“That’s it, it’s hot!” » Violette Dorange’s smile can be heard at the other end of the line, while the young skipper recounts her joy at having “swapped boots and raincoat for shorts and bra”. After almost a week of racing, the youngest sailor in the 2024 edition of the Vendée Globe and Becomeits 18 m monohull (Imoca) are “already at the latitudes of the Canaries”and left behind them the frost of the French winter, to head south.
Until then, the start of this solo non-stop and unassisted sailing trip around the world, which will take him 45,000 km from one end of the globe to the other, is not, strictly speaking, solitary. . “Since the start of the race, there have always been two or three competitors within sight, which is quite rare in offshore racing. We’re not side to side, but I just need to take my binoculars to see a small sail.”relates the 23-year-old skipper. Because after having cleared the Spanish Cape Finisterre and its formidable winds and set sail towards the Canaries, “the fleet is very compactnotes Violette Dorange. And it will become even more so, because there is less wind ahead. »
Saturday November 16, at the start of the day, the sailor from La Rochelle was at 17e place of the now 39 competitors of the “Everest of the seas”. Disabled by an ankle injury and mainsail problems, Maxime Sorel (V and B – Monbana – Mayenne) signed, on Friday, the first withdrawal from the 2024 edition. “I’m still in the game with my competitors, the other boats with straight daggerboards, so things are going pretty well for me”breathes Violette Dorange.
“Be at your best all the time”
If she let the foilers fly away and their lateral appendages allowing them to rise above the water – long leader, Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) and her pursuing pack are ahead of her by almost 110 nautical miles (200 km), Violette Dorange is satisfied with having passed the great Spanish cape without incident – and without damage, “where there was a lot of wind”. Having opted for a route to the west, far from the DST [dispositif de séparation de trafic] et “his incessant maneuvers” between the cargo ships, he succeeded. Its more conservative choice – because it increases the distance traveled – than the majority of its competitors was “rather advantageous, in the end”because the young woman found winds to the west, where the fleet was slowed down by a depression near Morocco.
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