Sawt Falasteen - Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe

"For me, this race is the holy grail of solo racing," he told AFP.

"It's a personal challenge to circumnavigate the globe in a yacht, alone on board.

"Even after a victory, it's still a challenge. The story will be different: you're in the unknown when you set out to sea."

Bestaven won the last edition of the race, completing the 24,300 nautical mile-course -- that's 45,000 kilometres for the land-lubbers -- like a seaborne Phileas Fogg in 80 days, three hours and 44 minutes in 2021.

But he is right to be humble: it goes with the territory.

All 40 skippers that will start this tenth edition will be eager to outwit and outsail their opponents and snag the 200,000-euro ($214,000) winner's cheque. They know, however, that the main challenge will be a communal one -- the sea.

Occasionally she lends a helpful hand allowing the 60-foot Imoca monohulls to glide on their foils at near 40 knots; at other times she will rise like a ferocious monster the size of a mountain ready to crash down and crush the boats below.

"There's an element of randomness, things you can't control, technical problems, retiring, hitting an unidentified floating object," says Charlie Dalin, skipper of MACIF Sante Prevoyance.

"You never know what's going to happen to you in a Vendee."

Every skipper is well aware of the dangers that lie in wait in the 'Everest of the Seas'.

One skipper, Nigel Burgess, died in the second edition in 1992-93 while Mike Plant perished while crossing the Atlantic to reach the French start point for that race. Four years later the Canadian Gerry Roufs disappeared, his boat turning up on the coast of Chile six months later.

Four years ago Kevin Escoffier came within a whisker of joining them, his boat snapped in two. He was lucky, picked up by veteran Jean Le Cam who at 64 will be the oldest of this year's competitors.

"You need a mind of steel, a demanding team that has prepared the boat well and a good failsafe because, as usual, the boats will all end up battered," British skipper Sam Davies told AFP.

Davies is one of six women entering the race, each of them looking to emulate Ellen MacArthur who remains the only woman ever to make the Vendee podium when she came second in 2000-01.

Another is first-timer Violette Dorange who, at 23, is the youngest skipper in the race.

She is one of 15 skippers making their Vendee debuts. The others include 35-year-old Jingkun Xu, who only saw the sea for the first time at the age of 12 and is now the first Chinese sailor to take on the Vendee Globe.

- 'Magical marathon' -

The Vendee Globe started life in 1989, set up by French yachtsman Philippe Jeantot. Of the 13 boats that started only seven finished with another Frenchman Titouan Lamazou winnings in 109 days.

The French influence remains as strong as ever with the race still waiting its first 'foreign' winner.

The Vendee will grip the nation from start to finish. Twenty-seven of the 40 skippers are French, the media will track the race from start to finish and hundreds of thousands of people will have been to view the boats by the time they set off up the canal on Sunday to start their three-month voyages.

It will make a welcome change to the eery, empty silent quays that saw the boats off four years ago when the race started during the Covid lockdown.

The flotilla of high-tech Imocas, highly-advanced 60-foot monohulls, follows the old clipper route down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. They then swing around Antarctica before rounding Cape Horn and heading for home, back where they began in Les Sables-d'Olonne.

"The Southern Ocean and rounding Cape Horn are quite a challenge," says Bestaven who will be competing in Maitre Coq V and hoping to nudge closer to the record of 74 days as he takes part in what he says will be his final solo race.

"We cross some wild places, there aren't many humans sailing there. These places are quite magical. The light, the wildlife, the albatrosses that follow the boat... It motivates me to relive those exceptional moments of four years ago.

"But the Vendee Globe as a whole is an extraordinary race. It's the one that lasts the longest. You come to think of a transatlantic race as a sprint, the Vendee Globe a marathon."

Q.Jaber--SF-PST