As the front of the fleet approaches the Doldrums, this Wednesday, an obligatory and dreaded passage for skippers, in the middle of the Atlantic and renowned for its very unstable winds, the Sablais Sébastien Simon and Manuel Cousin trust in their first ten days of the Vendée Globe. If the first has monopolized the outposts since the start of this tenth edition, the second follows the battle between the distant favoritesstuck in 35th place with its monohull with fins. But, despite diametrically opposed ambitions, the two Vendée sailors agree on one point: “I think it goes by at crazy speed“. Testimonials from two skippers “kiffeurs“.
“The boat moves on its own, it doesn’t need me”
The storm has passed for several days, but calm has still not returned to the Imoca of Yonnais by birth but Sablais by adoption, Sébastien Simon. “It’s very noisy, there’s an average of 90 decibels in the boat, which quickly gives you a headache, and it’s hotconfirms the skipper who is on his second participation. But since the start of the race, everything has been going well. I didn’t have any technical problems, small details obviously but overall the boat is going very, very well and that’s great. It’s going very fast at the moment because the sea is flat. I let him express himself. There, I saw a reading at 26 knots [48 km/h, ndlr] which is incredible but these are really perfect conditions to move the boat forward and as the boat is extraordinary, it moves on its own, it doesn’t even need me.”
Some 450 miles behind, or around 720 kilometers, Manuel Cousin is progressing half as fast as his colleague. “It’s a little frustrating to see friends in front and having trouble catching upr, breathes the 57-year-old man, who would not be against a “second” boost, after the one displayed in large size on his Imoca, “Coup de Pouce” being the name of his sponsor. It’s a lot of work on the boat, changing sails, but the boat is perfect and that’s what I wanted; even if it cost me a few places.“But the Vendéen is still far from being off the hook.”It’s a world tour where the level is uniform, with fairly close boats, it’s really gone up a notch“, he deciphers.
An anecdotal provisional classification
Behind the British Sam Goodchild, Sébastien Simon has remained firmly on the podium since the start of Les Sables d’Olonne. But the winner of the Solitaire du Figaro in 2018 does not make it an obsession, far from it. “I just learned [que j’étais deuxième, ndlr]and that’s so much the betterbreathes the thirty-year-old. That means I’m in my race and I feel good on board, I am living my little life and for the moment everything is going well. The battle at the front is quite incredible, it proves the homogeneity of the field, the incredible level of preparation of the teams, it’s quite brilliant. Now I try not to look at the mapping too much either […] The initial objective was to do my route, my race, not to concentrate too much on what others are doing, not to have my pace imposed on me. For the moment, it’s been quite profitable, I’m at the forefront, so that’s nice, but the road is still long. There’s no point getting drunk now.”
The tone is similar with Manuel Cousin. He knows only too well the demands, the patience and the luck that it takes to succeed in completing a world tour, solo, non-stop and without assistance, as he did in 2021, at the 23rd. place. “Morale is betterhe confirms. It was complicated to get into race mode after this crazy startit’s been harder than usual, but my morale is getting better and better. I found my routine, with my little habits, the days and nights pass very, very quickly” We must now hope that his Imoca does the same.
