Romain Attanasio: “What's hard about this race is that you spend three months wondering when it's going to blow up in your face.”

The days are very busy! At the time, when it happens, I say to myself “Fuck, that will be no Vendée for me”. I was desperate, everything was falling apart. I’m used to it though, I talk about it every time in my seminars about how to manage hazards. On my first Vendée, it was a rudder, on the second the mainsail traveller. In the end, there’s always a solution, it’s something I learned. But at the time, that doesn’t stop you from being there on the deck, head down, it lasts five minutes. And then fortunately, you get back into the action and roll up your sleeves. In our misfortune, we were also able to take full advantage of a fantastic wave of solidarity. We launched a crowd funding that worked really well, thanks to everyone who helped us, and then on the skippers’ side too, it was really strong. There's Maxime Sorel who sold me his spare mast, Boris Herrmann, who gave me equipment, the whole team was all in, our partners responded to help pay the bill. We got back on track. So here we are there is a third Vendée Globe, that's for sure. Well, as sure as you can be in ocean racing. We’ll be working to the end.

There are so many unexpected events in this profession where you always have to plan everything in advance, it's paradoxical. What's funny is that I had never been so ready, and then actually no. This summer, I was really relaxed for the first time, maybe it's a karmic thing, because I saw some people training and I told myself that it was good this time not to have to be in a scrap to be ready until the last minute. So let's say that: I've never been so unready, not ready at all, and I'm trying to take it as philosophically as possible!

The first Vendée Globe was really for the adventure, the second I wanted to attack but I had too  many technical problems for that, so I had time to think. Fifteen days before arriving in Les Sables d'Olonne, right when we could sense the team, I was already doing my calculations and sending messages on the water to Boris Herrmann to buy his boat! It's a project that I set up before I even finished. 

Not great at first, since Boris had his accident 90 miles from the finish in Les Sables, a collision with a fishing boat that had damaged the boat, so it started with a nice job, and then a handover in May 2021. The first navigation was done in 5 knots of wind and I thought "easy". The second was in 15-20 knots, we instantly started flying like crazy, and there I honestly said to myself: "What have I done, I'll never manage this alone!" But that was exactly why I wanted to get the boat early, to have three years to get used to it. And now, when the boat flies I go to sleep, which shows that you get used to everything (laughs)!

It has nothing to do with a normal boat, you have to imagine that I am aiming for a race taking a whole month less than my first Vendée Globe, the speed difference is amazing, and how much more we push the boat and the sailor. By sailing, I have gotten used to the harshness, but it is true that we suffer physically. I sail with a helmet, earplugs, there are shocks that flatten your vertebrae, if you have your mouth open you feel your organs shaking. So yes, of course, we wonder what it will do to the body 75 or 80 days like that. But I'm not that apprehensive, and somewhere I'm excited to go back into the unknown. My second Vendée Globe was relatively comparable to my first, now I'm diving back into the new.

Ah, that's the big, big question, why are we going. I think there's no other reason to do the Vendée Globe than to climb Everest for a mountaineer: because it's the highest, the symbol of one of the most difficult things to accomplish. On the other hand, it's true that mountaineers rarely climb Everest twice, or even three times, while we sailors like to go back there in the Vendée. I wouldn't have done it three times with “le pingouin’ my first IMOCA, there's no point in doing it again if you don't raise the level of what you expect from yourself.

I don't know! I've been in the top ten in almost every race, I'm struggling to go higher. This boat has already had two editions of the Vendée Globe, I'm being dropped by the more recent IMOCAs, so it's hard to aim higher... but in the South my boat is a 4x4, I hope to be able to push it a little more than the others! In fact, I think that to sum up the idea, I'm going there to have the feeling of being in Ligue 1, I'd be disappointed if that wasn't the case.

Yes and no. There's one thing I've never forgotten, a call from Thierry Dubois, three weeks before my finish of my first Vendée Globe. He told me that he had seen Bernard Stamm a few days ago, that they were talking about their Vendée Globe, the fact that they had never finished and that it was a huge frustration. And he ended like: "all that to say that we don't care about the result, you have to finish". I remember hanging up, and I had gone out to take a reef (laughs)! I want to get to Les Sables, that's for sure. What's hard about the Vendée Globe is that you spend three months wondering when it's going to blow up in your face, it's a long time without clenching your teeth, but I hope to find where to place the cursor!

Everything has changed in four years, the budget is much bigger. My first Vendée Globe was done with regional SMEs in support, now there are two big American international companies that I don't want to disappoint. I have more pressure than eight years ago, of course, there will be more people on the line too.

I try to remain the smiling, happy go lucky guy, but honestly it's not easy with this boat. It's super demanding, we have less time for that, there's a headache, it's hard to stay fresh and spontaneous. By the very nature of progressing and with more experience now I suppose I am not as green, not as candid. But I want to keep this honesty, I'm not at all into psychological games. When I break something, I say so. Despite the difficulty, I try to tell what's happening as sincerely as possible. I don't know what awaits me, but I know that what I will communicate will be only the truth. It's super important to me.