Ellen’s successes were truly inspirational and really helped popularise solo and short-handed sailing, as did multiple podiums for Briton Mike Golding who finished third in the 2004-5 Vendée Globe having led the race at Cape Horn. The former fireman turned skipper also led the 2008-9 race before being cruelly dismasted in the Indian Ocean less than 1000 miles from Australia’s Cape Leeuwin.
Thomson set a new level
Alex Thomson finished third in 2012 and then led Armel Le Cléach in the Indian Ocean before breaking a foil but still finishing a close second, 16 hours behind winner Le Cléac'h.
Fleet sizes for major IMOCA races have grown exponentially and international skippers have always held their own. With his radical boat designs charismatic Thomson always pursued the definitive speed edge and pushed his boats hard and fast. He was a staunch believer in a British based campaign, working in a sort of ‘splendid isolation’ out of Gosport. But Sam Davies and Sam Goodchild, who have both achieved IMOCA top three finishes, moved to France and immersed themselves in the ocean racing culture.
Davies’ 20 year career is peppered with top results, from being fourth in the 2008 Vendée Globe and two years ago taking third on the Transat CIC into New York, while Goodchild who starts this Vendée Arctique as the outstanding favourite to win, has been crowned IMOCA Globe Series champion twice. Davies started in the Mini 650 but cut her teeth on the Figaro solo one design offshore class as did Goodchild who very nearly won the 2020 La Solitaire du Figaro.
These two outstanding skippers are the best example of internationals who recognised that, for them, the only way to break the French dominance was to learn alongside the best, to join the elite French training groups like the Pôle Finisterre at Port la Fôret where all of the Vendée Globe winners have trained and shared their preparation over the years. At this point Goodchild has everything required to win.
Internationals established and emerging.
The internationalisation of the IMOCA fleet and the ‘feeder’ classes has continued but may yet prove to have peaked between 2020 and 2024. Germany’s Boris Herrmann was a leading contender through the 2020-21 race and became a national hero, a household name whose exploits were on the national TV news each and every night. His new profile and popularity allowed him to build a substantial enterprise, an operation which in 2022 launched a new IMOCA for the 2024 race and which now has a new, faster more aggressive Antoine Koch design set to go in the water this month.
Herrmann and the remarkable Swiss skipper Justine Mettraux have realistic aspirations to finish on the podium not only of the next Vendée Globe but the upcoming IMOCA races - both have the experience, the skills and will have latest generation boats.
Italy’s emerging Ambrogio Beccaria may still be in the early stages of solo IMOCA racing – this Vendée Arctique is his first solo IMOCA race - but the Brittany-based skipper from Milan is a potent cocktail being a naturally fast, clever sailor who is also a marine engineer with an appreciation of the small details which make the vital difference. He has experience of winning in the Mini and Class40 and having started his programme in 2024 he has time on his side and a proven, successful boat in his Allagrande Mapei.
Italian-American Francesca Clapcich a.k.a ‘Frankie’ is a double Olympian who has already won a round the world crewed race, The Ocean Race 2023, as part of the 11th Hour team. She mixes Italian passion and an uncompromising drive with an Anglo Saxon adherence to process and improvement. She has propelled herself from her childhood in Trieste to a fast track solo programme which should see her capable of a top position in the Vendée Globe. This Vendée Arctique is her biggest test yet.
There are other International skippers in the early stages of their Vendée Globe campaigns. Swiss German Oliver Heer has a new foiling IMOCA in the shape of Mettraux’s previous boat. He is setting up shop in Gosport – where he lives and where he used to work for Alex Thomson Racing.
Incoming....
And in the wings? Finding funding is no easier outside of France. Ireland’s Tom Dolan is again proving he has the raw talent. After winning La Solitaire du Figaro in 2022 – the first international skipper in more than 25 years to do so – Dolan is leading the 2026 race overall and harbours hopes of competing on a solo IMOCA project but has yet to find a major sponsor. So too does Herrmann’s long time co-skipper, Brit Will Harris whom Clapcich finished second in last year’s two handed Transat between Le Havre and Martinique.
The cliché - the hardest part of the Vendée Globe is getting to the start line – is as true as ever.
