Arnaud Boissières has done the math on sleep deprivation and daylight that never ends. At 53, the Arcachon-born skipper—now a adopted son of Les Sables-d’Olonne—knows what awaits him in the Vendée Arctique. He has competed in this race twice before, a distinction he shares only with Manu Cousin among the current fleet. His third attempt begins in days, and Boissières approaches it with the clarity that comes from having been around IMOCA racing long enough to recognise both its poetry and its teeth.
The route bears no resemblance to what came before. The original Vendée Arctique courses offered structured passages; this one opens up above the Arctic Circle. Skippers can plot their own course once they cross that threshold, chasing the storm systems that move further north. It sounds romantic until you realise what it means: crosswinds, beam seas, the sort of sailing angle that offshore boats typically avoid at all costs. Boissières grimaces at the prospect but means it. “The sea has a talent for showing us something new every time,” he said. “We’ll be taking the depression trains from further north, so sideways. Wind and sea from the side. Even though our boats circumnavigate the world, we generally avoid those angles. Here, we won’t have a choice.”
The physical toll compounds in latitudes where the sun refuses to set. Boissières has experienced polar twilight before and knows it demands more than willpower. Rest becomes an act of discipline rather than surrender. He has prepared with a sleep log and an eye mask, treating the challenge as seriously as any tactical decision. The comparison to Al Pacino’s character in the Alaska film Insomnia is self-deprecating but honest: even at his level, the relentless daylight grinds. Nutrition matters. Sleep matters. Knowing when to push the boat and when to preserve it matters more.
What drives him back? Originality. Boissières speaks of it as a compass, something deeper than trophies or vindication. The Vendée Arctique offers something genuinely untested, a race that refuses the script. That is enough.
