- Indian rival royal factions clash outside palace
- Equity markets retreat, dollar gains as Trump fires tariff warning
- Manga adaptation 'Drops of God' nets International Emmy Award
- China's Huawei launches 'milestone' smartphone with homegrown OS
- Philippine VP denies assassination plot against Marcos
- Four Pakistan security forces killed as ex-PM Khan supporters flood capital
- Hong Kong's legal battles over LGBTQ rights: key dates
- US lawmakers warn Hong Kong becoming financial crime hub
- Compressed natural gas vehicles gain slow momentum in Nigeria
- As Arctic climate warms, even Santa runs short of snow
- Plastic pollution talks: the key sticking points
- Indonesia rejects Apple's $100 million investment offer
- Pakistan police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at ex-PM Khan supporters
- Ronaldo double takes Al Nassr to brink of AFC Champions League last 16
- Pakistan police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at pro-Khan supporters
- Hong Kong same-sex couples win housing, inheritance rights
- Indonesia digs out as flooding, landslide death toll hits 20
- Liverpool's old guard thriving despite uncertain futures
- Mbappe takes reins for Real Madrid in Liverpool clash
- As AI gets real, slow and steady wins the race
- China's Huawei to launch 'milestone' smartphone with homegrown OS
- Porzingis and Morant make triumphant NBA returns
- Hong Kong top court affirms housing, inheritance rights for same-sex couples
- Philippines, China clashes trigger money-making disinformation
- Most Asian markets drop, dollar gains as Trump fires tariff warning
- England 'not quivering' ahead of New Zealand Test challenge
- Bethell to bat at three on England Test debut against New Zealand
- Trump vows big tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China
- New Zealand and England to play for Crowe-Thorpe Trophy
- Scheffler, Schauffele and McIlroy up for PGA Player of the Year
- Trump to face less internal pushback in new term: ex-commerce chief
- Extreme weather threatens Canada's hydropower future
- More than 34,000 register as candidates for Mexico judges' election
- Australia ban cycling's Richardson for life after UK defection
- Internal displacement in Africa triples in 15 years: monitor
- 'Remarkable global progress': HIV cases and deaths declining
- Social media firms raise 'serious concerns' over Australian U-16 ban
- Tiger to skip Hero World Challenge after back surgery
- MLB shifts six 2025 Rays games to avoid weather issues
- US women's keeper Naeher retiring after Europe matches
- Dow ends at fresh record as oil prices pull back on ceasefire hopes
- West Ham stun Newcastle to ease pressure on Lopetegui
- Menendez brothers' bid for freedom delayed until January
- Arteta calls on Arsenal to show 'ruthless' streak on Champions League travels
- Israel bids emotional farewell to rabbi killed in UAE
- Sonar image was rock formation, not Amelia Earhart plane: explorer
- Tottenham goalkeeper Vicario has ankle surgery
- Prosecutor moves to drop federal cases against Trump
- Green light for Cadillac to join Formula One grid in 2026
- Romania braces for parliamentary vote after far right's poll upset
Bestaven in pursuit of sailing's 'holy grail' in Vendee Globe
Yannick Bestaven already knows what it feels like to win the Vendee Globe but the 51-year-old Frenchman cannot resist the call of the solo, non-stop round the world yacht race, which sets off from Les Sables-d'Olonne on the Atlantic coast on Sunday.
"For me, this race is the holy grail of solo racing," he told AFP.
"It's a personal challenge to circumnavigate the globe in a yacht, alone on board.
"Even after a victory, it's still a challenge. The story will be different: you're in the unknown when you set out to sea."
Bestaven won the last edition of the race, completing the 24,300 nautical mile-course -- that's 45,000 kilometres for the land-lubbers -- like a seaborne Phileas Fogg in 80 days, three hours and 44 minutes in 2021.
But he is right to be humble: it goes with the territory.
All 40 skippers that will start this tenth edition will be eager to outwit and outsail their opponents and snag the 200,000-euro ($214,000) winner's cheque. They know, however, that the main challenge will be a communal one -- the sea.
Occasionally she lends a helpful hand allowing the 60-foot Imoca monohulls to glide on their foils at near 40 knots; at other times she will rise like a ferocious monster the size of a mountain ready to crash down and crush the boats below.
"There's an element of randomness, things you can't control, technical problems, retiring, hitting an unidentified floating object," says Charlie Dalin, skipper of MACIF Sante Prevoyance.
"You never know what's going to happen to you in a Vendee."
Every skipper is well aware of the dangers that lie in wait in the 'Everest of the Seas'.
One skipper, Nigel Burgess, died in the second edition in 1992-93 while Mike Plant perished while crossing the Atlantic to reach the French start point for that race. Four years later the Canadian Gerry Roufs disappeared, his boat turning up on the coast of Chile six months later.
Four years ago Kevin Escoffier came within a whisker of joining them, his boat snapped in two. He was lucky, picked up by veteran Jean Le Cam who at 64 will be the oldest of this year's competitors.
"You need a mind of steel, a demanding team that has prepared the boat well and a good failsafe because, as usual, the boats will all end up battered," British skipper Sam Davies told AFP.
Davies is one of six women entering the race, each of them looking to emulate Ellen MacArthur who remains the only woman ever to make the Vendee podium when she came second in 2000-01.
Another is first-timer Violette Dorange who, at 23, is the youngest skipper in the race.
She is one of 15 skippers making their Vendee debuts. The others include 35-year-old Jingkun Xu, who only saw the sea for the first time at the age of 12 and is now the first Chinese sailor to take on the Vendee Globe.
- 'Magical marathon' -
The Vendee Globe started life in 1989, set up by French yachtsman Philippe Jeantot. Of the 13 boats that started only seven finished with another Frenchman Titouan Lamazou winnings in 109 days.
The French influence remains as strong as ever with the race still waiting its first 'foreign' winner.
The Vendee will grip the nation from start to finish. Twenty-seven of the 40 skippers are French, the media will track the race from start to finish and hundreds of thousands of people will have been to view the boats by the time they set off up the canal on Sunday to start their three-month voyages.
It will make a welcome change to the eery, empty silent quays that saw the boats off four years ago when the race started during the Covid lockdown.
The flotilla of high-tech Imocas, highly-advanced 60-foot monohulls, follows the old clipper route down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. They then swing around Antarctica before rounding Cape Horn and heading for home, back where they began in Les Sables-d'Olonne.
"The Southern Ocean and rounding Cape Horn are quite a challenge," says Bestaven who will be competing in Maitre Coq V and hoping to nudge closer to the record of 74 days as he takes part in what he says will be his final solo race.
"We cross some wild places, there aren't many humans sailing there. These places are quite magical. The light, the wildlife, the albatrosses that follow the boat... It motivates me to relive those exceptional moments of four years ago.
"But the Vendee Globe as a whole is an extraordinary race. It's the one that lasts the longest. You come to think of a transatlantic race as a sprint, the Vendee Globe a marathon."
T.Bondarenko--BTB