Yannick BESTAVEN Maître CoQ IV

It took a lot of patience for Yannick Bestaven to be able to take once again the start of his Graal, the Vendée Globe, after an attempt aborted in the Bay of Biscay in 2008. Dismasting just a few hours in the race suddenly broke all his dreams of going round-the-world. Instead of lamenting his misfortune, the sailor from La Rochelle chose the business world while focusing his sailing on more affordable Class40. That is how nearly all the Vendée Globe monohulls have taken with them a part of his know-how when installing the Watt&Sea company’s hydrogenerators.

It is actually the skipper’s abilities as well as his profile of entrepreneur that seduced the leaders of Maître CoQ when they were looking for a candidate for the Vendée Globe 2020. Between 2008 and now, Yannick Bestaven hasn’t wasted time : two victories in the Transat Jacques Vabre in Class40, a Route du Rhum 2014 finished in fourth position after a tough fight, a successful collaboration on an IMOCA with Kito de Pavant, and the purchase of a 2006 Farr design to compete in the Route du Rhum 2018. Since then, his ambitions have gone one step up as Yannick has decided to buy Morgan Lagravière’s former Safran in the Vendée Globe 2016.

Since his debut in the world of off-shore racing, Yannick Bestaven has always made the choice to develop his own projects with the best autonomy. In 2001, he won the Mini-Transat on a boat that he had built himself with the help of Arnaud Boissières who actually finished third. For this 2020 edition of the Vendée Globe, he will be his own shipowner, responsible for the project from start to finish. You never get rid of entrepreneurship completely.