1990 Titouan Lamazou
Having gained experience in the solo round the world race with stopovers (BOC Challenge), the sailor from Béarn was one of the favourites in the first race alongside Philippe Jeantot and Jean-Luc Van Den Heede. We were also watching closely Philippe Poupon, with a prestigious list of achievements under his belt and Loïck Peyron, Alain Gautier, one of the Figaro success stories and Pierre Follenfant. After Fleury Michon capsized in the Indian Ocean, three skippers were in with a chance of victory: Titouan Lamazou, who had always been in the lead, Loïck Peyron, capable of pulling off a masterstroke in the climb back up the Atlantic and «VDH» whose aluminium ketch found it hard in upwind sailing. This was indeed the order at the finish. On board his Bouvet designed Petit Ecureuil d’Aquitaine II specially built for the race, the skipper, who is also a talented artist reached Les Sables on 15th March after 109 days and 8 h of sailing, having covered 25,485 miles at an average speed of 9.7 knots. Loïck Peyron, credited with a compensation of 15 hours for going to the rescue of Philippe Poupon was a threat for a while aboard his Lada Poch II, Lamazou's old boat.

1993 Alain Gautier
Apart from Lamazou and Jeantot, the chief protagonists of the first Vendée were back, in particular, Gautier, Peyron and VDH with their new boats. From the start, the furies of the Bay of Biscay were to have their say. Peyron retired, while VDH and Poupon were forced to return to Les Sables for repairs. Gautier managed to get through and stepped up the pace in the trade winds. Very quickly, his Bagages Superior, a superb white ketch built using composites based on a Groupe Finot design, showed what she was capable of. VDH and Poupon fought out a great battle as they attempted to catch the leader. As they rounded the Horn, the gap was down to 36 hours. Would the climb back up the Atlantic change things? No. Alain even extended his lead. Later, Poupon's boat was dismasted off the Azores and VDH, just behind on his red cigar (Helvim), took advantage to grab second place. Alain Gautier, aged just 30, won the race without improving on the time set by Lamazou finishing in 6 days, 12 h and 40’ ahead of VDH.

1997 Christophe Auguin
This third race was the hardest, as we can see from the number of boats forced to retire. Only six out of the 16 competitors that lined up at the start reached the finish. The sailor from Normandy, Christophe Auguin, who had already won the BOC Challenge twice, faced Yves Parlier and Isabelle Autissier. All three raced aboard boats designed by Finot-Conq, the must-have name at the time. When he arrived in the Indian Ocean, the way was free for Christophe (Géodis), as Yves and Isabelle were forced to make pit stops following rudder damage. The voyage across the Southern Ocean was particularly tough with several boats capsizing and the loss of Gerry Roufs. Christophe held out and finished in Les Sables with a new record (105 days and 20 h, at an average of 10.44 knots). And with a lead, which was also a record in the history of the Vendée, of 7 days 11h and 50’ over Marc Thiercelin. He was followed by Hervé Laurent, who did remarkably well aboard the old Ecureuil d’Aquitaine. At the finish, Christophe Auguin declared: «You don’t get back from a Vendée Globe without it leaving its mark on you. It is going to take me several months to get back to a normal life ashore». We would never see him again in the Vendée.

2001 Michel Desjoyeaux
With 26 boats taking part, the fourth Vendée could not accept any more entrants. Among the big names, there were the Figaro crowd, such as Roland Jourdain, Michel Desjoyeaux and Yves Parlier, who wanted his revenge after two unsuccessful attempts at the Vendée. There was also a little lady, not from the Figaro circuit, but one, who could really stand up to the men and particularly those from Port La Forêt, who had just won the Transat. We are of course talking about Ellen MacArthur on her Kingfisher. These four competitors really left their mark on the race. Yves broke his mast (again) but astonished everyone by making one all by himself with the help of pieces that he recovered. Roland was up there for a long time in spite of damage forcing him to sail with his mainsail reefed in (as Guillemot is currently doing). Ellen – aged just 24 – almost got the better of the big, bad wolf, Desjoyeaux, who led his PRB to new heights by completing the voyage in 93 days and 3h at an average speed of practically 12 knots.

2005 Vincent Riou
There were many similarities between Vincent’s victory and Michel’s. It was the same boat (a Finot-Conq design) as in 2001, and the sponsor, PRB, had not changed either. As for the skipper, he was Michel’s prodigy, the spiritual son of the Professor. He was a technician, who had worked on the construction and fine-tuning of the boat – as well as being an accomplished Figaro racer, and he would prove himself to be an excellent sailor, in spite of all the pressure on his shoulders. In the St. Helena high, Riou made his getaway along with Jean Le Cam and Bonduelle. The two managed their lead intelligently in the Fifties. As they rounded the Horn, Le Cam took the lead. Keeping a cool head, Riou followed 15 h 30’ behind, followed by Golding (Ecover), who had made a remarkable recovery. It was an exciting climb back up the Atlantic with a real race between the three boats. It ended on 2nd February in PRB’s favour, when she finished in record time (87 days and 10 h, at an average speed of 12.73 knots) and a tiny lead of 6h 30’ (another historic record over his rival. Ecover, not far behind, kept everyone waiting in Les Sables, which was only normal, seeing she had lost her keel… But she made it to the finish the right way up.