At 34, Sam Goodchild is about to take part in his first Vendée Globe aboard Vulnerable, the Verdier design launched in 2019 on which Thomas Ruyant raced in the last edition. Having just arrived on the Vendée Globe pontoon in Les Sables d’Olonne on Thursday, the Briton spoke to Tip & Shaft.
▶︎ You’ve just arrived in Port Olona after sailing up the famous Les Sables channel, how does that feel? What are your feelings?
Yes, definitely! It wasn’t necessarily something we were expecting, in the sense that we’re so involved in the action that we don’t think too much about going up the channel, but once we’ve moored the boat to the Vendée Globe pontoon, with all the others around, all the flags, you really realise that you’re making things happen. In terms of feelings, I’d say serenity, because I’m happy with where we are in terms of preparation, we’ve worked really well and we’re arriving in Les Sables with a boat that’s exactly as we wanted it in our schedule.
▶︎ Finding yourself in Les Sables and on the start line of the Vendée Globe in three weeks’ time is a dream that goes back to when?
The first time I thought about it was in 2004, when I really started to follow it. I also remember the previous one with Ellen (MacArthur), but I was younger (he was 11). Then, it became more concrete in 2008 when I attended the start for the first time as a youngster helping out in Mike Golding’s team. Then I helped Eric Bellion a bit in 2016, and even though my career path meant that I didn’t get there quickly, it’s a goal that I’ve always kept in the back of my mind. And I’ve always said to myself that if I set out, it would be to do it under the right conditions, I didn’t want to go there at any price.
▶︎ Can you tell us how this dream finally came true?
It was clearly the meeting with Thomas Ruyant, Thomas Gavériaux (director of TR Racing) and Alexandre Fayeulle (chairman of Advens), via Marcus Hutchinson in particular (who was team manager for the project up to and including the last Vendée Globe). Discussions began in 2021 and little by little they took shape, with the planets finally aligning between Advens and Thomas’ desire to keep the second boat and look for a competent skipper to take her over, and my strong desire to do the Vendée Globe. They found me competent, so all that put together means that we find ourselves here today, and I could hardly have dreamt of better conditions to do my first Vendée Globe. Especially as I’ve also been lucky enough to take part in The Ocean Race with Holcim-PRB team, and I’ve also already been in the Southern Ocean on a multihull (with Spindrift 2), so these experiences have been extremely rich.
“I naturally manage to find
the right average settings”
▶︎ You’ve taken over one of the best performing boat of the 2020 generation. Have you made any changes to it since you took the helm?
No, that wasn’t the idea. As we launched the project at the start of 2023, we knew it was going to be a bit tense with the qualification and selection issues, so we opted to build a risk-free project. The idea was more to get the most out of the tool we had than to revolutionise everything. We never set ourselves the goal of building a new bow, new foils… We did make her evolve a little because you can always find ways to improve, but from the outset, we told ourselves that we had more to gain from learning how to use her well, so I’m more or less setting off with the same boat that Thomas had on the Jacques Vabre 2021.
▶︎ After two years, do you have the impression that you know how to use her well?
The Imoca boats are so complex that you never stop learning, everything is constantly evolving: the size, shape and trim of the sails, the ballast tanks, the foils… Now, I feel very comfortable on the boat, I can naturally find the right average settings to make her go fast, I don’t have to look for them too hard.
▶︎ To what extent has the dismasting you suffered in June during the New York Vendée affected your preparation?
The fact that I was surrounded by such a large and experienced TR Racing team meant that in the end the impact was negligible. We were able to react very quickly to find a mast, in this case the one intended for Armel Tripon’s new boat. As it happens, in 2022, before the Route du Rhum, with our Ocean Fifty Leyton team, we lent him our spare mast when he dismasted during the 1000 Milles des Sables, so it was a sort of return of a gift, even though he was of course under no obligation to do so. We can only thank him for lending us a hand. As a result, the team was able to work very quickly to get the boat back in shape and re-masted, so we didn’t lose much time in the process.
“Anything is possible
in the Vendée Globe”
▶︎ What are the strengths and weaknesses of your Vulnerable?
Its strong point is that it’s very versatile, it’s not necessarily the fastest, but it’s never the slowest, it doesn’t really have any holes. His weak point, as we saw in the last Vendée Globe, is his passage through the sea: when he starts to accelerate, he stumbles a bit in the waves. That’s why Thomas has gone back out on a new boat, as the new hulls clearly have the advantage when the seas are fairly rough. On board, it’s not necessarily easy to live with and I think that will be especially the case in the Southern Ocean where you can endure these sea conditions for days and days, even weeks. I’m a bit apprehensive, I know that it’s not going to be an easy part of the race, but little by little I’ve learnt to use the boat to make the passage through the sea as trouble-free as possible.
▶︎ When we look at your results over the past two years, you’ve nearly only finished at third places, does that mean that you could do the same in the Vendée Globe?
It’s true that things have gone very well so far, but the Vendée Globe is a different exercise, one that I’ve never done before, and there are still a lot of unknowns for me: being alone for three months, setting out on this course with a boat that’s not easy physically… There is some apprehension, but it is en apprehension that makes you want to go. I’m not putting that pressure on myself to get a result, and on paper, the boat isn’t in third place, every time we’ve got there it’s also because the others had problems. Now, it’s clear that if you put me on a starting line on a sailing boat, I’m not going there to cruise. I don’t consider myself to be one of the favourites, as far as I’m concerned, there are four of them, Thomas, Yoann (Richomme), Charlie (Dalin) and Jérémie (Beyou), and then there are a dozen or so outsiders capable of giving them a hard time, and I think I’m one of them. One of the big challenges for me will be to find the right place to put the cursor and avoid getting too carried away by telling myself that as I’ve finished third in certain races, I can do the same in the round the world. It’s a real personal challenge because in the past, I’ve sometimes got too carried away.
▶︎ Could a British skipper win the Vendée Globe this time?
Yes, absolutely! Anything is possible in the Vendée Globe, as we saw four years ago, when not many people would have said that Yannick was going to win and he did. I’m of course thinking of Sam (Davies) who, in my opinion, is capable of making a podium, or even winning, which wouldn’t be a surprise.
▶︎ TR Racing won’t be setting sail again with two boats after this Vendée Globe, so do you know what’s next for you? What are your aspirations?
I’d be lying to you today if I told you that I wasn’t working on preparing for the future. We’ll see how the Vendée Globe goes, but what’s certain is that the Imoca appeals to me because of the competitive aspect, the average level is for me the highest you can find in ocean racing today. So my desire is to continue to challenge myself with the best.
Photo: Pierre Bouras / TR Racing
