Vendée Globe: soft toy, cap, bimbo statuette… each skipper has his favorite object

They are already well arranged in the boats moored at the Sables d'Olonne pontoon… Caps, knives and other soft toys sit in the Imoca of the skippers engaged on the Vendée Globe. If the race is carried out solo, without stopover and without assistance, the 40 sailors will leave dry land on November 10 with a souvenir of their loved ones, a favorite object which will comfort them during these three months on the ocean.

A statuette of an American bimbo for Romain Attanasio

For his third Vendée Globe, Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western) takes with him two objects that he particularly likes and which do not leave his boat. First, there is a small statuette “representing an American bimbo given to me by a friend during my first Vendée Globe“. Named “Pamela”, “she makes the schoolchildren who get on my boat laugh a lot“.

Then, the skipper of Lorient does not part with a “little black virgin” offered by the priest of Les Sables d'Olonne at the start of the 2016 Vendée Globe. “I always kept her because I never knew, with all the struggles I had, if it was because of her or thanks to her that I finished my two previous Vendée Globes.laughs the 47-year-old sailor. When in doubt, I kept it.“

A cap and socks for Tanguy Le Turquais

Tanguy Le Turquais (Lazare) relies on basics. On the Vendée Globe, the 35-year-old Breton skipper takes “socks with a Breton flag and my favorite cap, that’s it!“. And he confides with a laugh: “It's almost the same all the time.”. But that's without counting on his sister Léna. Indeed, the young woman has planned little surprises for her big brother: “Tagada strawberries, but he doesn't know it yet [rires]. He forbade me to give him sugar, but I'm still going to hide little things from him.” Just to cheer him up on the other side of the world!

Chocolate, sweet words and cuddly toys for Violette Dorange

The youngest in the Vendée Globe don't plan to start the Vendée Globe without some comforting objects and foods. Violette Dorange (Devenir) plans to take “chocolate” and two stuffed animals: “The mascot of the boat that Jean [Le Cam, qui a vendu son bateau à la navigatrice] offered me, he gave me the mission of taking him around the world. And the other stuffed animal is a Dachshund, because I love them!“

And in her boat, the 23-year-old sailor, originally from Charente-Maritime, will be able to recharge her batteries by watching and listening “the messages, the vocals, the videos prepared by my loved ones, or even the words they wrote in my boat“. “All of these are essential things so that I can feel good“, underlines Violette Dorange, who is embarking on her first world tour.

A woolen hen for Charlie Dalin

Charlie Dalin (Macif) does not burden himself with too imposing objects. But the 40-year-old Norman sailor takes his everywhere “small wool hen weighing 27 grams“gifted by his wife ten years ago. A little hen, installed in his boat, which accompanied him”on all the races I have participated in since“. And she has seen the country: New York, Brazil, the West Indies… She has even already traveled around the world during the last Vendée Globe where the skipper finished second.

His daddy's knife for Louis Burton

At sea, Louis Burton never separates himself from an object full of emotion and history: his dad's knife. “He hasn't been with us since 2016, and since he left, I'm the one who got his knife back because among the siblings, I'm the one who has the most use for itunderlines the sailor from Saint-Malo. This is why he has the 2016 Vendée Globe, the 2020 Vendée Globe in his hands, this knife, his knife, and around ten Transat races since 2016.“

And this knife is “exceptional” said the skipper : “It is a knife that is around forty years old, which is no longer manufactured today. It was always on my father's belt and I already remember him saying that it was a magnificent knife, the best naval knife that is and that it was absolutely necessary to find the machines to restart production.“In stainless steel, equipped with a punch, a blade or even a bottle opener,”very important for a sailor“, it is a very useful tool for the sailor: “It's really the item I absolutely want to have when I go to sea, it doesn't rust or oxidize.”

“He crossed the Atlantic several times with my father, he took part in all our family cruises and I, with this knife, crossed the Atlantic ten times and made two world tours. And I can assure you that he doesn't have a rusty fart“, laughs Louis Burton. And now the whole family has a copy. The sailor gave one to his wife, his son Lino and his daughter Edith for their 10th birthday: “Normally, when we have this with us, not much can happen to us“.

Bracelets for Yannick Bestaven

“Fetish objects, no not really“, Yannick Bestaven tells us. But the winner of the previous edition of the Vendée Globe still admits to having “des bracelets“on him who him”bring good luck for a long time“. Bracelets in Corsican coral or tiger's eye stone, offered by his mother, and which the sailor never takes off!

A mantra offered by the Nepalese for Maxime Sorel

This is the first time that Maxime Sorel has taken a favorite object on his boat. And not just any: the Breton, skipper of the VandB – Monbana – Mayenne, will have on board “a kind of mantra” which was given to him at the beginning of his ascent of Everest in May 2023. He is in fact the first sailor to have achieved this feat, climbing the highest peak on the planet (8,848 meters).

“Inside there are prayerssays the skipper. It was the Nepalese who wrote these prayers that implore the gods to let us pass. It accompanied me throughout my expedition, for 43 days.“And they will once again accompany him during his sailing trip around the world, another major challenge:”I thought it would be a nice wink to have him on board for this Vendée Globe“.