Vendee Globe: A Walk Through the Dock with Conrad Colman – Understanding the Various IMOCA60s
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 31 Oct 16:12 PDT
Paprec Arkea (FRA) – Yoann Richomme is among the frontrunners for the 2024 Vendee Globe in Lorient, France © Jean-Louis Carli
Conrad Colman, originally from New Zealand, educated in the USA, and now residing in France, is one of 40 entrants from 10 countries in the upcoming Vendee Globe. He provides a lively commentary in English while taking a dockwalk around the marina in Lorient, explaining the IMOCA60 fleet.
For those unfamiliar with the IMOCA60 class, they are akin to the AC75s in the world of transoceanic racing, utilized in various shorthanded races, including transatlantic competitions and the challenging 3500nm race to the Arctic Circle. These boats will also participate for the second time in the upcoming The Ocean Race, which will see a significant increase in women’s sailing with six female sailors competing based on merit in open fleet racing. Two of these sailors are currently ranked among the top five in IMOCA60 season points.
The aim of this class is to eliminate redundancy from boats with each racing variant—this is evident in the Vendee Globe fleet, comprising a diverse mix of boats that have been developed and raced in prior editions, alongside new IMOCA60 designs created for this race. Colman’s boat, MS Amlin, is one of the older models that was deemed too light, prompting the addition of a new carbon skin to enhance hull stiffness and prevent bending under rig loads as part of the race preparation.
Newer boats have opted for full crew protection and enclosure, with Colman humorously noting that “the crew races in their pajamas.” In contrast, older boats use semi-foiling techniques with dagger boards, while others employ striking scimitar-shaped side foils, which lift the hull out of the water in foiling conditions. Dagger board vessels may be more adaptable than fully foiling boats, which depend on favorable weather to gain an early lead over the fleet.
This marks Colman’s fifth solo or double-handed circumnavigation, having encountered everything from capsizing and dismasting to falling overboard and suffering electrical fires. He applies his rich experiences to managing MS Amlin during this race, while also highlighting the unique characteristics of the Vendee Globe fleet during his dockwalk.
During the dockwalk, Colman identifies various features of the boats, discusses upgrades, and reveals the different strategies employed in short-handed sailing. This discipline proves to be as technically demanding, albeit on a smaller scale, as the recent America’s Cup. Additionally, he outlines innovative crew protection measures—such as berths equipped with seat belts, specially designed seats with shock absorbers, and fully adjustable angles—emphasizing the serious risks of sailing without such protections, as evidenced by a sailor who suffered a broken neck after impact with a bulkhead.
The Vendee Globe is set to begin in ten days from Lorient. Based on observations during the dockwalk, many boats appear well-equipped with communication systems offering three levels of redundancy, among other features, including onboard cameras.
Although the Vendee Globe is incredibly popular in Europe, it lacks substantial viewership in the Southern Hemisphere, apart from incidents like capsizes in the Southern Ocean. This is likely to change in the current edition, as more English-speaking competitors are participating, sharing reports and videos. Predictwind is collaborating with the race to provide valuable weather and routing information, enhancing the race’s accessibility and viewer engagement compared to previous editions.
Hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to gather in Lorient for the race start, making the Vendee Globe the most-watched event in sailing.
In the last edition, which coincided with the final week of the 2021 America’s Cup, the Vendee Globe even surpassed the Cup in viewership, as two single-handed sailors engaged in a match race to the finish after covering 24,000nm over 80 days at sea.
For enthusiasts of solo sailing who prefer to stay dry, a virtual race offers an opportunity to compete against the 40-boat fleet and hundreds of thousands of like-minded sailors for the over 80-day duration of the actual race.
