necessarily always be funny things, I know I'm going to experience things I wouldn't necessarily be happy about.
Nevertheless, I am going to experience great moments of connection with the elements: the seas, the oceans, the marine animals, the horizon around me, the sky. It's an immersion in the elements that I want to live to the fullest. I want to feel animated by it. Being alone is very important, to experience it more intensely."
In this race, she hopes above all to surpass herself in difficult moments and to find resources she doesn't know, to discover her abilities. Because it's in the events that we're going to find them.
"When it's easy, there's no need for too much skill, it goes by itself. There will be hard times. I dread the South Seas, rounding Cape Horn. How will I manage my peurs?? Situations that do peur?? It's very important.
I will have to find abilities to go further, but in relation to my fears, as they can be very limiting and limiting. Sometimes they're protective, but sometimes they're overprotective and inhibit a certain amount of freedom."
MACSF, a 2007 IMOCA updated with the latest generation foils
If she takes over the helm of MACSF, the boat is no longer the same. It is the former Queguiner Group skippered by Yann Eliès in the 2016 Vendée Globe. Built in 2007, she was updated in 2019 with the latest generation foils.
"He's not the youngest in the fleet, but he's moving fast on the beam wind. In 2008, he was the fastest in the fleet. He's done very well over the years. The foils have given him a really important potential gain. It's a slower boat than the eight new boats that will be taking the start, but in the second division will be playing with much newer boats.
I'm going to play with boats built for the 2016 edition, which is almost 8 years apart. I'm proud of this boat, of the potential we've gained. She has a very good base. It's a very competitive boat."
Finish the race, 80% of his goal
For her first Vendée Globe, Isabelle Joschke has set herself the goal of finishing the race and living her adventure to the full.
"It's not a sure thing, knowing that there's a 50% chance of succeeding and a 50% chance of giving up. It will be a great success to come back to Les Sables-d'Olonne. That's 80 per cent of my goal. I want to live this adventure to the full, to be proud of myself. I'm not trying, in my approach, to be constantly surpassing myself without thinking. My approach is to respect myself, to rely on the fact that I know myself to discover abilities that I don't know. I wish to increase my potential through this adventure, it's important for me.
In sporting terms, I'd be very happy to finish in the top ten."
Ready to go
Like all the other competitors, it was hit hard by the health crisis while it was in the midst of preparations.
"It was a buffet stop in our preparation. Paradoxically, I experienced it very well. I realized something. In any case, whether we have time or not, I'll never be ready for this start, as I've never been at the start of a Vendée Globe. You want to be ready to be perfect, you always want to go further. If I were six months older, we would go even further with my team, we would continue to improve the boat. I understood that I would never be ready in a certain way when we had to stop sailing. And you have to accept that. I feel capable of going, even if I haven't trained as much as I would have liked. I feel ready, it's time for me."
Telling your adventure through podcasts
To share what she is experiencing, Isabelle and her team have set up a system of podscats in which she shares her adventure.
"Communicating for the sake of communicating is not my thing. But I do like to share what I'm going through in my gut. I'm gonna tell what I'm going through, how I'm going through it. It's not just what's going on. We've already started and it's very successful, it's different from what usually happens. It's kind of like, "In my head and in my boat."
His prognosis for the podium of the Vendée Globe??
I'm not interested.
