It was in 2012 that Louis Burton arrived in the Vendée Globe. Twelve years later, the Parisian, a Malouin by adoption, has gained momentum and a lot of experience. After three Vendée Globes, he might have wanted to do something else, on another medium.
“What I like is first of all the notion of collective adventure, especially by seeking more and more performance. The team is working and the individual just has to finish the job,” specifies the man who bought Armel Tripon’s Manuard plan upon arrival four years ago: “We had the opportunity to buy this boat, which was a pretty crazy prototype and which had not had time to be developed. We didn’t build it but we had a boat that had to be rethought and evolved enormously.”
“A boat becomes reliable when you break what was supposed to break”
Indeed, it took him a while to get to grips with this boat. And he experienced some setbacks including two dismastings (Transat Jacques Vabre 2021 and Route du rhum 2022) during this campaign: “A boat becomes reliable when you break everything you had to break… as we have all sailed a lot, we have all had a lot broken,” continues Louis Burton, whose goal is to win the Vendée Globe: “I haven’t done it yet… yet. Last time, we worked to be as efficient as possible. I want to go back there to try to do as well but above all better.”
Seventh after three days of racing, Burton is in his element. A few days before departure, he confided that he already had an eye on the future: “I would like to return in 2028 with the challenge of building a boat from A to Z”. He already knows with which architect he wants to imagine his future 60-footer and in which shipyard he would like to build it.
A new boat and a boat already sold?
“The techno challenge is also really important to me. Having worked on this project by having made lots of deckchairs, it brings desires. Having the chance to launch it if all goes well when we return from the Vendée Globe, that will allow us to complete the specifications.” While a new boat appears a priori, what about the one on which he is leaving: “It is perhaps sold”, he smiles before adding: “in any case it interests several skippers”.
If he were to win his fourth Vendée Globe, would he start again in 2028? “We have the hopeful selection, which we created with Servane (Escoffier). There is Baptiste Hulin, who skippers the Ocean Fifty and who came to help us before the start of the Vendée Globe. If there are 15 or 20 years left to write, it will most likely also be with the idea of passing on to young people in the hope selection in agreement with Bureau Vallée. I don’t know if it will be 2028 or 2032. This is the dream we are pursuing.” But first you have to be the first to return to Les Sables…
