Concarneau (France) (AFP)
Boats are increasingly crammed with electronics or can almost fly.
The fact remains that the Vendée Globe, whose 2020-21 edition starts on Sunday in Les Sables d'Olonne, remains "an extraordinary adventure", believe François Gabart and Michel Desjoyeaux, former winners of the test.
As in every edition, ships seem to have made a technological leap.
This should mark a new speed record thanks to the "foils", which raise the boat above the water, while some teams have around fifty people.
The Vendée Globe, an adventure for solo sailors, really?
"Yes there is technique, yes there is an automatic pilot, yes we are protected (in cockpits), but the role of the sailor remains omnipresent!", Launches François Gabart, winner in 2013 in 78 days and who makes now part of Charlie Dalin's team (Apivia).
"Perhaps the adventure has evolved, but the adventure is to leave in a story without knowing how it will happen", philosopher the 37-year-old sailor.
For Michel Desjoyeaux, 55, the only two-time winner of "Everest of the Seas", in 93 days for the 2000-01 edition and in 84 days in 2008-09, it should "not be underestimated" , even if "a whole bunch of systems help to be more efficient".
- Aircraft cockpit -
At the navigation station, numerous computer screens or a television screen projecting the bow of the boat give the air of an airplane cockpit, impermeable to external elements.
"But the idea of being protected is not new! If we look at the history of the Vendée Globe, from the first edition, there were closed cockpit strategies, with bubbles, where the sailor could take out the head without being outside ", emphasizes François Gabart.
Michel Desjoyeaux also points to sailors "better and better trained and more and more competitive".
"When the first Vendée left, on the pontoon where I was, we wondered how many would fit in," he recalls.
Media imperatives also existed twenty years ago, recalls Michel Desjoyeaux.
"In 2000, we sent photos regularly: it even allowed me to make the front page of the Team with the passage of Cape Horn!".
“And we would record videos on small cassettes, we would + erase it,” we edited and we sent ... Now it's easier! ”He laughs.
- "A mechanical sport" -
While some wonder about the presence one day of a webcam 24/24 on the boats, François Gabart wonders "if it is not good to keep a part of mystery and not to tell everything".
For "Tabarly in the 1970s, there was no communication, that leaves a part of the imagination. But it is also incredible to be able to share what one lives at sea. We must find a balance", judge he.
Another development: an increased presence of female sailors and foreigners, whereas during the first edition in 1989, no woman had participated and only French people had arrived safely in Les Sables d'Olonne.
"The practice of solo offshore racing has long been a Franco-French exercise. The Anglo-Saxon countries, which are great sailing countries, still look at us a little askance but the Ellen MacArthur, Mike Golding and Alex Thomson made it possible to internationalize "the race, notes Michel Desjoyeaux.
And when we talk to the "Professor" about the increase in participants' budgets, he jumps.
"It's a mechanical sport, there is no choice! Whether a boat costs 1.5 million (euros) as in 2000 or 6.5 million as now, as long as the benefits are greater than 'investment ... These are hours of work in France, not in Sri Lanka, and it advances technology ", which can benefit, for example, yachting, he underlines.
The two sailors are eager to follow the race to see who will succeed Armel Le Cleac'h on the winners.
"There are great boats and new boats that can go very quickly, this Vendée Globe is going to be great," François Gabart salivates.
© 2020 AFP