Manuel Cousin, 15th in the Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne

The skipper of Groupe SÉTIN crossed the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne this Thursday 16 July at 05h 00’ 29’’ (French time) after 11 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes and 29 seconds of racing.
He covered 3,168.72 miles at an average of 11.42 knots, which equates to 10.12 knots along the theoretical course (2,807 miles). Manu Cousin finishes 15th in the Vendée-Arctique- les Sables d’Olonne, 1 day 08 hours 16 minutes and 21 seconds behind the winner Jérémie Beyou on Charal.
It was a very formative Vendée – Arctique – Les Sables for Manu, who celebrated his 53rd birthday as he rounded the IOC-UNESCO waypoint to the south of Iceland. Despite a difficult introduction and a few technical issues along the way, the skipper of Groupe SÉTIN was immensely pleased to return to singlehanded offshore competition. The race comes as an added bonus in the finalising of his jobs list upon his return to Les Sables d’Olonne. On 8 November 2020, Manu Cousin will take the start of his first Vendée Globe!
INITIAL REACTION FROM MANUEL COUSIN
“I’m happy to have finished and to have done it and I’m especially pleased with the second part of the race, from the UNESCO buoy. I had some difficulty getting into the swing of things at the start. I had some technical issues and I was more focused on sorting them out rather than getting into the competition. After that, once things were under control, I could enjoy myself and go on the attack a bit with the boats of our generation.
I have lots of memories to take away from this. First of all, it was incredible to have been up to 62° North. I’d never experienced that before and then I rounded the waypoint on my birthday. There was a huge range of weather and that was very good for me as I was able to try out some different sail configurations. It was virtually the same length as a transatlantic but more complicated.
You always learn something on these boats. What’s clear is that I’m becoming increasingly familiar with my boat, I’m enjoying sailing her more and more, I’m beginning to get her sailing at her full potential and I’m finding the sweet spot with the throttle. It’s interesting. We’re validating things that were done over the winter and 98% of it is very positive. And even though I had some keel ram issues, we’ll be able to remedy that. It could have happened at the start of the Vendée Globe and that would have been more annoying. It was fantastic preparation, even though the Vendée Globe is another format. It did me good to sail in these extremely varied conditions.
There were lots of highlights. 62° North was particularly striking. I was surprised. I wasn’t cold. There were some moments in the drop down towards Gallimard where it was very quick. I felt solid and good on the boat, I was really happy. Clément (Giraud) and I were within sight of one another at the Gallimard mark. Then Arnaud and I saw one another on the AIS. It was a great battle. It drove us to push hard so it’s better than sailing all alone."
Teams infos
Casiraghi: Boris will push hard to the finish
One of the most interesting and impressive performances in this Vendée Globe has been by the German skipper, Boris Herrmann, on board Seaexplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco.
•••2021 Two-Boat Racing Schedule Unveiled by 11th Hour Racing Team
NEWPORT, Rhode Island (January 21, 2021) - 11th Hour Racing Team has unveiled the schedule for 2021 revealing the Team anticipates entering two boats into the 2021 IMOCA offshore sailing calendar of races, in the build-u…
•••Championship ranking
01 | ![]() | Boris HERRMANN
SEAEXPLORER - YACHT CLUB DE MONACO | 236 pts | |
02 | ![]() | Fabrice AMEDEO
NEWREST - ART & FENÊTRES | 217 pts | |
03 | ![]() | Jérémie BEYOU
CHARAL | 212 pts | |
04 | ![]() | Samantha DAVIES
INITIATIVES-CŒUR | 208 pts | |
05 | ![]() | Paul MEILHAT | 206 pts | |
06 | ![]() | Kevin ESCOFFIER
PRB | 195 pts | |
07 | ![]() | Yann ELIES | 192 pts | |
07 | ![]() | Charlie DALIN
APIVIA | 192 pts | |
09 | ![]() | Yannick BESTAVEN
MAITRE COQ IV | 187 pts | |
10 | ![]() | Thomas RUYANT
LINKEDOUT | 180 pts | |
11 | ![]() | Vincent RIOU | 157 pts | |
12 | ![]() | Clarisse CRÉMER
BANQUE POPULAIRE X | 150 pts | |
13 | ![]() | Arnaud BOISSIÈRES
LA MIE CÂLINE - ARTISANS ARTIPÔLE | 149 pts | |
14 | ![]() | Damien SEGUIN
GROUPE APICIL | 147 pts | |
15 | ![]() | Giancarlo PEDOTE
PRYSMIAN GROUP | 144 pts | |
16 | ![]() | Nicolas LUNVEN | 131 pts | |
17 | ![]() | Christopher PRATT | 128 pts | |
18 | ![]() | Stéphane LE DIRAISON
TIME FOR OCEANS | 127 pts | |
18 | ![]() | Sébastien SIMON
ARKÉA PAPREC | 127 pts | |
20 | ![]() | Maxime SOREL
V AND B - MAYENNE | 123 pts | |
21 | ![]() | Armel LE CLEAC'H | 114 pts | |
21 | ![]() | Manuel COUSIN
GROUPE SÉTIN | 114 pts | |
23 | ![]() | Alan ROURA
LA FABRIQUE | 111 pts | |
23 | ![]() | Eric PERON | 111 pts | |
25 | ![]() | Louis BURTON
BUREAU VALLÉE 2 | 105 pts | |
26 | ![]() | Pascal BIDEGORRY | 100 pts | |
26 | ![]() | Charlie ENRIGHT
11TH HOUR RACING | 100 pts | |
28 | ![]() | Davy BEAUDART | 97 pts | |
29 | ![]() | Antoine KOCH | 96 pts | |
30 | ![]() | Romain ATTANASIO
PURE - BEST WESTERN® | 92 pts | |
31 | ![]() | Roland JOURDAIN | 91 pts | |
32 | ![]() | Will HARRIS | 86 pts | |
33 | ![]() | Alex THOMSON
HUGO BOSS | 80 pts | |
34 | ![]() | Jean LE CAM
YES WE CAM ! | 68 pts | |
34 | ![]() | Nicolas TROUSSEL
CORUM L'EPARGNE | 68 pts | |
36 | ![]() | Yoann RICHOMME | 65 pts | |
37 | ![]() | Anthony MARCHAND | 64 pts | |
38 | ![]() | Ari HUUSELA
STARK | 60 pts | |
38 | ![]() | Isabelle JOSCHKE
MACSF | 60 pts | |
38 | ![]() | Miranda MERRON
CAMPAGNE DE FRANCE | 60 pts | |
38 | ![]() | Sébastien MARSSET | 60 pts | |
42 | ![]() | Guillaume LE BREC | 56 pts | |
42 | ![]() | Erik NIGON
COMPAGNIE DU LIT / JILITI | 56 pts | |
44 | ![]() | Alexia BARRIER
TSE - 4MYPLANET | 54 pts | |
45 | ![]() | François GUIFFANT | 49 pts | |
46 | ![]() | Xavier MACAIRE | 48 pts | |
47 | ![]() | Sébastien AUDIGANE | 47 pts | |
48 | ![]() | Benjamin DUTREUX
OMIA - WATER FAMILY | 44 pts | |
48 | ![]() | Thomas CARDRIN | 44 pts | |
48 | ![]() | Kojiro SHIRAISHI
DMG MORI GLOBAL ONE | 44 pts | |
51 | ![]() | Gildas MORVAN | 42 pts | |
52 | ![]() | Clément GIRAUD
L'ENVOL | 40 pts | |
53 | ![]() | Pip HARE
MEDALLIA | 38 pts | |
54 | ![]() | Halvard MABIRE | 34 pts | |
55 | ![]() | Joan MULLOY | 32 pts | |
56 | ![]() | Endt YSBRAND | 24 pts | |
57 | ![]() | Gwénolé GAHINET | 18 pts | |
58 | ![]() | Michael FERGUSON | 16 pts | |
58 | ![]() | Alain GAUTIER | 16 pts | |
60 | ![]() | Tolga Ekrem PAMIR | 12 pts | |
61 | ![]() | Stan MASLARD | 10 pts | |
62 | ![]() | Paul LARSEN | 8 pts | |
63 | ![]() | Hiroshi KITADA | 7 pts | |
64 | ![]() | Pierre CASIRAGHI | 6 pts | |
65 | ![]() |
Denis VAN WEYNBERGH
EYESEA.BE | 5 pts | |
66 | ![]() | Armel TRIPON | 4 pts | |
66 | ![]() | Arthur HUBERT | 4 pts | |
66 | ![]() | Richard TOLKIEN | 4 pts | |
66 | ![]() | Rune AASBERG | 4 pts | |
66 | ![]() | Morgan LAGRAVIERE | 4 pts | |
66 | ![]() | Neal MCDONALD | 4 pts | |
72 | ![]() | Lionel REGNIER | 3 pts | |
73 | ![]() | Pierre QUIROGA | 2 pts | |
... |