Vendée Globe: The Most Team-Driven Solo Race

When the starting cannon fires in Les Sables d'Olonne, around 40 skippers set off towards the open ocean. But once they cross the start line, each sailor is alone on board. Just minutes after leaving the famous channel, every IMOCA charts its own course, leaving its skipper alone to face the vastness of the ocean.

Ashore, however, the adventure is far from over. Shore team members, engineers, partners and loved ones watch a project—sometimes four years in the making—disappear over the horizon. From that moment on, they can no longer make a single decision for the skipper. Yet they remain fully committed to the campaign: following the race, keeping track of every update from the boat, managing communications, preparing for the finish and staying mobilised until the skipper returns to port.

Four Years of Work for One Start

For nearly three months, the skipper faces storms, equipment failures, exhaustion and self-doubt alone. It is this solitude that has shaped the legend of the Vendée Globe. Yet it would not exist without the work of an entire team long before the starting gun.

Because a Vendée Globe campaign does not begin in November on the start line. It often starts several years earlier. Before even thinking about the Roaring Forties, a campaign first has to come together. Sponsors must be convinced to support a project worth several million euros, a team assembled, an IMOCA bought or built, qualification secured through the IMOCA Globe Series championship, miles accumulated and the boat thoroughly understood. The skipper is the public face of the campaign, but never its sole architect.

The Men and Women Behind the Scenes

Long before the race begins, shore bases operate to the rhythm of the Vendée Globe. IMOCAs are regularly stripped down before being rebuilt and prepared for the challenge ahead. Every hydraulic cylinder, every halyard and every component of the rig is meticulously inspected. A single failure in the Southern Ocean can bring years of preparation to nothing.

Behind every boat is a team of specialists: boat preparers, naval architects, engineers, electronics engineers, composite experts and energy systems specialists. Each works to strike the finest balance between reliability and performance. The smallest improvement can amount to dozens of miles gained over an 80-day circumnavigation. These women and men rarely feature in the spotlight on race day, yet their work supports the skipper every mile of the way to the finish.

A Team… That Steps Aside at the Start

This is the great paradox of the Vendée Globe. Never has a skipper been better prepared. Shore teams analyse boat performance, test sail configurations, draw on data collected from previous races and ensure every onboard system is as reliable as possible. Everything is designed to give the sailor the best possible tools. Then, when the race begins, they step aside.

The line between the shore team and the skipper is strictly maintained. Communications between shore and boat are tightly regulated, and weather routing is strictly prohibited. Race organisers may monitor communications to ensure that no strategic assistance is provided. From the moment the starting gun is fired, every decision rests with the skipper alone.

Meanwhile, the shore team continues to live every moment of the race from land. They follow the skipper's daily communications, analyse updates from the boat, prepare for the repairs that may be needed on the skipper's return and keep the campaign running ashore—all without ever being able to intervene.

A Victory Shared by an Entire Team

The collective effort extends far beyond the technical team. Partners make these campaigns possible through their financial backing and, in many cases, by contributing technological expertise of their own. At the finish, only one name is added to the Vendée Globe roll of honour. It is indeed the skipper who has completed the solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation of the globe.

But when the sailor finally returns to the pontoon, they are no longer alone. Waiting behind the barriers are loved ones, boat preparers, engineers, partners and volunteers—women and men who have shared the doubts, sleepless nights, breakdowns, triumphs and disappointments of four years of preparation. They may not have crossed the oceans themselves, but they have lived every mile from afar.

The tears, embraces and smiles that accompany the homecoming tell another story: one of a victory that belongs to far more than a single sailor. Perhaps that is the Vendée Globe's greatest paradox. The world's greatest solo sporting adventure is never truly achieved alone. It is the culmination of an extraordinary collective effort, with countless people working tirelessly behind the scenes to make the impossible possible.