Alan Roura is getting ready for the Vendée Globe 2024: “I used to be made for that”

“I used to be made for this, I prefer it, and I am going headlong,” says the Geneva skipper, who was inhabited by doubt when it got here to ending the final Vendée Globe in 2020/21.

“Throughout the race already, I puzzled if I’d need to relaunch myself in such an journey”, he recollects. “The general public solely sees the race and the efficiency, and forgets all of the work upstream. It’s a must to search for companions, kind a crew. It is a constant administration,” he underlines.

“The query was the truth is whether or not I needed to relaunch this machine. The reply was sure. However I needed to have the ambition to have all of the playing cards in hand to get a great efficiency within the Vendée Globe 2024/25”, explains Alan Roura, seventeenth in a disputed 2020/21 version with a ship inbuilt 2007 which skilled main technical issues.

“Abruptly, the machine is much more advanced. To be formidable, you want a great boat, and a great crew”, he continues. “This boat (renamed Hublot, after its new primary sponsor) is made for the Vendée Globe. It is not versatile. It is easy to sail. It is essentially the most nice boat I’ve ever sailed on. for a few years,” he stated.

“There’s a whole lot of consolation. We sail inside, dry, in a closed and ergonomic cockpit”, explains the Genevan, who can calmly proceed his lengthy preparation for the Vendée Globe. “It is gratifying to have the ability to evolve similtaneously your boat and to construct a venture that lives as much as your ambitions”, he slips.

Workforce work

“Now we have to get the most effective from everybody. That is what makes us develop,” says Alan Roura, conscious that he can be nothing with out the work of his crew. “It is a small crew of 8-10 folks, with very totally different trades. Everyone seems to be subsequently empowered,” he explains.

“Everybody is especially concerned on this venture, and everybody desires to carry out”, provides the Genevan, who should put all of the belongings on his facet earlier than discovering himself alone on the controls at sea. shouldn’t be fully in command of his future: “We will have all of the playing cards in hand at first and end final as a result of we broke one thing”, he lets go, fatalistic.

Alan Roura, who was ranked twelfth in a 2016/17 Vendée Globe through which he was the youngest participant at 23 years previous, is inevitably heading into the unknown every time. “I do not actually know what it takes to win the Vendée Globe, as a result of I’ve by no means received it. But it surely’s a mechanical sport, and you need to know easy methods to anticipate,” he says.

Breakage, a needed evil

“The purpose is for boat and sailor to grow to be one. It takes a whole lot of work, a whole lot of power, good bodily and psychological preparation, preferrred vitamin, sleep, a close-knit crew”, he lists. “You additionally want a price range that permits you to take a look at, to develop the boat, to interrupt too. Breaking is a assure of future reliability”, he specifies.

“Higher to interrupt in the present day than in the course of the Vendée Globe”, provides Alan Roura, for whom this race is certainly the final word purpose. “It is a childhood dream. As a baby, nonetheless, I noticed myself competing on this race solely as soon as. However once you put your finger within the gears, you get caught,” he smiles.

“It is such a strong expertise that you simply essentially need to relive it. I could not have the ability to compete on this race ten instances. However three participations is already good”, says the Genevan, for whom the street remains to be lengthy. earlier than the Vendée Globe 2024/25. “For this race, the sooner you put together, the higher ready you may be.”

His preparation additionally began as quickly as he acquired his new boat. She is going to take him this fall on the Route du Rhum, the beginning of which is scheduled for November 6 in St-Malo, then will move in 2023 by the Transat Jacques Vabre specifically. “I can even be competing in two single-handed Transats in 2024. So I nonetheless have a whole lot of races to arrange for,” concludes Alan Roura.