Thomson closes in on Vendee Globe history
Briton has a chance to win ‘Everest of Sailing’, having battled through major setbacks, writes Tom Cary
Alex Thomson was last night steadily closing on Armel Le Cléac’h as he seeks to become the first British sailor to win the iconic Vendée Globe, the solo unassisted round-the-world yacht race known as ‘the Everest of sailing’.
Thomson, who has had to sail for most of the race without one of his two foils, meaning he is handicapped when on port tack, was at one stage before Christmas nearly 900 nautical miles behind his French rival.
Last night, following a remarkable turnaround since the two skippers rounded Cape Horn and began their ascent of the Atlantic, the Briton’s boat,
Hugo Boss, had closed to within 100 nautical miles of Banque Populaire VIII with roughly five days remaining. The latest modelling software has the two boats arriving back into Les Sablesd’Olonne on the French Atlantic coast almost neck and neck on Thursday.
Dame Ellen MacArthur’s second place on Kingfisher in 2000/2001, which made her a household name in Britain as well as the youngest competitor to complete the voyage, at 24, remains the best finish by a Briton. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston won The Sunday Times Golden Globe, the inspiration for the Vendée Globe, in 1968/69.
This is Thomson’s fourth attempt at the gruelling race, in which skippers snatch sleep when they can as they battle across the world’s oceans. The 42-year-old from Bangor in Wales, who finished third in 2012/13, just behind Le Cléac’h – runner-up in the last two editions – believes victory could be a huge boost for sailing in the UK, with the French having won every race since the first in 1989/90.
“Ellen came second, obviously, and brought it to everyone’s attention,” he said. “Mike Golding came third. I’ve come third. It’s not going to be like when Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France. Suddenly every middle-aged man was wearing a Lycra skinsuit. But I think it will make a big difference to sailing in the UK if I could do it.
“The stories are amazing which come from this. The reason why the French really love it is because it is so pure, so unadulterated.”
If Alex Thomson completes one of the most remarkable comebacks in Vendée Globe history and becomes the first British winner of the solo round-the-world yacht race this coming week, it will not just be the fact that he has come back from nearly 1,000 nautical miles behind at Christmas that will be remarkable. The very fact that Thomson is in the race at all, and competitive, is extraordinary.
Thirteen months ago Thomson was woken from his sleep in what must rank as one of the most terrifying ways imaginable. A freak 18-metre wave had flipped his yacht, Hugo Boss, upside down in the Bay of Biscay, the cabin was filling with water, and Guillermo Altadill, his co-skipper in the Transat Jacques Vabre – a non-stop twohanded race from France to Brazil and back again – was screaming at him that they needed to get out and swim for it. They were 100 miles off the coast of Spain.
“We were very lucky. Neither of us had life jackets on. I just had thermals on,” Thomson recalled in an interview earlier this week from somewhere near the Cape Verde Islands. “Guillermo just dived off.” Thomson, fortunately for his coskipper, did not abandon ship. He managed to activate the motor which moves the canting keel, eventually getting the boat to right itself, whereupon Altadill clambered back on board. The episode, though, proved costly in other ways. “It was probably 90 seconds in total, but it gutted the boat,” Thomson said.
“It was two years’ of development work; probably €1.5 million. But what it really cost us was time; time on the water, time to prepare. It’s coming back from that – not just me but the whole team, which I am most proud about – regardless of what happens in the coming week.”
What happens in the coming week could be historic for British sport.
This morning, just over one year on from that accident, the Bangor-born sailor finds himself 110 or so nautical miles off the lead of the Vendée Globe, the solo, round-the-world yacht race which is sometimes called the Everest of Sailing.
It has been an extraordinary race. Nearly 1,000 miles behind Frenchman Armel Le Cléac’h’s Banque Populaire VIII on Dec 23 – and with Thomson’s starboard hydrofoil having been ripped off by an unidentified submerged object on Nov 19 – the race had looked to be over for the Briton.
From 100 miles ahead of his rival at the time of the collision, he had fallen two days behind in the Southern Ocean, labouring on port tack, his ‘weak’ side. But the 42-year-old has clawed his way back into contention since rounding Cape Horn, closing to within 80 miles of Le Cléac’h earlier this week after a much faster passage through the Doldrums. Now, with less than a week of sailing remaining – Thomson and Le Cléac’h are expected to arrive back in Les Sables d’Olonne on France’s Atlantic coast by Thursday – the sailing world is fast becoming glued to the live race tracker.
“Yeah, it’s pretty mad, isn’t it?” Thomson said. “I thought after I broke my foil that this race would be the most painful experience of my life. Normally in the Vendée the race is 50 or 60 per cent on port [tack] and 40 per cent on starboard tack. This one felt more like 80 per cent-20 per cent. Honestly, I was so handicapped. I really had to adjust my mindset.”
Thomson, of course, has been on the Vendée podium before, finishing third in the previous edition. But no Briton has ever won the race; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Thomson’s mentor and inspiration, won its forerunner, the Sunday Times Golden Globe race, in 1969, while Ellen MacArthur’s famous second-place finish in 2001 is the closest any Briton has come in the modern era.
Would it be a disappointment now, having battled so hard, to finish second?
“I’m trying not to even think about the finish,” Thomson said. “My family and friends are sending messages saying they are heading out [to Les Sables d’Olonne]. My wife and kids are getting excited. But I’ve got a job to do. My mindset is first of all it’s a privilege just to be in this race, full stop. I go back to one year ago, to when I was upside down in the Bay of Biscay. It required a huge amount of hard work from the entire team to get me even to the start line. Now we just have to keep our wits about us and hope we can finish the job.”