You can see why Sam Goodchild is mulling over the issue of pacing himself in his first Vendée Globe.

Ringing in his ears are the experts predicting that he could make a podium in his first attempt at the solo round-the-world race, which starts from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday, despite being in a second-generation IMOCA.

But the 34-year-old skipper of Vulnerable  – the former LinkedOut from the Thomas Ruyant Racing stable – has to weigh all that against the imperative he feels to ensure that he gets round the course and finishes the race.

The trouble is, Goodchild usually can’t help himself. When he gets out on the open sea he only knows one way to sail, and that is full-on. He’s competitive to his fingertips and it’s hard to see how he will hold back when he gets into big conditions, especially the long ride through the Southern Ocean.

“To be honest, it’s one of the big unknowns for me in the Vendée Globe – how to find that balance between endurance and racing,”he said. “Obviously, when you’re racing across the Atlantic for 10 or 14 days, there is only one speed – you just go hard and that’s it. Whereas in the Vendée Globe, it's a bit different. From what I’ve heard, we go pretty hard down the Atlantic and then, when the first boat drops out, everyone slows down a bit.”

© © Pierre Bouras

So will he be surrendering to that FOMO feeling as he paces himself against race favourites in newer boats like TRR teammate Thomas Ruyant, Charlie Dalin, Jérémie Beyou, Yoann Richomme or Boris Herrmann? 

“I’m trying to hold that pressure off,” says Goodchild with a smile. “I’d quite like to just finish this race – complete it for starters. That’s what I’m saying now sitting on the dockside before the start and you’re laughing because you know the second I cross the start line, it’s going to be a whole different story. But I will definitely be trying to find that balance…”

After being dismasted in the New York Vendée-Les Sables d’Olonne race, Goodchild and his team have recovered well, installing a new rig and getting his boat in tip-top order for the challenge ahead. One small hiccup has been a fall from his bicycle five days before the start which has left him with a flesh wound in the palm of his right hand – not ideal just before two months alone at sea. The man himself seemed to shrug it off, saying he had been to the chemist to order the “bits” to fix it. “It’s going to be a pain but I need to make sure it doesn’t get infected basically,” he summarised.

Weatherwise, Goodchild – who is sporting a short back and sides for the race – is preparing for a getaway from Les Sables d’Olonne that will be easy on the hardware. “It’s looking like a very light and then downwind start,”he said. “What happens after that is a little bit unsure at the moment. It will either stay downwind, and we’ll take our downwind sails down at the Doldrums which would be nice. Or, we might have to go west to go round light winds off the coast of Portugal and go looking for the bottom end of a front.”

A few boats down the pontoon in the race village from Goodchild’s boat, Boris Herrmann’s unique-looking, VPLP-designed IMOCA, Malizia-Seaexplorer, has been making its own statement in the days up to the start. There has been nothing happening, no last minute prep from a team and a skipper who are on top of their game and quietly confident they can be a real threat in this race. So, after two second places in this season’s two solo transatlantic races, could the sailor from Oldenburg in northwest Germany become the first non-French skipper to win the Vendée Globe?

Team manager Holly Cova has no doubt Herrmann will be in the mix, underlining the importance of the work the team and their boat got through in last year’s Ocean Race. “His last two performances in the Atlantic really showed what Boris can do and where he can place,” said Cova. “Doing The Ocean Race was such a good proof of the boat, like nothing else. It’s the only way – like, when else do you get to sail in the Southern Ocean? When else do you get to push the boat with four sailors on board? You never push like that in a solo race, nor in training.”

© Jean-Marie LIOT

The Malizia team co-skipper Will Harris agrees, but also says Herrmann’s recent performances have changed the perception of him among his main rivals. “Going into the two transatlantics we weren’t expecting two podiums and I think they have given us a lot of confidence in what we’re doing,” he said. “And a lot of the other skippers would not have even considered Boris to be a contender before those races because they didn’t see him in that way. But now he has proved that the way he sails the boat, and the way the team operates, is actually pretty dangerous (effective). He was very consistent in those shorter races and the Vendée Globe is going to be another step ahead.”

Harris sees the main threat to Herrmann’s chances coming from Richomme – “a really, really, smart sailor” – and Ruyant in the two Antoine Koch/Finot Conq sisterships which Harris says are based on a “very smart design.”He rates Beyou and Dalin too but says both could blow out of this race.

“I would say Jérémie and Charlie have got to figure out how to keep their boats together the whole way round…” he said. “They both have this Figaro-esque style of being really hardcore racers and, when they get it right and the boat stays together, they win or do very well. But in a race like the Vendée Globe, you’ve got to get out of that mindset sometimes and think about the finish line. But, for sure there are 10 boats that can win this race.”

 

Ed Gorman