Paris (AFP)

They dream of going around the world alone, a crazy project matured for several years which should become reality in five months with the legendary Vendée Globe. Cut off too long from the sea due to confinement, the skippers are no longer able to resist the call of the open sea.

"Roll back the horizon of the Bay of Quiberon, give some air and symbolically make a first navigation in Vendée Globe mode": Armel Tripon has just spent a night at sea, his very first on his brand new boat (L 'Occitane), released from construction sites in February.

Frustrated by the confinement "like everyone at the start of a magnificent project", the navigator felt "a huge liberation from going back to sailing", as he explained to AFP on Friday as soon as he returned to dry land.

Tripon is one of the 35 candidates for the 9th edition of the Vendée Globe, a solo non-stop round-the-world race without assistance aboard Imoca-class boats (60-foot / 18.28 m monohulls) which should start from Sables-d'Olonne (Vendée) on November 8.

A large majority of the fleet has finally been able to leave the hangars. And the navigations are linked, in particular for the favorites and more particularly the last generation boats, called 'foilers' (equipped with foils, these lateral appendages which allow the sailboat to rise above the water to spin as s' he was flying).

- Flashbacks and depression -

This is the case of Charlie Dalin, who returned to his Imoca (Apivia, born in August 2019) after a few weeks when impatience turned into "species of flashbacks, memories of racing situations that dated back to the surface a bit randomly, it was quite amazing! "

His boat had been started in December, just after his victory on the Transat Jacques-Vabre (in duplicate with Yann Eliès) and would have come out on March 25 if it had not been for containment.

"We have to make progress on the reliability of the boat, last year we did the equivalent of half a world tour. This year, I would like us to approach half a Vendée Globe again, it's still playable. If we get there, we will be serene, "said the 36-year-old skipper.

Sébastien Simon, too, had not been at the helm of his 'foiler' (Arkea-Paprec, born in July 2019) for six months. It was time to take control!

"During the confinement, I worked on the substantive subjects, I studied a little all the way, but there I can not speak of weather and depression anymore! This period put me a lot of stress. And wait , I especially don't like that, "explains the Sablais, who" was a good month and a half late "when his monohull should have been released on April 20.

- Delay -

While Simon, Dalin and Tripon are bizuths of the extreme challenge of the Vendée Globe, others less novices are also hard at work. Jérémie Beyou (Charal), 3rd in the 2016/2017 Vendée Globe, is already testing the brand new foils of his latest generation boat, released two years ago.

The Imocas 'foiler' of the 2019 vintage of Briton Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) - who will participate for the fifth time in the Vendée Globe (2nd in 2016/2017) - and of Thomas Ruyant (Linkeout), of which it will be the second Vendée Globe, have returned to sea.

He is a virgin from all around the world and skipper of the latest addition to the Imoca family: Nicolas Troussel (Corum L'Epargne) discovered his machine since May 4, seven weeks behind schedule.

"We are still in the tests, not yet in performance. The next step is to bring the boat into deeper seas to check its solidity," said Troussel, who must also qualify for the Vendée World.

Of the 35 candidates, 27 are officially registered, 11 have yet to finalize their qualification (4 have to run the equivalent of a solo recliner and 7 have a 2000-mile solo course).

A prologue race, Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne, could start on July 4.

© 2020 AFP