As it approaches the equator, the VULNERABLE They monopolize the first two places in the 10my edition of the Vendée Globe, and the cordial understanding of their respective skippers, Thomas Ruyant and Sam Goodchild, both from the TR Racing team in Lorient, cannot be denied.
On Thursday, November 21, the eleventh day of this solo, non-stop and unassisted round-the-world trip, the Frenchman took the lead of the race, followed, about twenty miles away, by his British friend and training partner. “It’s okay Thomas, it’s okay because it’s you.”joked Sam Goodchild, in the morning, on his social networks.
The latter, who swears that his only ambition as a rookie is “ just for finish » This 45,000 kilometer race through the Capes of Good Hope (South Africa), Leeuwin (Australia) and Horn (Chile), celebrated its 35th anniversary two days ago, at the head of the race. A position to which he has been transferred 24 times since leaving Sables-d’Olonne (Vendée), on November 10.
Annoyed in the first days by the management and repair of a small water leak in the front of his boat, Thomas Ruyant, 43, double winner of the Transat Jacques-Vabre (2021 and 2023) and the Route du Rhum 2022 , he was discreet despite himself.
But its positioning further west than its direct competitors allowed it to find a vein of wind and quickly cross the Doldrums, this intertropical convergence zone characterized by an alternation of violent squalls and flat calms that put sailors on edge.
The northerner does not hide his ambition to win this “Everest of the seas” which he faces for the third consecutive time, after abandoning due to damage off the coast of Tasmania during the 2016-2017 edition and a 6my place in 2020-2021.
“Two VULNERABLES, like Verstappen’s Red Bull and Pérez’s”
In the world of ocean racing, his TR Racing team (T for Thomas, R for Ruyant), which Goodchild joined in 2023, is an exception and a curiosity. Design office, boat preparation and optimization, training navigation, tools, logistics… Except for a close guard of technicians for each one, the two sailors share and put everything in common, like in an F1 team.
Even the strictly identical surname of its two 18 m monohulls (Imoca), VULNERABLE, which delimits its black mainsails with vertical white capital letters. “It’s simple, there are two VULNERABLES like the Red Bull of (Max.) Verstappen and the (Sergio) Perez »smiles Thomas Ruyant in reference to the Dutch and Mexican F1 drivers, when we point out that this choice can sow confusion in the minds of observers.
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