The prize-giving ceremony for the Vendée Globe 2024-2025 takes place this Saturday 10 May in Les Sables-d’Olonne. It’s an opportunity for Tip & Shaft to take a snapshot of the various projects to date and the new cycle that is beginning for the Imoca class.
“We’re in a period of transition.” In one sentence, Antoine Mermod sums up the general context prevailing in this spring of 2025 for the Imoca boats. “It has not escaped anyone’s attention that the global economic situation is not easy,” continues the class president. This generates a fair amount of uncertainty and complicates the work of the skippers and the teams in their search for partners. For a while, we feared that the situation would be very complicated, but in the end, it’s not that bad. It’s not euphoria, but it’s not a catastrophe either.”
The first indicator is the number of new boats planned for the new 2025-2029 cycle, of which there are nine to date. Élodie Bonafous‘ boat (sistership to Macif Santé Prévoyance) was launched last February, and will be followed in June by Armel Tripon‘s VPLP design, Les Ptits Doudous. Three Koch designs have been ordered from CDK, in the same moulds, which should be ready in 2026 for Thomas Ruyant (who is looking for partners) and Boris Herrmann, and in the first quarter of 2027 for Loïs Berrehar, the new skipper of Banque Populaire.
As for Multiplast, Kojiro Shiraishi‘s future DMG Mori (Verdier design) is currently under construction, while, although the announcement has not yet been made official, Yoann Richomme has placed an order for a Koch design – albeit not in the same moulds as the previous three. A slot has also been reserved for Sam Goodchild, who is however awaiting the green light from his sponsor, Leyton, who has already worked alongside him in Ocean Fifty and then on his first Imoca project (with Advens). Finally, Sébastien Simon has just confirmed the construction of a Verdier design, entrusted to the Carrington Boats yard in Southampton, for a launch scheduled for May 2026.
“Sailors have time”
Will other new boats follow? That’s certainly the intention of Franck Cammas, who is looking for partners with a view to taking on The Ocean Race in 2027 and the Vendée Globe in 2028, while Louis Burton, who was initially thinking of launching a new Manuard design, is no longer considering this option for the time being, “in the middle of a phase of reflection and discussion with Bureau Vallée”. Charlie Dalin and Jérémie Beyou, who are keeping their respective Imoca boats, Macif Santé Prévoyance and Charal 2, until the Route du Rhum 2026, have not yet revealed their intentions for the future.
“The sailors have time ahead of them to launch projects, and a lot can still happen,” says Antoine Mermod, who is highlighting a new qualification and selection system. The new system gives greater importance to sporting results, but it has drawn criticism from Jean Le Cam – who has made it clear that he has no plans to race in 2025 and is wondering what will happen next – who believes that it encourages “elitist projects”.
All the sailors aiming for performance, whether in The Ocean Race or the Vendée Globe, do not necessarily want to build, like Paul Meilhat, who recently confided in our Pos. Report podcast: “We asked ourselves the question last year, but we decided to keep the current boat (Biotherm) for several reasons. Firstly economic and environmental – we have to be consistent with what we say, and I’ve always advocated a more virtuous sport – then because making a foiler reliable takes a huge amount of time. Now, The Ocean Race is a year and a half away, so if we want to remain effective, we have to continue with this Imoca.”
A quiet second-hand market
What about the second-hand market? For the moment, it seems to be very quiet, with 30 boats for sale on the Imoca website, which doesn’t surprise Antoine Mermod: “We’re in the usual proportions,” he assures us. In the 2024 Vendée Globe, only 5 of the 33 skippers entered in 2020 left with the same boat. Things are moving, discussions are underway and not everything is immediately made public.”
Nevertheless, several deals have been made official in recent weeks: backed by Mapei, Ambrogio Beccaria will take possession of Thomas Ruyant’s Vulnerable in July, while Francesca Clapcich will do the same next autumn with Boris Herrmann’s Malizia-Seaexplorer, while Canada Ocean Racing, Scott Shawyer‘s team, announced on 7 May that it was buying Sébastien Simon’s Groupe Dubreuil.
According to our information, other sales have taken place or are in progress, such as the sale at the end of the year of Paprec Arkéa to MACSF, which has still not revealed the name of the skipper who will succeed Isabelle Joschke – Corentin Horeau is strongly tipped to do so. In Les Sables d’Olonne, a number of deals are about to be struck between sailors who have already decided to embark on a new campaign: Manu Cousin has his sights set on Arnaud Boissières’ La Mie Câline, this latter on Benjamin Dutreux’s VPLP design. When contacted by Tip & Shaft, the interested parties declined to confirm.
An unfavourable context
Is the relative calm of the second-hand market worrying skippers? Interviewed last week by Tip & Shaft, Louis Duc, who is looking to set sail again in 2028 on a second-hand Imoca with better performance, confided: “There’s less enthusiasm than four years ago. Now, there are still a lot of skippers looking to line up at the start in 2028, but I think it’s going to shift a bit and pick up again around the time of the Route du Rhum.”
In the last episode of our Into The Wind podcast, Sébastien Marsset, who is also looking for a more ambitious project for 2028, had this to say: “The market is fairly quiet because the economic context is causing a certain amount of nervousness. And also because the deadlines aren’t there yet. Will the close of entries for the Transat Café L’Or on 30 June encourage people to take the plunge? Or will we have to wait until 2026 for the Route du Rhum?” For Eric Bellion, who is also keen to do it again, “we’re in a period like we’ve always experienced, except during the previous cycle when there was a real euphoria, it’s more this 2020/2024 period that has been an anomaly.”
However, a number of them have confessed their difficulties in finding funding, like Maxime Sorel, who has a boat and a team, but no budget yet: “By announcing the end of my sponsors before the start of the Vendée Globe, I was hoping to attract new ones so that I could set off again in 2025, but that’s not the case. The next four months will be decisive. If I’m not further ahead in September, I’ll start to commit my business financially and we’ll have to take some drastic measures: stop and sell the boat.” Similarly, Yannick Bestaven, faced with the end of his partnership with Maître CoQ, is proposing a turnkey project – team and boat – but so far without success.
What about daggerboard boats?
While this is not the case for Tanguy Le Turquais, who has switched to Ocean Fifty, and Damien Seguin, who is also interested in this class, many of the sailors involved in the last Vendée Globe have in any case told us that they intend to set off again with more ambitious projects. In addition to those already mentioned, this is the case of Fabrice Amedeo (who has found an initial partner, FDJ United), Justine Mettraux, Antoine Cornic, who is in discussions with two partners and will have his mind made up by early June, Oliver Heer, Conrad Colman, Giancarlo Pedote and Romain Attanasio. “I’m hesitating whether to keep my current boat with some major modifications or to buy one of the 2020 generation,” explains the latter.
“I’ve re-signed with my partner and I can enter the Transat Café L’Or,” rejoices Conrad Colman, who, like Oliver Heer, is looking for partners to take part in The Ocean Race with a foiler. There are two options on the table: buying a good second-hand Imoca or building a new one. I have several leads with boatyards that have slots available.” In other words, the first to be served – particularly for the highly sought-after 2020 generation Imoca boats, which sell for between €2.5 and €4 million – will be the first to find partners. This also applies to potential new entrants, such as Gaston Morvan, Benoît Marie and Tom Dolan, who are aiming for a good foiler.
In this context, will the daggerboard Imocas, which are all up for sale, find any takers? “There are families of boats that correspond to families of projects. For a first Vendée Globe with fewer resources, a well-reliable non-foiler is still excellent value for money, so there are bound to be sailors who will turn to this type of project,” answers Antoine Mermod. Nicolas d’Estais is one of them: “I’d like to take part in the next Vendée Globe with a daggerboard Imoca under the colors of Café Joyeux, but I haven’t yet decided which one,” confirms the skipper, who has already raised part of his budget.
Given this transition period, how many boats will we see sailing in 2025? To date, 12 are registered for the new Course des Caps (start June 29), 6 for The Ocean Race Europe (August 6-September 21): Paprec Arkéa, Allagrande Mapei, Canada Ocean Racing, Malizia, Holcim-PRB and Biotherm. What about the Transat Café L’Or, which in 2021, the post-Vendée Globe year, attracted 22 duos? “We can hope to reach a similar number,” assures Antoine Mermod. Although 10 boats have been officially entered to date, Tip & Shaft has counted around 15 sure starters, which means that we can expect around 20 duos, a sign that we’re finally on the same level as four years ago.
Photo : Vincent Curutchet / Alea
