Please select your home edition
Edition
Craftinsure 2023 LEADERBOARD

Yann Eliès: Neuschäfer will be our new heroine in solo ocean racing

by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 26 Apr 14:07 BST
Kirsten Neuschäfer - Golden Globe Race © Kirsten Neuschäfer / GGR2022

When you look at the history of the IMOCA Class, you can see the link with the Golden Globe, the retro race that recreates the first non-stop, solo round-the-world race of 1968-'69 that featured legends like Bernard Moitessier and Robin Knox-Johnston.

That's when solo global racing began in the modern era, at an average speed for most of less than four knots, with sailors spending more than 300 days at sea. In that context, it's hard to believe what modern state-of-the-art foiling IMOCAs can now do, with today's skippers expecting to rip around the planet in 75 days or less.

During this winter, the old way has been celebrated with the current Golden Globe Race - the second recreation of the 1968 classic - in which boats entered had to be built before 1988, had to be no longer than 36ft and on which all electronic navigation aids are banned.

And it looks as though it will be the 40-year-old South African sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer, on board her Cape George 36, Minnehaha, who is going to complete an historic triumph, just ahead of the Indian sailor Abhilash Tomy, sailing a Rustler 36.

If Neuschäfer does win - probably on Friday when she is expected to reach Les Sables d'Olonne - she will become the first woman to win a solo round-the-world yacht race, after sailing more than 29,000 miles during more than seven months at sea. Not only will she have achieved something no woman has ever managed to do before, but she will have done so during a voyage in which she rescued another competitor whose boat sank in the Southern Ocean.

Among the IMOCA family of skippers, sailors, shore crews and designers, many have been checking their trackers since this contest started back in September, fascinated by its slow-motion war of attrition, as 16 starters gradually got whittled down to just three remaining competitors.

Yann Eliès has been one of them and when you talk to him about it, you realise that, like other IMOCA skippers, he views the Golden Globe not as an amateur event of no relevance to his own version of the sport, but another kind of sailing, albeit at the extreme end of the spectrum when compared with the modern Vendée Globe.

Elies has been particularly impressed by Neuschäfer, as he told the Class this week. "I think it's a good thing that she is winning this race," said the 49-year-old three-time Figaro winner. "This is happening at the best moment for us that a woman is winning a race around the world. Since Ellen MacArthur, we have needed another female hero like that - we have Sam Davies, we have Clarisse (Crémer) too - but they are not winning."

Eliès, who is currently part of the sailing squad on Team Malizia in The Ocean Race, and will rejoin that crew for Leg 5 from Newport to Aarhus, says Neuschäfer clearly loves to test herself and has a special affinity for her boat and for sailing alone, qualities evident in many IMOCA skippers.

"I don't know her very well, but she looks like she loves adventure with a capital A," he said. "And not only sailing but walking and cycling too. Adventure is her life. In the Golden Globe you can't just sail as part of a race, you need something inside you, to motivate you, and it is important to understand that before you do this race and she has always looked happy on board.

"And probably for racing on that sort of boat," Eliès added, "you have to sail smoothly because you just have a windvane autopilot on board. On that size of boat, with a long keel, if you push too hard, you will probably break the windvane, like (French entrant and pre-start favourite) Damien Guillou and some of the other guys who had problems with this. Probably Kirsten understands that smooth rhythm," added Eliès, who finished fifth in the 2016-17 Vendée Globe.

Eliès sailed on Leg 2 of The Ocean Race before sitting out the marathon Leg 3 through the Southern Ocean, which Team Malizia won in fine style. He does not mind admitting that he was happy enough to miss racing 12,750 miles through the Big South.

"I was a little bit afraid of the third leg because it was a long one," he said laughing. "But if I was to do that leg, I would have preferred to do it on Team Malizia because it is like a bus, a big bus. It is very comfortable. And I would not want to do it on Biotherm (skippered by Paul Meilhat), which is the most uncomfortable IMOCA I have ever seen!"

Despite her success on Leg 3, Eliès thinks it will be a tall order for Team Malizia to win the race overall. "The boat is designed for the South and for The Ocean Race, with lots of space for bunks and the galley and so on, and I am happy for Boris (Herrmann, skipper) because he imagined the boat for that. But I am a little bit afraid that it is not enough to win a race, or the Vendée Globe, because the voyage is not just through the southern areas of the world, but the Atlantic, north and south too. I think they have a lot to do to make the boat lighter," said Eliès.

In between his duties with Team Malizia, Eliès is working with Yoann Richomme on one of the most hotly-awaited IMOCA programmes behind the new Antoine Koch/Finot Conq-designed Paprec Arkéa. Eliès will sail with Richomme on the new flying machine in all the double-handed races in this year's IMOCA Globe Series, starting with next month's Guyader Bermudes 1000 which sets sail from Brest on May 7th.

"It's very exciting to try this new boat and exciting to do the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race too," said Eliès. "It looks good. It is hard to be sure actually because we haven't sailed alongside another boat. But my feeling is that the boat is good - sometimes we hit nearly 30 knots and the overall speed looks good, so we are excited to see that in a few days on the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race."

It seems the Paprec Arkéa skipper is delighted too. "Yeah, Yoann is happy - we have not had big issues on board - just the normal teething problems. It looks and sails pretty much how Antoine imagined the boat, so that is a good point - when a boat performs on its first sails, how the designers intended it to."

Related Articles

Pip Hare talks about the Retour a La Base
A classic, head north, find depression, put your foot down.. Pip Hare is one of those racers who is probably happiest when she is at sea, at one with her IMOCA Medallia. But the British racer now faces her biggest test yet as races solo for the first time on Medallia. Posted today at 3:39 pm
Solo racing returns in the IMOCA Class
The beginning of the final build-up to next year's Vendée Globe So here we go, the beginning of the final build-up to next year's Vendée Globe as single-handed racing returns to the IMOCA Class, with the first ever solo Retour à la Base from Martinique in the French Caribbean to Lorient. Posted today at 8:42 am
The Ocean Race to collect rare data in Antarctica
The analysis of tiny microplastics (down to 30 microns) has never been done before in Antarctica The Ocean Race is driving an Antarctic science mission in which vital data about the health of the ocean will be gathered at the southern fringes of the planet, where information is extremely sparse. Posted on 28 Nov
Boris Herrmann talks about return to solo racing
The German skipper is set for the Retour à La Base Boris Herrmann: "In the Westerlies I am sure I have one of the best boats for sailing solo." Posted on 28 Nov
Retour à La Base starts in four days
More than 30 solo skippers will start the inaugural 3,500 nautical miles race Thursday 30th November at midday local time (0800hrs UTC) more than 30 solo skippers on their IMOCA 60s will start the 3,500nautical miles inaugural Rétour à La Base race from Martinique Posted on 27 Nov
Great racing and great solidarity
A record-breaking IMOCA fleet in the Transat Jacques Vabre The 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre-Normandie Le Havre featured a delayed start because of extreme weather and then a shortened course, but it still delivered a classic contest for the record-entry 40 IMOCA teams that took the start. Posted on 24 Nov
Alla Grande Pirelli take first place in Class40
Ambrogio Beccaria and Nicolas Andrieu win the Transat Jacques Vabre Italian skipper Ambrogio Beccaria and French co-skipper Nicolas Andrieu sailing the all Italian Musa 40 Alla Grande PIRELLI took first place in the highly competitive Class40 race on the 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Posted on 23 Nov
16th Transat Jacques Vabre update
Britons Pip Hare and Nick Bubb on Medallia finish 12th IMOCA British duo Pip Hare and Nick Bubb on Medallia crossed the finish line of the 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre at 22.12.56hrs this Monday evening off Fort de France, Martinique to secure 12th place in the IMOCA fleet. Posted on 22 Nov
Class40's tantalising Transat plotline.
Hitchcock, Tarantino or Spaghetti Western? With less than 200 miles to the finish and the winner due across the finish line tomorrow mid-afternoon (UTC) the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre Class 40 title looks increasingly like it will be decided between crews who are Italian Posted on 22 Nov
Louis Duc reminds us of the joy of sailing
Benjamin Ferré and Pierre Le Roy finish the Transat Jacques Vabre-Normandie Le Havre Sometimes in IMOCA racing, the simple joy of sailing, on what are unbelievable racing machines, gets a bit lost in the focus on the design race, on finishing places, on discomfort on board and technical issues. Posted on 22 Nov