The 2024-’25 Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race has not only attracted the largest ever field – with 40 skippers on the startline – it also promises to be one of the most competitive races in the history of the event going back to 1989.

Predicting a finishing order in the top-10 is hard enough, let alone the top-five or the podium in a field replete with highly accomplished skippers often on immaculately-prepared new boats or well-proven older ones. 

In short, the Vendée Globe, the 10th edition of which starts from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday, has grown steadily more competitive over the years and achieving even a top-10 finish has got harder as standards across the IMOCA fleet have risen. 

This will be another punishing race in which the leading boats are expected to circumnavigate faster than ever before, smashing the current 74-day race record. Key variables like racing skill, boat reliability, weather management, skipper self-management, and good and bad luck will determine the outcome.

The top contenders this year are led by five skippers, each of whom could prevail in what is now a mythical race that has made legends of its past winners. 

 

Charlie Dalin: The 40-year-old MACIF Santé Prévoyance skipper starts as many people’s favourite, having returned from a bout of ill-health to post impressive results in his new Guillaume Verdier-designed foiler, finishing fourth in the The Transat CIC and winning the New York Vendée-Les Sables d’Olonne race. Dalin has unfinished business in the Vendée Globe having been pipped on corrected time by Yannick Bestaven last time out after taking line honours. He has the boatspeed, the experience and a team behind him to go one better this time round.

Yoann Richomme: One of the most exciting newcomers to solo racing in IMOCA of the last two years, 41-year-old Richomme – a two-time Figaro champion – has proven to be a highly competitive skipper at the helm of his new Antoine Koch/Finot Conq-designed foiler. He may lack experience on the solo global course, but the Paprec Arkéa skipper demonstrated, when winning The Transat CIC and the subsequent Retour à la Base, that he can live with the best in the Class and beat them. A tough, modest, committed sailor, Richomme is a potential winner first time out.

Jérémie Beyou: Like several of his rivals, the 48-year-old Charal skipper has a point to prove in this race after a heart-breaking start to the last Vendée Globe saw him return to Les Sables d’Olonne for repairs to his boat and then sail the race in the mid-fleet ranking, finishing 13th. With two abandonments in earlier Vendée Globes, and having finished third in 2016-’17, Beyou is driven to push himself to the top of the podium. With a well-funded team behind him, on a fully optimised and highly technical new Sam Manuard-designed boat, Beyou has been a regular on the podium in recent races without winning. Could this Vendée Globe be the moment the three-time Figaro winner finally fulfils his dream on the global racecourse?

Thomas Ruyant: The team leader of the Thomas Ruyant Racing team at the helm of his new Vulnerable (sistership to Yoann Richomme’s Antoine Koch/Finot Conq-design), Ruyant is a gritty, committed and skilled solo skipper with all the experience and resilience to win this Vendée Globe. Last time out he was always in or around the top-three on his second attempt at the race, but then fell away in the closing stages to finish a disappointing sixth. Expect him to pull out all the stops to do better this time. Ruyant knows how to win, with victories in two Transat Jacques Vabres (2023 and 2021) and the Route du Rhum in 2022. 

Boris Herrmann: The only German in the fleet who will be starting his second Vendée Globe, has been the surprise package of the last 12 months with a string of brilliant performances on his much-optimised VPLP foiler, Malizia-Seaexplorer. This boat finished third in The Ocean Race and is a proven performer in the Southern Ocean while Herrmann himself, 43, has demonstrated he has the stamina and skills to compete at the highest level against rivals like Dalin and Beyou. After finishing fourth in the Retour à la Base, he was second in both the Transat CIC and the New York Vendée-Les Sables d’Olonne. With a fifth place finish in the last Vendée Globe, he has the experience to reach the podium or better this time.

After these five come two more skippers who are each capable of making the podium, while a victory is an outside possibility.

Sam Davies: The veteran British soloist is starting her fourth Vendée Globe and remains focused on trying to better her performance in her first crack at this race in 2008-’09 when she finished fourth. Last time out Davies had to stop in South Africa after a big crash with an unidentified object in the water, but then completed the course at the back of the fleet to great acclaim. Since then she has been proving that with a new boat – the Sam Manuard-designed Initiatives-Coeur 4 – she can be on the pace with the best of her male rivals and has been consistently in the top-10, with a best finish of third in The Transat CIC. Davies has all the experience to finish as top female in this race and could make the podium for the first time.  

Sam Goodchild: Another Brit, but this time one at the start of his Vendée Globe career, Goodchild is a real wildcard in this fleet. The 34-year-old former Ocean Fifty champion, burst onto the IMOCA scene by winning the IMOCA Globe Series Championship in 2023 with a string of podium finishes. Goodchild sails for the Thomas Ruyant Racing team and has benefitted from all the experience in that organisation as he has prepared for his first Vendée Globe campaign. Although his boat – the former LinkedOut, now named Vulnerable – is older than those of his main rivals, Goodchild has the expertise and experience to drive it close to its maximum for days on end. The podium or a win is a tall order for him in a race against newer boats but if anyone can make it, it is this tough, modest and no-nonsense competitor from Falmouth.

After these skippers, there are several more who will be in contention not just for the top-10 but as outside contenders for a podium. They include Maxime Sorel at the helm of his new V and B-Monbana Mayenne, Justine Mettraux of Switzerland on TeamWork-Team SNEF, Nico Lunven on Holcim-PRB, Louis Burton on Bureau Vallée, Paul Meilhat on Biotherm, Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil and defending champion Yannick Bestaven on Maître CoQ V. Other sailors battling for the top-10 in older boats include Clarisse Crémer in L'Occitane En Provence, Damien Seguin on Groupe APICIL, Benjamin Dutreux on Guyot Environnement-Water Family, Giancarlo Pedote of Italy on Prysmian, the Franco-German skipper Isabelle Joschke on MACSF, and Pip Hare of Great Britain on Medallia.

In the daggerboard fleet, meanwhile, the leading contenders will include Benjamin Ferré on Monnoyeur-Duo for a Job and his mentor Jean Le Cam on his new Tout Commence en Finistère-Armour Lux. At the age of 65, this will be Le Cam’s sixth Vendée Globe – an incredible feat on its own – and, after finishing fourth last time out in a non-foiling boat, who is to say the “King” will not out-sail himself again and make the top-10? Other daggerboard contenders include Tanguy Le Turquais on Lazare, Violette Dorange on DeVenir and Louis Duc on Fives Group-Lantana Environnement and Sébastien Marsset on Foussier.

Ed Gorman