Shipwrecks, perilous rescues, extreme storms, tragedies, and the pursuit of the impossible—since 1989, the Vendée Globe, the most demanding solo, unassisted, and non-stop sailing race around the world, has built its legend through images. As the skippers of the 10th edition, who departed on November 10 (see Episode 1), currently navigate the tumultuous waters of the Southern Ocean, Blind revisits the photographs that have defined the myth of this race.
“The Vendée Globe is one trouble per day”
Michel Desjoyeaux
Arnaud Letrésor, director of the photo agency Aléa Productions, has preserved these iconic archives from the earliest editions to the most recent ones. Having previously worked at the DPPI agency, he founded Aléa Productions with the goal of working exclusively with his favorite photographers and cameramen, regardless of their initial training: “Only their talent matters.” He has overseen the official photographic production of major sailing races such as the Vendée Globe and the Transat Jacques Vabre for several editions. His deep experience in the world of sailing allows him to highlight thousands of photographs, including the most emblematic images of the Vendée Globe. Here is their story.
1989–1990: The Inaugural Edition
- Extreme rescue
On November 16, 1989, only 13 sailors set off to conquer the seas in the first edition of the Vendée Globe, compared to 40 today. This leap into the unknown was already writing the first chapters of the race’s legend. On December 29, 1989, in the storm-tossed Southern Ocean, Philippe Poupon, one of the adventure’s favorites, sent a distress call: his boat, Fleury Michon, had capsized. Skipper Loïck Peyron diverted his course to assist his fellow sailor and, through a maneuver that would go down in history, managed to right the boat. A reconnaissance aircraft captured one of the defining images of this inaugural race. Titouan Lamazou ultimately won, completing the course in 109 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 50 seconds.
“Titouan Lamazou refused to give the photos to Paris Match and personally handed them to Henri”
Lamazou had been entrusted with an analog Nikon camera and four rolls of film by Henri Thibault, the son of the founder of DPPI, to document the race. After 109 days, he returned to port with the film rolls. “Paris Match was desperate to get the photos,” recalls Arnaud Letrésor. “They waited on the dock to retrieve them, but Titouan Lamazou refused to hand them over and personally delivered them to Henri. These were men of trust,” he remarks. Although few of the photos were successful, one stands out: a self-portrait taken by the skipper in the Atlantic, amidst flying fish, marking a memorable moment in the first edition.
- Sea of ice
The 1989–1990 edition also marked the sailors’ first encounters with their greatest fear: icebergs. Jean-Luc Van den Heede, aboard 3615 MET, immortalized one of the most emblematic and terrifying scenes of offshore racing.
“With hindsight, it was sheer madness to sail so close, as you can never know the shape of an iceberg below the surface. With 90% of its mass underwater, I could easily have struck it with my keel. But I made it!”
For this first edition, there is no exclusion zone, in other words, no limit to how close you can get to the Antarctic continent. The stormy seas and wind turbines immerse us in the tobacco coup. “VDH” recounts the experience of his chilling encounter in February 1990 on the Sails & Rods website.
“I went down to 62° south. I was even planning to go down to 65°. From quite a distance, I saw my first iceberg. A big, impressive tabular one. Then on February 2, the ice multiplied and I spent a second anxious night on watch. On the morning of the 3rd, after 2 full days on watch, I get some sleep. When I wake up, an iceberg is right in front of me, and the light is superb. I modify the pilot a little to get closer and take the other 2 shots. In retrospect, it was a bit crazy to get so close, as you never know the shape of the iceberg underwater. When you know that 9 tenths of it is not visible, I could very well have hit the submerged part of the ice cube with my keel. But I didn’t!
To avoid any unpleasant encounters, competitors must now respect an exclusion zone which brings skippers closer to the coast, particularly Australia, to guarantee rescue resources in the event of an accident.
1992-1993: The Tragic Year
- One death, one disappearance
In 1992, 14 skippers gathered on the docks at Les Sables d’Olonne for the second edition. Initially, there were 15, but tragedy struck before the race even began. American sailor Mike Plant, forced to abandon the previous edition, disappeared at sea off the Azores while delivering his boat to the starting line. A capsized vessel was found by an oil tanker, empty of its crew. Despite efforts by the French Navy, Plant’s body was never recovered.
Off the coast of Spain, British skipper Nigel Burgess sets off his distress beacon. His body was found the next day several miles from his overturned boat.
Fate had its way with the sailors. As soon as they set off, they were engulfed in a chaotic Bay of Biscay where the storm raged, forcing most of the fleet to return to the port of Les Sables d’Olonne for repairs. Off Spain, British skipper Nigel Burgess triggers his distress beacon. His body was found the next day several miles from his overturned boat. A second tragedy that reminds us just how unforgiving the ocean can be, even for experienced sailors.
The image taken by Hungarian skipper Nandor Fa sums up just how perilous and extreme skippers’ adventures can be. As he neared the mythical Cape Horn, 75-knot gusts and heavy seas tipped the boat onto its edge. “She stayed that way for 7 or 8 hours,” says Arnaud Letrésor. With the boat listing at around 80 degrees, the navigator calmly passed the time by taking photos, including this one taken through the boat’s rear hatch.
- Bertrand de Broc’s Surgical Feat
“My tongue is cut, I’m bleeding”
Another snapshot that has become emblematic of this round-the-world adventure and the difficulties of managing it alone, in the middle of nowhere: Bertrand de Broc’s surgical selfie.“My tongue is split; I’m bleeding,” Bertrand de Broc relayed via telex to the race doctor after being struck in the face by a sail sheet. Alone in the middle of a storm, he stitched his tongue back together with a mirror and instructions from the doctor. After three hours, he sent another telex: “It’s done,” signing it with a defiant “Rambo.”
1996-1997: Nightmare at sea
In 1996, the race went international, with 15 skippers on the starting line. Two women took part: the famous Catherine Chabaud and Isabelle Autissier. The arrival in the Southern Ocean was brutal, with 20-meter waves and Dantean conditions.
- Miraculous rescue
Navigator Raphaël Dinelli was the first to turn over. What followed was a 36-hour battle for survival, with no food or water, a sore leg and a boat stuck in the water. He recounts his ordeal to the newspaper Ouest-France: “I was hanging on to the mast with my lifeline. When I fell into this hole, in the sail locker, I would put myself in the fetal position, in apnea, and with the waves, I would come up like a ping-pong ball.”
The Australian navy managed to drop a lifeboat on him, but the storm made it impossible to intervene from the air. His boat sank a few hours later. He was finally saved in extremis by another competitor, the Englishman Pete Goss, whose rescue was immortalized from the air by the Australian navy.
“I was hooked to the mast with my lifeline. When I fell into this hole, in the sail locker, I would put myself in the fetal position, in apnea, and with the waves, I would come up like a ping-pong ball”.
Throughout the rescue operation, the two skippers set out to document their adventure as best they could. “Pete Goss was an instructor in the Royal Navy, and documented everything that happened to him, even taking photos of him bailing out or mending his elbow. In this way, he wanted to bear witness to the experience for his students. Raphaël Dinelli also took photos for documentary purposes,” says Arnaud Letrésor.
For this edition, the skippers were equipped with Pentax zoom 90WR cameras, supplied with a remote control for taking photos from a distance. The little black box can be seen in several photos, notably below, in Pete Goss’s left hand.
- A photo worth its weight in gold
Shortly before the rescue of Raphaël Dinelli, Pete Goss captured a huge wave breaking over the bow of his boat. “The photo was taken on Christmas Day deep in the Southern Ocean, south of Australia. It was the start of a huge storm and one of the toughest challenges of my life,” says the sailor.
“It took two days and two nights, and against all odds, he was alive when I arrived. It was the best Christmas present you could hope for…”
Arnaud Letrésor adds an anecdote reported by the Briton: “Pete Goss takes this photo as he falls into his boat. He releases the shutter as he falls. This image was later sold to Lacoste for an advertising campaign for around 170,000 francs. Money that enabled him to pay off the mortgage on his house.” A few hours later, Goss managed to find Dinelli’s boat. “It took two days and two nights, and against all odds, he was alive when I arrived. It was the best Christmas present you could hope for…” he recalls.
- Thierry Dubois et Tony Bullimore en détresse
But the troubles didn’t stop there. In turn, within a few hours of each other, Thierry Dubois and then Tony Bullimore triggered their distress beacons. Both their boats had overturned. They were both rescued by the Australian navy and welcomed back to earth as heroes. Navy photographers would capture these perilous rescues, as in this barely believable photo of Thierry Dubois sitting on the upturned hull of his monohull, leaning on the rudder, waiting for help to arrive in stormy seas. It sums up this nightmarish edition, won by Christophe Auguin in 105 days, 20 hours and 31 minutes.
2000–2001: Yves Parlier as Robinson Crusoe
While the 2000 Vendée Globe will be remembered for the victory of Michel Desjoyeaux and the Ellen MacArthur phenomenon, it will also be remembered for the saga of skipper Yves Parlier and his makeshift rig. An adventure worthy of Robinson Crusoe that began after a dismasting off the Kerguelen Islands. Parlier’s boat crashed into a wave, the mast breaking into three pieces. Give up? The shore team asked, but the seasoned sailor refused.
He decided to head for Stewart Island and attempt the impossible: repair his mast and set off again. In accordance with race regulations, he was forbidden to go ashore or ask for any outside assistance. To feed on shellfish and collect stones to strengthen his anchor, he built himself a raft to reach land, but without going beyond the foreshore, as required by the rules.
“We were dealing with people who loved photography and saw it as a way of keeping a trace. Guys like Van Den Heed or Pete Goss had the idea of transmission. We didn’t know what they were going to bring back, and that was magic.
By an incredible coincidence, photographer Thierry Martinez finds himself on a nearby island, and decides to go to Stewart Island to follow the skipper’s repairs. He was joined by a journalist from Paris Match in the island’s only hotel. They spent twelve days documenting Parlier’s adventure in text and images from a small boat, taking care to stay 50 meters away from his boat and never helping him.
Parlier managed to build a makeshift 18-meter rig instead of the 27 he had started with. After a grueling ascent of the Atlantic – feeding on seaweed and caught fish after having exhausted his stock of rations – the sailor reached the port of Les Sables d’Olonne after 126 days of racing, exhausted, hungry, but alive. He was awarded the Légion d’honneur for his feat. A film, Seul, by director Samuel Le Bihan, tells his story.
2008–2009: Spirit of the sea
- Meeting in Kerguelen
Another edition, another adventure. “The Vendée Globe is a pain in the ass every day,” said two-time winner Michel Desjoyeaux, nicknamed Le Professeur. Every edition has its rescues. Yann Elies had his femur broken, unable to move in his cockpit, and was supported on the VHF by another sailor, Marc Guillemot, before the Australian navy was able to recover him unharmed.
There’s also the unusual image of Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm’s Imoca Cheminées Poujoulat stranded on the rocks of the Kerguelen Islands, with the elephant seal in the foreground. Offshore is the Marion-Dufresne, a scientific and supply vessel for the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). “Thibaut Vergoz was one of the TAAF’s aspiring photographers. He was doing his civic scientific service. He took this photo and sent it to us”, says Arnaud Letrésor.
- Deux marins pour un bateau
The passage of the mythical Cape Horn will also be the story of this edition. Photographer Jean-Marie Liot was sent to fly over Tierra del Fuego to capture the passage of race leader Michel Desjoyeaux. But just as the team was about to head back to France, sailor Jean Le Cam’s boat overturned.
“And then, all of a sudden, we came across the PRB boat, with not one, but two sailors on board. We had the emblematic image”
Jean-Marie Liot recounts: “The Chilean army called us directly and said ‘we know you are French journalists, a plane is leaving tomorrow to fly over the area to try to locate the boat, we invite you to come’”. Based in Ushuaia at the time, the photographer, accompanied by a journalist from L’Équipe newspaper, found himself in Puerto Williams and boarded the plane to fly over the area. “Jean Le Cam had just been rescued. We were going up the fleet and then suddenly we came across the PRB boat, with not one, but two sailors on board. We had the emblematic image.”
Vincent Riou managed to save Jean Le Cam, but damaged his boat and dismasted a few days later, forcing him to retire. By decision of the race directors, he was tied for third place. In 2020, it was Jean Le Cam who saved PRB skipper Kevin Escoffier in extremis, when his boat was literally broken in two by a giant wave.
All these human adventures have been immortalized in images that bear witness to these waters where few sailors dare to venture. The Vendée Globe remains the Everest of the seas, the ultimate challenge, the adventure of a lifetime. “We were dealing with people who loved photography and saw it as a way of keeping a record. Guys like Van Den Heede or Pete Goss had the idea of transmission,” recalls Arnaud Letrésor. “We didn’t know what they were going to bring back, and that was magic.
Today, the unknown seems to have been reduced: the Starlink network enables high-speed connections in the passenger compartment, where sending a simple pixelated image cost a sum of money just a few years ago; high-definition videos can now be sent in a matter of seconds, just like at home. The development of social networks is leading to more ephemeral video content and fewer photos. The magic of discovering what these sailors experienced on their return to port has faded.
But what remains is the beauty of the human adventure, and the admiration for these men and women who defy the elements.
See all the Vendée Globe photos on the following website: Alea Production.
