Vendée Globe 2024: only one former winner, 15 beginners, 6 women… the list of 40 skippers at the start

A record number, even before the first legs of this Vendée Globe: 40. There will be forty skippers on the starting line in Les Sables-d’Olonne this Sunday noon, hoping to complete their solo round the world tour, without stopover or assistance and by the three reference capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn), at the end of a journey of 24,300 miles, or 45,000 km. And, for the cream of them, to dream of imitating Yannick Bestaven, winner in 2021, or even Armel Le Cléac’h, winner in 2017 and record holder for the event in 74 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes.

For this 10th edition, 15 of the 40 skippers entered are lining up in their first Vendée Globe. The fleet only has one former winner, Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq). The Rochelais won four years ago after a journey full of twists and turns marked in particular by a departure in the middle of the Covid epidemic and by a diversion after the shipwreck of sailor Kevin Escoffier, which allowed him to benefit from a bonus of 10:15 a.m. and to finally get ahead of Charlie Dalin, who arrived before him.

The last winner is a contender for the double, even if other skippers seem a little better armed, like Dalin (Macif), Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable) and Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa), who shared all the victories over the preparation races.

The Vendée Globe has always been won by a Frenchman, but three foreigners could well make history this time: the German Boris Herrmann (Malizia – SeaExplorer) and the British Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) and Samantha Davies (Initatives-Coeur) . In total, a record 11 nationalities will be represented – compared to 9 in 2020 – for a new peak of internationalization, attracting 14 foreign skippers, or more than a third of the fleet, symbolizing this growing openness.

Violette Dorange (Devenir), 23 years old and the youngest on the field, is one of the six women involved, an identical number to the previous edition. For his part, Jean le Cam (Everything begins in Finistère – Armor-Lux), 65 years old, is the oldest skipper. “King Jean” will compete in his 6th Vendée Globe, thus improving the mark of Briton Alex Thomson, five editions under the clock. The first competitors will be expected to arrive in Les Sables-d’Olonne in mid-January 2025.