Denis Van Weynbergh, tell us briefly about your journey as a sailor from your beginnings to the pontoons of Les Sables d'Olonne?
“It was a classic path. It began with family, in the Mediterranean, before launching into working life. After studying Political Science, I worked as a sailing instructor at the UCPA, volunteered for Médecins without borders, worked as a journalist… Sailing was always part of this journey, especially since 2001 when I took part in the mini-transat. I had never done offshore racing or racing at all. elsewhere At that time, sailing remained part of my different activities and professions. A sum of skills which today serves the purposes of the current project After having worn several hats during my various projects in Class40 or in Imoca. , for the first time, I managed to put everything in the same diagram and make the puzzle fit together.”
In a corner of your imagination, has the Vendée Globe been present for a long time?
“I sold my business to devote myself solely to offshore racing. I didn't want to tell myself in 10 or 15 years, on my couch, that I should have, if I had known… I didn't want to have regrets or remorse. I was at a turning point in my life, probably the moment to introspect. Leaving my professional environment where I was no longer having fun. And if it doesn't succeed. , at least I will have reached the end of the dream.”
After the Route du Rhum, the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Vendée Globe, is this the ultimate challenge?
“Yes, from the moment you tell yourself that you want to become a professional skipper, there is nothing higher than the Everest of the seas. You have to buy a boat, finance it, go see the banks, the sponsors. It's a long process. Since 2018 when I acquired the boat from the Hungarian Nador Fâ, the Vendée Globe was in sight. It was the objective of the project in its global version. Being there on Sunday does not come from the sky. There was the tortuous journey of qualifying. Since 2021, we are 200% on the project for which we had defined different victories.
So launching into the Everest of the seas is a succession of victories?
“The first was to announce that we wanted to do the Vendée Globe. In Belgium, when you talk about it, people often take you for a comedian, they tell you that it's impossible. The second was was to qualify. Last June, when qualification was achieved, we celebrated it until the beginning of July. Since then, we have been constantly on the move. Finally, the third victory would obviously be to be the first Belgian skipper to complete the world tour, to cross the line at the end of January, beginning of February 2025 by going up the channel under the Bengal lights. In a more utopian way, it would be to one day win the Vendée Globe but the project was not initiated for this purpose. All choices have been made to make the boat as reliable as possible. It's not a Formula 1, it's a 4×4. The boat proved itself in the 2016 edition. Since then, obviously, many improvements have been made to the boat in terms of sails, hydraulics and electronic equipment.”
A few hours before departure, how are you feeling psychologically and physically?
“There is no particular stress, especially as the weather forecast is rather mild for the first few days with a route established for the moment to the Canary Islands. Afterwards, we will improvise according to the conditions. The boat is ready. I am too if we can one day say that we are 100% ready. We are learning all the time. I have traveled more than 20,000 miles with the boat. the choices we made in terms of sustainability and reliability were the right ones, even if we were sometimes just short in terms of timing and times compared to the first ranked. We are in the top 10 of the boats that sailed. the most miles in two years And even if we are racing with obsolete parts, it was important to do them, to accumulate time at sea after having to give up the Vendée Globe in 2020 due to lack of budget.
Denis van Weynbergh completed his second transatlantic race in seven weeks
You are going to challenge the dreaded southern seas, does this generate any particular apprehension?
“No. I'm not yet in that perspective. It's rather the excitement of discovery that prevails at the moment. In the imagination, we sometimes think of Point Nemo, the furthest point from any land or of the Indian Ocean with a complicated reputation That said, it is undoubtedly also one of the last human adventures that exist on our planet but there is also the competition dimension because we always want to overtake the one who is in front. if it is equipped with foils (laughter) but I am not at the start for a classification in which case, it would be necessary to establish several categories (laughter). I'm also doing the Vendée Globe for that extra bit of soul that you don't find elsewhere, according to sailors who have completed more than one round-the-world trip…”
