15th in the last Vendée Globe, Damien Seguin officially presented his Ocean Fifty project this Friday in La Trinité-sur-Mer, for which he is seeking partners. For Tip & Shaft, the 45-year-old skipper looks back on his round-the-world voyage and tells us more about the new chapter he wants to open.
Three months after the finish, how do you feel?
I think the Vendée Globe been digested in the sense that I’ve done the necessary work to recover mentally, which means I can now turn the page with serenity. Now I’ve got to finish nursing my Vendée Globe injuries, which I’m doing at the Kerpape rehabilitation center. I injured myself quite badly when I was in the big low-pressure system under Australia, getting thrown by a wave, hitting my head and turning my knee. We had to wait for the MRI scan at the end of the race, which revealed a small cervical fracture and a torn posterior ligament. Fortunately, I avoided surgery for both, and I think I’ll be able to get back to ocean racing at 100% of my capacity in a few weeks’ time. In the meantime, with a view to my Ocean Fifty project, I‘ve resumed training on a sport catamaran, bought a Formula 18, I did the Eurocat and I will race the French championship in La Rochelle.
Does that mean this Vendée Globe has been painful for you?
It’s true that I struggled for most of the race. The descent of the channel in Les Sables, which I didn’t experience in 2020 because there was no one there, left its mark on me. I didn’t manage to be in the good pace at the start, as I’m used to doing. Then, physical problems made the second half of the race more complicated, and I had to grit my teeth. Now, we all know that a Vendée Globe is complicated, you have to deal with a lot of things, and I had to deal with my problems, while all the others had to deal with theirs.
What about your 15th place finish?
There’s frustration and disappointment, that’s clear. I wanted to make progress between my two Vendée Globe at every level. I’ve succeeded in that, except for the final result, which is not a very good result. Now, that’s only a small part of the four-year project, there were also some great races and, looking back, I’m pretty proud to have finished this Vendée Globe, which wasn’t easy.
“The Vendée Globe page
is not turned”
During this Vendée Globe, you conducted a scientific study with Apicil to monitor your health. What were the results?
They haven’t all been published yet, but what generally emerges is that a Vendée Globe on a boat with big foils is extremely demanding in terms of what you experience on board: noise, shocks, sleep quality, rest time… The aim of this study is to show the reality of the race to see how we can better prepare for it in the future and better support skippers in their recovery. What really struck me was the lack of support at the finish: you get off the boat, you’re thrown into the crowd, to the media, then back to your family, and in the end, there’s no protocol in place to carry out analyses, help with recovery… Bérénice Charrez, with whom the class worked, draws a parallel with astronauts: when they come back from a mission, they are taken care of with a medical protocol, a rest period, before being returned to normal life. We don’t have this, so maybe we need to ask ourselves the question and move towards something a little more supervised.
You’ve decided to enter the Ocean Fifty, can you tell us why? Have you considered setting off on a third Vendée Globe campaign?
I clearly asked myself the question, and several parameters came into play in my thinking, notably financial capacity – because Apicil had announced back in July that they were ending their partnership – and sporting objectives. As far as I was concerned, if I set off on a third Vendée in a row, it would be to continue to progress, which meant buying a much newer boat or builduing a new one. Financially, it seemed complicated with the withdrawal of Apicil, so I looked around and the Ocean Fifty caught my eye for several reasons. Firstly, because I come from a real multihull sport background; secondly, because the overall budget is lower than for an Imoca project; and thirdly, because the boats are better suited to offering returns to partners, which is more limited in an Imoca.
If Apicil had continued, would you have joined the Imoca again?
Yes, I think so, because even if they are machines that crush skippers, Imoca boats are still extraordinary. As far as I’m concerned, the Vendée Globe page hasn’t been turned; I surely won’t do the 2028 edition, but I haven’t drawn a line under the following ones.
“An extraordinary story
to tell with Thibaut”
Can you tell us how you imagine your Ocean Fifty project? And how do you deal with the numerus clausus designed to limit the number of entrants?
Today, I’m in discussions with partners, who I’m meeting on Friday in La Trinité-sur-Mer. I’m going to present the project to them, in terms of preparation, objectives, budget and boat. It’s true that the numerus clausus is not easy for a racer like me to tackle, insofar as I unfortunately don’t have access to the construction of a new Ocean Fifty. So I have to turn to the second-hand market, where there aren’t many boats and lots to do to make them better, which doesn’t scare me after all the work we’ve done on our Imoca! Today, I’m in contact with potential sellers, but the first step is to get as many partners on board as possible. I’m not putting any pressure on myself by telling myself that I absolutely have to be in the Transat Café L’Or this year. If that’s not possible, I’ll start my project in 2026, in which case I’ll be available from the second half of the year to co-skipper a boat, be it Ocean Fifty, Imoca or Class40.
Have you contacted any teams within the class?
Yes, all the more so as this year, as routing will be forbidden, my profile may interest some skippers, as I’ve always done it in Imoca. And there’s a story that would be quite extraordinary to tell, that of doing the Transat with Thibaut (Vauchel-Camus), because we grew up and sailed together in Guadeloupe, and it’s thanks to our association at the time in Hobie Cat 16 that we were able to reach the top level, so it would be nice to continue the story. We’ve already talked about it a bit, but today the ball’s more in my court, depending on my project.
Could you request a class exemption to build a boat?
I haven’t talked to them yet, but I’m going to do it soon, as I’m following Gildas Plessis’ project to build a 40% bio-sourced Ocean Fifty very closely. He’s just given me a presentation, because he knows how sensitive I am on the subject. Would it be of interest to the class to have a boat that would set an example, and thus push them to open an additional ticket? I haven’t opened the discussion, but I do know that the class is interested in my profile, because, coming from the Imoca and the Vendée Globe, it can bring a bit of weight to the communication, I think there are things to do.
What budget are you aiming for and have you sold your boat?
A good Ocean Fifty budget for me, and because I want to do things right, would be at least 1.2 million euros a year. In terms of budgeting, I’m going to work with a big foundation around diability with an international outlook, I can’t tell you which one yet, but I’ve given you some big clues! As for the Imoca, she’s still up for sale, we’ve just finished work on her, she’s in better condition than she was at the start of the Vendée Globe, all you have to do now is fit the mast and keel and go for a transatlantic race, all for 3.5 million euros full options!
Photo : Adrien François
