Thomas Ruyant : "It's not the ranking we were expecting"
After finishing seventh in the Vendee Globe, Thomas Ruyant (VULBERABLE) talked about the challenges he faced, while also expressing pride in his team's efforts and the level of competition in this edition of the race. He also reflected on his path as a skipper and on the exceptional performance of the top competitors.
Vendée Globe :
We had maybe imagined seeing you disappointed, but when we heard you on the pontoon, it was a happy man arriving.
Yes, I was looking forward to this - so there’s a lot of joy, a lot of pride. I'm very proud of my team and I'm proud of myself also because, like for many boats and many competitors, I had many issues and I managed to keep my energy from the beginning until the end.
Some were better than I was and did an incredible race. There were a lot of emotions. It was hard at times and there were some wonderful moments. Many things happened during this circumnavigation - that's what I will remember.
It's not the ranking we were expecting - if you had told me at the beginning that I would be seventh, I would not have signed, but that would have been stupid and I don't regret anything.
Vendée Globe :
At which point did you finally switch your mental state from disappointment to be happy, despite it all?
What's good is that this race is long. So you have the time to grieve and to regroup and to move on to something else. It's not always easy and there were some difficult choices. At the beginning of the Indian Ocean there was the big depression that brought Charlie a big lead. But with hindsight I don't regret it because for me the necessary choice was to preserve the boat and I thought there would be many opportunities to catch up.
That was not really the case in the end, but the six skippers in front sailed in an exceptional way. That differentiates the Vendee globe that I did in 2020 and this one – the level of the game, the intensity, the level of the boats, the teams and the sailors has increased a lot. I did not stop for one minute - I was pressing hard from the start to the finish.
Vendée Globe :
Were there problems that you didn't tell us about and that you could share now?
No, I'm not the type to hide problems on board. I spoke about them during the race. There were two quite frightening moments during the race.
The J2 headsail ripped at the worst part of the race before the ascent of the Atlantic, which had a lot of close hauled sailing this year. That was something I had not anticipated at all – the wind came up really fast and very quickly between 50 to 60 knots and the sail was shredded to pieces.
That was really a hard moment - I had to rethink my strategy and lost a lot of time. The group behind caught up and overtook me. So I needed to keep my morale and finish the race despite this.
I also had a few scares with a total blackout in the South that was a little bit my fault because I did not charge my batteries at the right moment. You can imagine with 25-30 knots in reaching conditions and the boat stops, the lights go out, all the screens are blank and the pilot stops working.
I had to take the tiller, steering by feel for two hours, with everything turned off while the hydro generators put power back in the battery. That was difficult - I was steering by sensations and couldn't see anything because it was dark.
You never know what's going to happen in the Vendée Globe. It's an exceptional race and that's why I'm not disappointed - just to finish is already a great victory. Although when I left, and while we prepared with the team, we were expecting another result, we are not allowed to be disappointed because we were lucky to be able to take the start on magical seas and experience exceptional moments.
Vendée Globe :
Have you learned things about yourself? You knew where your limits were, but have you learned things?
Yes. I'm not the same as skipper as in 2020. We have a knowledge of the boats that is finer, more precise and we can deal with speeds more. I could never have finished in this time four years ago. The whole fleet that has progressed and has moved up a lot in terms of navigating around the world and all these incredible boats.
