Vendée Globe: Justine Mettraux: “Sometimes it’s difficult to have fun”

Justine Mettraux is still in the race to complete her first Vendée Globe in the top 10. A great performance for the Geneva sailor, who did not expect to be so close to the most efficient boats in the fleet.

“Justine the machine”, as some people call her in the sailing world, is achieving a real tour de force. In the midst of its journey up the Atlantic, it is still part of the chasing group in which almost exclusively the latest generation monohulls feature.

“It’s great to be in contact with Jérémie Beyou or Thomas Ruyant, whose boats have greater potential than mine, even if the weather helped me a lot,” says Justine Mettraux during a telephone interview granted Monday to Keystone-ATS, while off the coast of Brazil.

Certainly, her boat is not one of the antiques of the fleet – Oliver Heer, the third Swiss entered in this Vendée Globe with Alan Roura, sails on an IMOCA launched in 2007 – but Justine Mettraux still has to deserved. His dates from 2018 and already has a Vendée Globe in the foils with Jérémie Beyou, 13th in 2020-21. And apart from the British Sam Goodchild (2019), all the skippers in the top 10 sail on state-of-the-art boats.

The right train

This did not prevent the Swiss from coming back to this group even though she was more than 700 miles behind Paul Meilhat near the Cape of Good Hope. With the Frenchwoman Clarisse Crémer, the British Samantha Davies and the German Boris Herrmann, she managed to reduce the gap in the Indian. Then, at the entrance to the Pacific, she caught up again, leaving her two competitors in the rearview mirror.

“There was a front that should not be missed and with which I managed to move forward even though the conditions were very tough. This allowed me to stay in the game, unlike Clarisse and Samantha who narrowly missed the train,” explains Justine Mettraux. “Then I had a little more favorable weather than the group in front of me. It naturally allowed me to come back but it’s not because I did anything special. I was able to follow a straight path while they had to go off course,” she continues with modesty.

After briefly climbing to provisional 8th place, the 38-year-old Genevan returned to 10th place at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, 2,352 miles behind leader Charlie Dalin, who seems to be heading towards a victory that had eluded him for 2h31′ in 2021.

The northern road

In her return to Les Sables-d’Olonne, Justine Mettraux opted for a route close to the coast of Brazil. “It allows us to hit the southeast trade wind which blows north of Rio. For all the boats which were a little late, it was no longer possible to go east because the winds no longer allowed us to take a sufficiently efficient route. As a result, this northern option temporarily gives us the advantage, but we will take stock in a few days,” explains the skipper, who is enjoying these few days of sailing in the sun, in the blue tropical sea.

Before returning to the trade winds, however, the sailor based in Lorient had to pass through a zone of low wind, in which the front sail that she lost at the end of November – a J0 which tore apart – could have proved useful. “I knew I wouldn’t miss this sail too much in the southern seas as it is too big to be effective in very windy areas. It’s a little more penalizing now,” she regrets.

At 80% of the course, Justine Mettraux is already satisfied with her race, even if she recalls that the main objective is to return safely. “The boats are starting to get tired and we are never safe from any problem. I will try to keep everything in one piece and continue to do well,” said the first woman in the provisional ranking.

Two weeks from the goal

Will Geneva also manage to take advantage of this final sprint? “Sometimes the conditions are tough and it’s difficult to have fun. There were clearly days when this was not the case, typically in the Pacific when conditions were strong. When the weather is complicated, there is always uncertainty and we don’t know if we are making the right choices,” she confides.

Despite everything, Justine Mettraux considers this first experience around the world “positive”. “Overall, I can be happy with what I did and I will try to continue sailing like this until I arrive in Les Sables.” An arrival that the organizers estimate between January 22 and 24.