With the start of the Vendée Globe 2024 set for November 10, the next cycle is already underway for many skippers and teams, with boat building already underway and the second-hand market coming to life. Tip & Shaft takes stock.
On November 8, 2020, as the 33 skippers crossed the start line of the ninth Vendée Globe, Sam Manuard was just beginning work on the design of Charal 2, which will be launched in July 2022. Jérémie Beyou and his team’s goal was to have the new foiler ready for the Route du Rhum 2022. Four years later, with the Vendée Globe 2024 still to get underway, concrete plans for new boats for the next cycle have never been so numerous.
One is already in the water, Phil Sharp’s Manuard OceansLab, which failed to qualify in time for the Vendée Globe; two others will soon be: Armel Tripon’s Les P’tits Doudous, a VPLP design built in Malizia-Seaexplorer‘s molds, due next spring, and Elodie Bonafous’ Verdier design, built in Macif Santé Prévoyance‘s molds, due to leave the yard in the first quarter of 2025. As for the other future Imoca boats, Multiplast is about to start building a new Verdier design for Kojiro Shiraishi, “and after that, we’re building two others for two very good teams who are doing a sistership”, explains Yann Penfornis, the shipyard’s general manager, without disclosing the teams in question.
Numerous players in the sector also indicate that three construction slots have been reserved at CDK Technologies. “It’s not for me to make this kind of announcement,” comments Yann Dollo, deputy general manager, “but we feel that interest in the Imoca is still strong. We made five boats for this campaign, and we’re capable of making as many, or even more for the next one.” It has to be said that orders for new boats for the next cycle have never started so early. “This anticipation is clearly the significant fact of the new 2028 cycle,” confirms Romain Ménard, director of Team Spirit Racing, the structure managing Yann Richomme’s project. “There are a number of reasons for this: the Vendée Globe popularity, the length of time it takes to design and build boats, and the rise of the Imoca circuit, which means that, in addition to selection and qualification issues, everyone is keen to take part to races that are stronger than they were before.”
Anticipating The Ocean Race
Among these races, The Ocean Race, which went Imoca in the last edition, counts for a lot in the anticipation of orders, as the start of the next one, in January 2027, requires an early start. “An Imoca boat takes six months to design, two months to make the tooling and a year to build, which is almost 20 months. If you want to do The Ocean Race, you have no choice but to get things started before the start of the Vendée Globe”, explains Antoine Koch, architect, with the Finot-Conq firm, of two boats lining up for the start of the Vendée Globe 2024, Thomas Ruyant’s Vulnerable and Yoann Richomme’s Paprec Arkéa. “We’re starting earlier and earlier, as the teams are also keen to spend more time on the water before the Vendée Globe, as foilers are boats which require a lot of time for reliability and fine-tuning”, adds David de Prémorel, Managing Director of Finot-Conq.
Are the latter and Antoine Koch among the architects already commissioned for the new boats listed above? Neither is willing to answer, but there’s little doubt that Thomas Ruyant will call on their services for his future Imoca, announced for 2026, when construction will be entrusted to CDK. Then a boat for Boris Herrmann would be launched in the same molds – again, no one wished to comment – with both skippers aiming to take part in The Ocean Race.
Still on the CDK side, a rumor from the pontoon evokes a new Imoca coming soon for Banque Populaire. Thierry Bouvard, director of sponsorship and patronage for Groupe BPCE, replied“No comment”, while Armel Le Cléac’h, interviewed by us a month ago before the start of the Finistère Atlantique, said: “Today, the Vendée Globe remains a major event that Banque Populaire follows closely. We’re not taking part this year, for reasons we know, but we’re keeping a close eye on what’s happening on the Imoca circuit. We’ll let this edition pass and Banque Populaire will communicate afterwards on its intentions to make, or not, a return to the event.”
Would it be possible for Banque Populaire and Franck Cammas, who confirms that the Imoca is currently his “priority project, as long as it’s on a new boat and with the means to win the two major events, The Ocean Race and the Vendée Globe”, to team up? “I know Ronan Lucas (director of Team Banque Populaire) very well, he’s almost a childhood friend, but no comment,” smiles Cammas, ”who is looking for partners”.
New boats will no longer
be protected
As for the two sisterships mentioned by Yann Penfornis for Multiplast, rumors are rife, notably about a new boat for Yoann Richomme (the first has already been built in Vannes). One thing is certain: the winner of The Transat CIC 2024, who will compete in The Ocean Race Europe in 2025, makes no secret of his ambitions to continue after his first Vendée Globe, and in particular to compete in The Ocean Race in 2027. “Yoann and the team have a real appetite for the project, and it’s also resonating strongly with the sponsors, because you’re talking about eight to ten starts and finishes, plus the in-shore events, so there are plenty of opportunities to activate the partnership”, confirms Romain Ménard.
Interviewed in Pos. Report last Tuesday, Paprec Group Managing Director Sébastien Petithuguenin commented: “On these projects, you can’t buy time, so we’re in the process of projecting what a new boat could be, and decisions on whether or not to build one are currently being made.” Other skippers who have announced their intention to build a new Imoca include Louis Burton, who did so in April, presumably with Sam Manuard. “We haven’t started the work phase yet, but the will is there, and it will get underway in due course”, says the architect.
With a view to the Vendée Globe 2028, new boats will in any case no longer be exempt from selection process, the new qualification/selection rules will be unveiled by the SAEM Vendée, the race organizer, during the week preceding the start of the 2024 edition. “The new system has brought many positive benefits, with more people at the start of the races, and better-prepared boats and sailors, On the other hand, we’ve seen some limitations, between Louis Burton’s two dismastings, injuries and Clarisse (Crémer)‘s maternity leave, there have also been a lot of races that have put a strain on the skippers, and the idea is to come up with a project that responds to these limitations“, comments Imoca class president Antoine Mermod.
The second-hand market is starting
This exemption will perhaps boost a second-hand market that is more than quivering – 18 boats are for sale to date on the Imoca website -, with strong interest in the foilers of the 2020 and 2024 generations that are or will be on the market. According to our information, 11th Hour Racing Team has already pre-empted the current Malizia-Seaexplorer for Francesca Clapcich – when contacted, the latter replied that she was “exploring options, but nothing is confirmed yet”. Other coveted boats include Thomas Ruyant’s two Vulnerables (on the market at the end of 2025) and Sam Goodchild’s, as well as DMG Mori Global One (Verdier’s 2019 design, priced at “around 4 million euros”, according to the Japanese team). Or even those from the 2016 generation and updated, such as Damien Seguin’s current Groupe Apicil. The price range can go from 750,000 euros for Louis Duc’s current boat to 5 million, or even more, for the latest generation.
Potential buyers include Canadian Scott Shawyer, who is first looking to sell the former Acciona (€1.35m), Edouard Golbery, looking for partners to launch in 2026, or Gaston Morvan, fresh French Elite ocean racing champion and not far from the goal. “I’m still half a budget short of what’s needed to sail four great seasons from 2025, with a project to buy a 2024-generation hydrofoil boat.” Among the skippers whom Tip & Shaft contacted to find out their post-Vendée Globe intentions, many are keen to sign up for a new cycle. This is the case for Maxime Sorel, whose partners will stop after the 2024 Vendée Globe, and who wants to continue on his current boat (Verdier design from 2022), or for Sébastien Marsset, Fabrice Amedeo or Louis Duc, but on higher-performance Imoca boats – “I’d love to get into foilers”, confides the latter.
Some also have their sights set on The Ocean Race, such as Yannick Bestaven, who “would then like to accompany a skipper for the Vendée Globe 2028”, Alan Roura with the Swiss Offshore Team, and Romain Attanasio, who is worried, however, that “the economy is getting tighter for all sorts of reasons”. Finally, there are those who have no immediate plans to set sail again, like Tanguy Le Turquais, who confides: “I don’t want the Vendée Globe to become routine and something normal.”
Photo: Yann Riou / Polaryse
