Nine skippers lined up at Les Sables-d’Olonne on Tuesday morning for a race nobody has ever attempted before. The Vendée Arctique sends them north on a loop with a single rule: cross the Arctic Circle at whatever latitude they choose, then return home as fast as possible. No predetermined route. No set waypoints. Just the North Pole and a fleet of IMOCA boats about to discover what that freedom means.
Sam Goodchild arrives as the favourite. Macif’s skipper has barely put a foot wrong this year, winning the Cape Race, The Ocean Race Europe, and the 1000 Race within the past month. “I’m fortunate to be well supported,” Goodchild said before the start. “That lets me approach every race with confidence and actually enjoy it.” His consistency suggests he understands what this race demands: speed paired with something closer to mountain climbing than traditional offshore tactics.
The field chasing him is broader than typical. Ambrogio Beccaria took over the former Vulnérable from Thomas Ruyant and has spent months tearing it apart and reassembling it. The Italian showed genuine pace in Class40 racing but remains cautious about the changes. “We’ve fundamentally overhauled the boat,” he said. “The goal is to finish without damaging it.” His second place at The Ocean Race Europe and fourth at the Transat Café L’Or suggest he has the mettle for this, even if the nerves around his newly modified foiler are justified.
Three women are competing. Élodie Bonafous pilots a sister-ship to Goodchild’s Macif and has already won the Rolex Fastnet and podiumed at the Cape Race since joining the class. “It’s learning at full throttle,” she said. “This will be a long race, about managing endurance and rhythm. It’s going to be intense.” Corentin Horeau’s MACSF was second at the 1000 Race three weeks ago and the 34-year-old skipper has begun his journey toward the Vendée Globe 2028. Violette Dorange finished third in the 1000 Race and has been training alongside Sam Davies. Francesca Clapcich, the Italian-American aboard 11th Hour Racing, impressed at the Transat Café L’Or with a second place and is eager for the tactical puzzle ahead.
Arnaud Boissières, the five-time Vendée Globe veteran, recovered the old Guyot Environnement boat. “We’re launching a new cycle with a brand new challenge,” he said. Manuel Cousin, another Vendée Globe sailor, is racing his first foiler campaign aboard a fundamentally rebuilt hull. Nico d’Estais alone arrives on a non-foiling boat but refuses to accept limits. “I’d like to cross the line with one or two boats behind me,” he said with a grin. “I don’t set boundaries.”
The weather will dictate the tactics. Skippers can skirt Iceland from east or west. They can hunt for high pressure systems or knife through lows. They can aim for 70 degrees north or stay closer to 66. Corentin Horeau put it plainly: “You’ve got to sail well and try to be faster than everyone else.” That’s all they know. That’s all the race gives them.
