“One thing that’s for sure is that at the end of the Southern Ocean I did not sail like the normal Charlie. I tried to sail like Yoann – he kind of entered my mind at that time, I was losing ground and I tried to do some sailing the Yoann way, but it didn't work.
“I wrote that I needed to ‘empty myself’ (of the wrong thinking) and did a reset. I changed a few parts on the boat in anticipation, saying to myself that we need to change those parts because they will be required for the Atlantic. It was a reset for the boat and a reset for me psychologically speaking, knowing that the boat was configured well for the ascent of the Atlantic.
“After that I was able to think ‘sail how you want, like usual, and don't try to sail like Yoann. So I started sailing properly again.”
Outward bound
“Descending the North Atlantic it took some time for me to get everything right. I had a very good Bay of Biscay. I was first at Cape Finisterre and I took the right decisions. My intuition, my instincts were good, it was all happeningperfectly.
“But after Cape Finisterre, it kind of left me. I didn't sail very well. It was a little bit difficult. I didn't manage the low wind zone well and I took decisions that were not great. – I was not completely coherent with the weather.
“Then something changed with the doldrums. I was near Jérémie (Beyou) and at some point I started feeling things much more intuitively. In the doldrums the weather was not very stable and the weather files were not useful. At some point I was thinking, ‘if the wind is here, it will happen.’ And eventually it just came: I gybed and the wind changed as I thought it would. At that point in the doldrums, I kind of recovered my instincts and then it was easy for the descent of the south Atlantic.
“But then I lost it again when Yoann was catching up and doing things a little bit differently. I also lost it again later during the Southern Ocean until I recovered going back up the Atlantic and navigating like I wanted to, when my choices started working again.”
Ascent from the South
“I took some distance from Yoann to the east of him near the semi-permanent front off Cape Frio because I had the strong feeling it would be better that way. It's difficult to explain why – just a mix of satellite weather images, archives and some notes I had about the zone.
“It started going well again for me at that point, it's kind of the goal of all sports people to get back into the game, but in most disciplines the competition is too short to make it possible. You have the floor, and then you don't have it. But the Vendee Globe is such a long race that your flow comes and goes. I had it the beginning, then it left me for a while and then it came back.
“This is quite important because a bad choice of sails can be very detrimental. And changing the sails is difficult. You lose distance when you have the wrong sails, then you change and then sometimes the conditions change again. So when you start being a little bit behind with sail choice it's very difficult to get back in line with the weather. But this correct flow state was with me on the ascent of the Atlantic, when it was important.
“Having Starlink on board changes the weather data you are able to exploit. I think I have refined, fine tuned and improved the way I work the weather by processing more data, with higher quality and higher resolution files.”
You were speaking about your dual with Yoann, there's also Sebastian Simon that was a close competitor. What can you say about him?
“We knew that he was very good because he won the Solitaire du Figaro in 2018. It's great for him to be in the Vendée Globe again on a boat with fewer problems. I am quite impressed because I navigated on his boat from Newport, Rhode Island to Denmark last May in a crewed race. It's a boat designed for a team and is the opposite of my boat. My boat is designed for solo racing, but his built to be sailed by a crew and not at all for solo racing. So respect to him for beingable to manage this boat with systems, winch positions and the whole cockpit arrangement that’s not at all dedicated to solo racing.
“I think in his head, knowing that his boat had already gone around the world (as 11th Hour Racing), and that a crew driven it very hard before him, it must have taken some doubts away from his mind.
“He did some very good times in the South Atlantic – I imagine he told himself that he knew the boat was very solid and that it had survived with the full crew, so it could survive with a solo sailor. Maybe it kind of freed him from the worry of managed risk and he was able to fight stronger at that time. This boat is very quick, but the ergonomics are not at all thought out for solo sailing, so several times I told myself that he was managing really well.
We saw you celebrating your victory with your wife and son. What did Oscar tell you when he came up onto the boat this morning and how did you experience this Vendee Globe as a family?
“I'm so happy to see Oscar again – he is looking forward to showing me how well he reads and told me he can count up to 1,000 now. He has changed a lot. He had already changed a lot four years ago, but I think he has grown up quite a lot in over these two months – I'm so happy to see him and I'm looking forward to spending time with him and my wife to catch up on lost time.”
Does he realise what his father has achieved? “Yes and no. I think he sees that what happened today is not completely normal, but he's happy. I think he's just really happy to get his father with again. I don't think it's the victory that changes things for him.”
What’s next for you?
“I want to continue taking pleasure in doing races because we have a great panel of offshore races that exist today and I'm counting on continuing to navigate as long as possible.
“In the short term, I have some deadlines with MACIF. This year we will do the Jacques Vabre (Transat Cafe L'Or) and next year the Route du Rhum. Last time I finished second, so the next big objective is to win the Route du Rhum – therace is going to be an obsession for me. It will be my future. This is where I will put my energy now, and after that, it's a bit early to say. The Ultimes are incredible boats and I would like to go on one, maybe one day, but I don't know when.
“First of all, I'm going to enjoy this victory and work with it.”
