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Alan Roura begins his second non-stop circumnavigation. The adventurer became a professional skipper. The young father of the family and his wife are aware that he is risking his life.
Alan Roura’s 60-foot ship “La Fabrique” in the waters of the French Atlantic port of Lorient in August.
Every four years, the Breton fishing port of Les Sables-d’Olonne is in a state of emergency during the first week of November. Hundreds of thousands of people stand along the canal that connects the port basin with the sea to say goodbye to the sailors who want to go around the world alone, without help and without stops. The Vendée Globe, launched by a couple of sailors some thirty years ago, is now one of the most important sporting events in France. And it is the toughest and longest sports competition in the world.
But this time many things are different. When the start of the ninth edition of the regatta is fired on Sunday, there will be a lack of spectators due to the corona pandemic, the skippers will only be able to board their boats after a week of quarantine after a negative corona test. And only a strictly limited number of family and friends can say goodbye. The Swiss Alan Roura is also affected by the strict measures, who voluntarily entered into quarantine for two weeks, which he spent with his family at his Breton residence, Lorient. This is also where his base is located, where he spent four years preparing for his second Vendée Globe.
Solid boat and more money
The 27-year-old from Geneva is still the youngest participant, as four years ago when he entered the race as a rookie and adventurer. Now he’s better prepared, with a solid ship and a big enough budget. But Roura knows that he cannot win this race. Compared to the best professional solo boaters in the world, their sailing skills are insufficient. And your broker is not fast enough. But Roura can do better than four years ago. Significantly better. In 2017, after 105 days at sea, he finished twelfth. This time he believes in an 80 day time to race around the world. “80 days, as in the Jules Verne novel,” says the Genevan with a laugh. “And with a little luck, that might be enough for a spot in the top ten.”
Roura does not have a new generation boat. It dates back to 2007 and has had an eventful history. It successfully survived three Vendée Globe numbers and can therefore be considered very strong. In 2008/09, it was a new design that took the winner of the last edition of the Vendée Globe, Armel Le Cléac’h, to second place. Roura has completely overhauled his Open 60 and equipped it with foils. “I’m 10 to 20 percent faster with the foils,” he says. The Swiss is one of 18 participants who have equipped his racing machine with wings. 8 of them are the latest generation of foilers (see additional text) that were built especially for the race. Most likely the winner will come from this field. The record time of 74 days, set by Le Cléac’h four years ago, should be well trimmed. Alex Thomson, the great favorite of England, took food rations for 67 days.
Born in Geneva, Alan Roura, at age 27, the youngest participant in the circumnavigation.
Roura can stay at sea for 85 days without having to ration her meals. Unlike Thomson and other first-class sailors, he has decided not to protect his cabin. It says, “I have to see the sky.” This is not surprising, Roura grew up in the sea. It has spent most of its life in the water. This is where he differs from virtually all high seas boaters.
His family initially lived on a boat on Lake Geneva. Then he embarked on a sailing trip that lasted eleven years and went around half the world. Alan stopped going to school, his mother taught him the basics, but he wasn’t really interested in it. The school of life was more important to him. Even as a child, he was a member of the crew on board.
Vendée Globe 2020/21
With lots of switzerland
At the age of 18, Roura acquired the yachtmaster and hired himself as a skipper. But he dreamed of running; In the Mini-Transat 2013 he entered the racing scene. He gained valuable experience on the Route du Rhum and the Transat Jacques Vabre, but he also learned about the harsh reality of sailing on the high seas. Racing campaigns require a minimum of finances and a reasonably professional infrastructure. And you need a suitable boat for this. In the 2016/17 Vendée Globe it was an Imoca 60 (sixty feet, 18.28 meters long). As luck would have it, the racing yacht built by Bernard Stamm de Vaud for his first Vendée Globe in 2000 was for sale. And with the La Fabrique company, Roura found a sponsor that enabled him to run a purely Swiss campaign, a sincere wish of his native Geneva.
The bearded sailor, who could easily pass for a mountaineer or ski instructor, has a sunny disposition. His cheerful demeanor wins people’s hearts and defends their feelings. It seems believable when you are overwhelmed by emotions at a press conference and break down in tears. The sale of his parents’ boat, which the family had lived on for years, upset him emotionally.
Roura is not a daredevil like Stamm, who failed to finish any of his three starts in the round-the-world race. And he is not an intellectual like the Genevan Dominique Wavre who, thanks to a cold and almost emotion-free calculation, achieved three places in the Vendée Globe in positions 4, 5 and 7. Roura is a young man who knows how to make his dreams come true. stubborn and ambitious, but almost playful, perhaps even with the help of fate, which seems to be well disposed for him.
In the 105 days that Roura spent on the high seas in the winter of 2016/17, he proved that he can handle the high demands of a continuous circumnavigation of the world. Roura even accomplished the feat of replacing a broken rudder in waves and sailing, which was probably unique in this way. He was sure that he would participate again, especially since the sponsor stayed true to him, gave him a better Open 60 and approved an adequate budget of 4 million euros.
Now Roura has made the transition from adventurer to professional skipper. You could leave the field of sailors with big dreams and a small budget. With about half a dozen employees, he became a small business owner. He pays himself and his people the same salary: 3,000 euros a month. What you also earn, for example through lectures, you put into your project. At Lorient, the team outfitted the 13-year-old boat with second-generation foils. And Roura began her professional training, working on her weaknesses.
The judgment of the experts
The sailing experts who trained the Swiss think that he has a good feeling with the boat, but that he is missing some racing reflexes. And that’s not consistent enough when it comes to the trunk trim. These deficits demonstrate his rather disappointing running results during the preparation period. However, his solo world record in the Atlantic in the summer of 2019 proved that he and his team are on the right track.
Alan Roura, while still the Benjamin on the pitch, has visibly matured over the course of four years. They got married and their daughter Billie was born in July. The young couple is aware that the father is risking his life. You want to try to face dangers differently. Abandoning the race was not in dispute. However, he says with a smile, he is fully motivated to come home earlier this time. He could do that. Your second Imoca 60 is faster than your first boat thanks to the blades.
But the very fact that yachts use their wings to enter a kind of flight mode under certain conditions makes sailing more complex. And above all, harder. To avoid injury, Roura protects himself with protectors. The interior of the boat has been modified to cushion strong blows. “Life on board is increasingly difficult,” says Roura. The noise will also be hellish. I protect myself from this with headphones and music. “Thanks to a special mattress, tested in the Ocean Race, and a special pillow, he has improved his sleeping situation. There are small changes, but they are useful. However, physically and mentally, Roura it will reach its limits.
Four favorites and plenty of room for surprises
wr. · 24 296 nautical miles or 44 996 kilometers is the shortest theoretical distance of the 9th Vendée Globe. At the beginning of the week, the race management set the exclusion zone with 72 GPS points to protect the sailors from icebergs. Englishman Alex Thomson, 46, third in 2013 and second in 2017, is one of the top favorites. Run the best-funded campaign with an estimated budget of € 10-15 million. The opposite pole in the field of eight participants with the last Open 60 is Charlie Dalin. The 36-year-old Frenchman has had a meteoric rise. In 2019, he won the Transat Jacques Vabre as a newcomer and finished second in the preparatory race for the Vendée that summer. Dalin has the potential to succeed François Gabart, who won the circumnavigation in 2013 as a young star. Thomas Ruyant, 39, is the second French in the group of favorites. Like Dalin, he is a newbie. Another French contender is Jérémie Beyou, 44, who finished third in the Vendée four years ago. Boris Herrmann, the sailor who took Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic, is also an option to take first place. He is the first German in the Vendée Globe.
There are six women at the beginning, that’s a record. Among them is the Englishman Sam Davies, 46, one of the most experienced ocean sailors in the world. She was fourth twelve years ago; a superior position is attributed to him, although it does not own a boat of last generation. Could benefit from failures in the latest generation of foilers. In general, it is hoped that navigating with this new technology has not yet been sufficiently tested. Exposed wings are at risk of collisions.
The majority of yacht breakdowns are due to collisions with unidentified floating objects. Collisions with whales and dolphins are very common. But that is kept secret by the sailors, there is an omertà on this subject. To protect against floating objects, a system consisting of two cameras connected to the top of the mast has recently been established. You can see surface shapes and temperature contrasts up to a depth of 600 meters. A second system emits an ultrasonic sound on the keel to repel the whales. About half of the sailors are equipped with these warning systems.
