Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Thursday November 7, 2024 at 3:31 p.m.
This Sunday, Jérémie Beyou will start his fifth Vendée Globe, at the helm of Charal 2. The 48-year-old skipper is one of the favorites for this tenth edition, but he knows better than anyone that this is no guarantee of victory. . He spoke exclusively for our site.
Jérémie Beyou, a few days before the start of the Vendée Globe, how do you judge your preparation?
On a sporting level, I think I am there and that I am capable of sailing ahead. There were three major preparation races, the two Transats and the Défi Azimut, and each time I managed to finish the races, I got on the podium. And when it breaks, it's impossible. There was a broken prop on the Transat CIC, which forced me to abandon. Afterwards, there was a great Transat New York – Les Sables. There was a poker game at the start of the race where Boris (Herrmann) and Charlie (Dalin) managed to escape, and I managed to emerge at the head of the chasing pack. I am happy with this performance, happy with my Azimut Challenge too. Sportingly, things are going well, the boat is doing well. We need to be able to overcome the small reliability issues.
Does that worry you?
No. There, there was a sizing fault on a part, which we managed to identify, we re-re-checked everything. The season is somewhat split in two. At the beginning we are focused on performance, it was important to know where we were with our new pair of foils. And in the second part of the season, after the summer work, we are really on reliability, we have been focused on it since August. Regarding the structure and major mechanical parts of the boat, we have no concerns.
When we see Romain Attanasio dismasted two months before departure, we say to ourselves that we must always be on the alert?
This has already happened to me. On my second Vendée Globe, I had dismasted a few weeks or months before the start, it really wasn't ideal. There is constant vigilance when sailing with these boats. We can not make the right move, the right action at the right time to limit the power of the boat, and it ends up breaking. It's a bit part of the game, of racing alone, you have to try to anticipate things, because if the boat speeds up when you hadn't expected it and you're sleeping, it won't There's no one to slow down for us. You have to be extremely vigilant all the time, but at the same time you have to rest to maintain lucidity.
Beyou: “I’m in the game all the time, if it doesn’t break”
Charal 2 is equipped with a new pair of times since this year, are you satisfied with it?
Yes, really. Our objective was to improve performance in downwind gaits (with the wind coming from behind, editor's note) essentially. Based on the measurements that we were able to collect, it's really conclusive in that regard. What is also important is that we managed to put two deckchairs and thousands of miles in the legs of these foils without worrying about reliability and structure. I really wanted to have this new pair of foils at the start of the season. I'm happy with my schedule, I'm happy with what we saw.
Is the objective of this Vendée Globe 2024-24 victory?
This obviously remains the major objective, it is with this goal in mind that I have built all my preparation with my team and Charal. But I'm the first to know that it's not all about wanting to win and being able to do it. Before you can win, you have to finish, not turn around like last time. Lots of scenarios can happen, I'm in my fifth Vendée, so I've experienced a few (abandonment in 2009 and 2013, third place in 2017, 13th in 2021, editor's note). The competition is only increasing, and if there were two or three favorites in previous editions, there are many more today. There are very solid sailors, increasingly structured teams.
You have often finished on the podium in races in recent years, rarely winning, is there any form of frustration?
No, that makes me want to finish at the top even more this time. What I remember is regularity. I have already won races in the past, notably in an Imoca, and with this boat. I know I'm in it all the time, if things don't break, and that's what we have to remember for the Vendée. What is important is to be able to navigate the front pack and seize opportunities that can make a difference. Considering that you have to start alone in the lead, “full gas”, and push, push, that would perhaps be a mistake. I know that I am capable of winning this race.
During the last edition, you had to turn around after four days of racing, repair then start again and finish thirteenth, what did you learn from this experience?
I learned again, if I needed to, that favorite status does not bring points or miles in advance, nor a guarantee of not breaking. I knew, after my first two participations, that the race could end. You have to be philosophical about this race. We must be able to manage events without them scarring us for life, we must be able to leave straight away. This thirteenth place was obviously not the expected result, but there is a world tour that has been completed, it is not insignificant, and I managed to find pride in it. It gave me additional experience on these large foilers, in the Deep South in particular, and it allowed us to better target the design of Charal 2, which is a boat much better suited to this course than Charal 1.
Beyou: “The Vendée Globe is a myth for me”
Forty boats will be at the start of the Vendée Globe, isn't that too many?
It's not me who decides (smiles), it's a decision that is specific to the organizer. The qualification method requires people to navigate a lot. There are 40 places available. This is a qualification in miles. If you participate and finish the races, you are qualified, there is no real notion of results and ranking. If I had my say, this is perhaps a criterion that I would add. The level of the fleet is truly exceptional, and in the first 10-15-20, the battle is really strong. But between the leading group and the end of the fleet, there is really a world of difference in terms of performance. Whether it's good that there is such a chasm, I don't know. The races are more fun when the level is more uniform and when everyone has a bit of a chance.
What does the Vendée Globe mean to you?
For me, it's a myth. And since it was mythological, I felt incapable of doing that kind of thing. The boats were fantastic, I remember leafing through the “Sails and Voiliers” magazine with the photos of the boats. Seeing computers in racing boats was exceptional. I remember that the seat at Philippe Jeantot's chart table was a fighter plane pilot's seat. These boats were very wide, they made me dream. And the sailors were legends. Jeantot, Philippe Poupon, who remains a god for me, Loïck (Peyron), Alain Gautier… It was almost impossible for me. And little by little, I grew up with this race, I moved to the starts, and I had the chance to experience Vincent Riou's victory up close in 2004-05 because I had done the whole doubles season with him before. The fact that Vincent won, that I sailed on this boat, I said to myself that maybe I would be able to do it. Behind that, I won the Solitaire du Figaro (in 2005, editor's note), and when the question arose about what I was going to do afterwards, my answer, spontaneously, was “I want to do the Vendée Globe”. This race, which was very far from me at the very beginning, has become the story of my life for twenty years, with this fifth participation. It became the ultimate race.
Do you think that the record of 74 days, held by Armel Le Cléac'h since 2017, can be beaten during this edition?
Yes, I think he can be soundly beaten. If we have weather conditions equal to those of 2016-17, the record will be shattered. It's really a question of weather conditions. The ice zone will be the same as in the previous edition, so it is the same theoretical route. In terms of weather phenomena, we see that there is a little more instability, perhaps a little more squall, these are not things that help our progress. But the performance of the boats has increased considerably in eight years, as has our ability to operate the boats close to their full potential.
Photo credit: Polaryse / Charal
