It’s a surprising statistic, given how tough winning the Vendée Globe is, that in six of the nine races to date a rookie has been the winner.

It’s a small but important detail in the historical record but it means there is no reason why a sailor like Yoann Richomme, the skipper of Paprec Arkéa, could not win this 10th edition at the first time of asking.

Richomme, 41, has come to the race after a superb build-up, with second place in the last Transat Jacques Vabre and then wins in both the Retour à la Base and the Transat CIC. His career record before that includes the small matter of two overall victories in the Solitaire du Figaro. 

It all adds up to a solo sailor right on top of his game who has an excellent boat under him – the latest design from the boards of Antoine Koch and Finot Conq – an experienced team behind him and someone who fully justifies his status as a pre-start favourite.

© Marin LE ROUX - polaRYSE

Meeting him on board his boat four days before the start at the busy race village in Les Sables d’Olonne, Richomme looks as fit as a fiddle and you sense the laser-like focus he has on this prize. But he also comes across as relaxed and at ease with the world on the eve of his biggest challenge.

Asked about being among the favourites alongside Charlie Dalin, Boris Herrmann, Jérémie Beyou and Thomas Ruyant, Richomme tackles the issue head-on. “I don’t really mind it,” he says. “I try not to listen to it. Obviously the only thing I know is that we’ve had some good results and we definitely deserve this title of being among the favourites. It doesn’t mean anything new though – all the points are back to zero for everyone and this is another race and I take it on as a new race.” 

The married father of two believes there are five or six potential winners of this Vendée Globe. And he reckons there is going to be an intense early phase of the race, when the pecking order will be established amongst the fastest boats, as they make their way southwards in what could be light winds all the way to the Equator. There can be little doubt that the Paprec Arkéa skipper will be in the thick of it.

© Eloi Stichelbaut - polaRYSE / Paprec Arkea

“You always want to be at the front in case there is a breakaway, so it is always a fight to stay at the front. At the same time, it is going to be a long race and there might be some re-starts and you don’t want to miss the one opportunity that is going to make the breakaway. It means it’s going to be intense for the first few weeks, at least until it stretches a little in the fleet,” he said.

Richomme seems to have no fears about what will be his first taste of the Southern Ocean. Bring it on! might sum it up. “I think we've got a great boat for the Southern Ocean,” he said. “It is very heavy-air downwind orientated, so it is fast in those conditions and very safe. I like sailing in heavy weather as well. I don’t see where the problem is,” he adds laughing. “Maybe I won’t say the same thing when I come back. But no, I think we are well prepared for it.”

So what would it mean for this sailor, with a glittering career already behind him, to add a victory in the Vendée Globe to his record of achievement? Again, Richomme is not afraid to talk about his dream. “It would be phenomenal, for sure, to win it,”he said. “I try not to visualise it because it’s such a long way away and it takes so many little details to get to that part, so I try to work bit-by-bit. 

“So I don’t particularly think about it, but the Vendée Globe is definitely a kind of logical goal for me, with what I’ve done and the races I’ve won before,”he continues. “It would be great to add it to my pedigree. But to me it’s just racing – it’s fine if I don’t (win it), it doesn’t matter, it’s not going to change my life. I hope it’s not going to change my life either way – I don’t want it to change my life…”

Among those with the best credentials to get to the finish line ahead of Richomme is Dalin, the man who was pipped on corrected time by Yannick Bestaven last time out after taking line honours in his first Vendée Globe. The Macif Santé Prévoyance skipper is another character who is taking this race very much in his stride. In Dalin’s case the confidence is built from having done the race once already.

“I’m not feeling stressed,” he said, talking on the crowded pontoon next to his boat. “I’m OK. I’ve done it already and I’ve demystified it. It’s like when you do your first jump from the high board in the swimming pool. When you go the second time, you don’t think about it so much. I feel like that about the race at this moment.”

Dalin too has had a good build-up, winning the New York Vendée-Les Sables d’Olonne race and the Défi Azimut 48 Hours, two races that demonstrated that his new Guillaume Verdier design is fast in all conditions. And he is looking forward to the challenge of the Southern Ocean in a boat that, as he put it, is an “improved version”of his old IMOCA, Apivia, (now L’Occitane En Provence sailed by Clarisse Crémer).

“Macif should be much better at attacking big sea states and also the ergonomic improvements we have made are the result of my first experience of the Vendée, so I am looking forward to spending a long time racing and also living on the boat and seeing how of all this works,”he said.

Dalin is looking forward to taking on the likes of Richomme, Beyou and Ruyant and you can tell he’s feeling confident. “Yeah, we had a preview of this in the first leg of the Azimut, when we had all the boats flying at 30 knots, so we are probably going to be doing something quite similar in this race,”he said.

As for the start, the Macif Santé Prévoyance skipper says it could be a very slow getaway from the French coast, something which could be a real nail-biter for skippers desperate not to be left behind. Then it’s looking downwind for hundreds of miles. “Once we get some breeze, we will be downwind most of the way to the Doldrums in not much wind, apart from at Cape Finisterre where we might have 24 hours of up to 30 knots,” said Dalin. “So we’ll have to be careful there and the rest looks more like medium conditions.”

Our short interview came at the end of a busy afternoon of media and sponsor commitments for Dalin who looked completely relaxed throughout. As we talked, we were overlooked by hundreds of race fans eager to see the man many predict will win this race at the second time of asking.

Ed Gorman