RECORD NUMBERS AT VENDÉE GLOBE
HOMENEWSINDUSTRY NEWSRECORD NUMBERS AT VENDÉE GLOBE
16 Mar 2021
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Yannick Bestaven won the Vendée Globe. Photo: Jean-Louis Carlia/ Alea
The 2020/21 Vendée Globe single handed sailing race saw record numbers of both starters and finishers with an unprecedented 76% of starters completing the round the world course.
Winner was Yannick Bestaven with his 2016 foiling boat ‘Maître CoQ IV’, in a race that saw 33 starters including the highest ever number of female starters (six women vs none in the 2016 race and two in 2012).
And there were the greatest number of finishers: 25 classified on the final rankings and two completing the course outside of the race after abandoning. The women’s record for the race was broken by Clarisse Crémer in 87d 02h 24m 25s, seven days faster than Ellen MacArthur in 2001.
This edition of the race saw foiling boats that were bigger and more powerful, offering a more rounded overall performance, or designed to engender a specific strength or performance profile with the latest generation of boats designed around the foils in terms of hull shape and structures.
Conditions
These new generation boats showed big spikes in speeds in certain conditions, however only two of these made it into the top ten, with Charlie Dalin first over the finish line, finishing second after time compensations and Thomas Ruyant fourth, again after time compensations due to the rescue of Kevin Escoffier after his boat split in two.
These two latest generation IMOCA boats had problems with their port foils due to different reasons but showed their speed on the sections of the race where they could use their starboard foils in favorable sailing conditions.
Older boats on which skippers were able to harness their full potential fared well. In addition to Yannick Bestaven’s win, Louis Burton, on Bureau Vallée 2, the former Banque Populaire d’Armel Le Cléac’h – the winner in 2016, took third place. Jean Le Cam on Yes We Cam with straight boards from 2008 took fourth place.
Boris Herrmann became the first German skipper to start and finish the race. Kojiro Shiraishi became the first Asian and Japanese skipper to finish the race.
Ari Huusela became the first Finnish and Nordic/Scandinavian skipper to start and finish the race in the top ten.