Start on November 8, 2020
The ninth edition of the Vendée Globe took place on Sunday 8th November 2020, more than an hour behind the official timing. As the fog made the race area illegible, the race directors therefore postponed the start to 14:20. A start marked by a line crossing too early for Louis Burton. The skipper of Valley 2 Office He will be subject to a 5-hour penalty which he will have to retrieve in the North Atlantic, before crossing the Equator.
If the conditions at the start did not allow us to see the latest generation of foilers in action, it is no longer necessary to demonstrate their incredible performance. And just as in the 2016 edition - which saw the advent of flying appendages on the IMOCA boats - this 2020 edition will be played out on several levels.
Several races in the race
With a fleet of 33 boats, 22 years old - TSE- 4myplanet the oldest ship in the fleet - one year old - Corum l'Epargne The most recently launched IMOCA, not all have the same objectives and possibilities.
A podium of foilers
In the opinion of the architects Quentin Lucet - from the VPLP firm - and Sam Manuard - from Sam Manuard Design - the winner of this edition will be a foiler. Today, with the latest generation foils, the speed gaps with daggerboard or small foils boats are impressive.
"Today, we've designed boats that have the ability to go really fast and much earlier. The difference in speed between a boat with straight daggerboards or with small foils is astronomical. There's about a 10-knot speed difference between an Archimedean boat and a 2020 generation boat." explains Quentin Lucet.
So it's hard for the oldest boats in the fleet to stay in the game. However, one thing remains to be seen: will the latest generation of foilers be capable of withstanding speeds of up to 30 knots in the long term? n?uds??
On this round-the-world trip, it will all be a question of dosage so as not to damage his machine. After all, the Vendée Globe is a race over time, and only half of the competitors manage to complete their round the world voyage.
If everyone is therefore unanimous about the victory of an IMOCA hydrofoil boat, it will not necessarily be the latest generation boats, but above all boats fitted with the latest generation foils.
Of the skippers questioned, the trio is often the same: Jérémie Béyou ( Charal ), Charlie Dalin ( Apivia ), Alex Thomson ( Hugo Boss ). Samantha Davies ( Initiatives-C?ur ) also won several votes, as did Thomas Ruyant ( LinkedOut ).
"There's a good chance the winner is a foiler. But you still have to look carefully at the boats from the previous generation, updated with 2020-type foils such as PBR , MACSF , SeaExplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco or Heart Initiatives. They're a little heavier than natively designed boats with foils, but they have very good performance." concludes Quentin Lucet.
The match between the small-foil boats..
In this category, we are talking about old generation boats updated with 2016 version foils, but much smaller than the 2020 generation: Newrest - Art&Fenêtres (Fabrice Amédéo), Master CoQ IV (Yannick Bestaven), the Mie Cuddle-Artisans Artipôle (Arnaud Boissières), The Factory (Alan Roura), Valley 2 Office (Louis Burton).
Although the shape of their foils clearly does not allow them to compete with the boats mentioned above, they can nevertheless do well, taking advantage of breakages or damage that can occur on the latest generation of foilers. Faster than daggerboard boats, they are able to stay in the race and keep pace even if the foil breaks. We saw that in 2016, Alex Thomson finished on the second step of the podium despite losing an appendage.
Drifting IMOCA, the most representative of the fleet
There are 15 daggerboard boats taking part in this ninth edition of the Vendée Globe. Although they are not as fast as the foilers, they do have a few cards to play, especially upwind. Reliable and sturdy, some of the boats have already completed several round the world voyages and have already been well tested by their previous skipper.
In this category, particular attention should be paid to Damien Seguin ( Apicil ) and Clarisse Crémer ( Banque Populaire X ) who had obtained good places in the pre-season races. In a pair with Armel le Cléac'h, Clarisse Crémer took 6th place and first place in the hydrofoilless boats. Jean Le Cam ( Yes We Cam! ) will also be monitored at the outposts of the drift boat fleet.
