Bangor born yachtsman Alex Thomson believes he finally has the boat that will win the Vendee Globe around the world yacht race in 2020.
The 45-year-old has high hopes he will become the first Briton to win the non-stop, solo round-the-world race. He would certainly appear to stand an excellent chance. His new boat, which like all his previous ones is called ‘Hugo Boss’ after the team’s principal partner, went in the water for the first time yesterday and looks absolutely stunning.
Built in a boatyard near to the team’s base in Gosport, the 60-foot yacht is on of the most innovative of its kind. Built with composite materials the boast is designed to be as lightweight as possible, achieving top speeds of 38 knots. At the same time the boat is resilient enough to withstand the most gruelling conditions. The project has taken a team of designers, boatbuilders and architects 26 months, 50,000 man hours and the small matter of £5.5 million to reach this point – although as Thomson notes: “£5.5 million and it still doesn’t have a toilet!”.
Thomson is getting closer each time he‘s entered the race. Having been forced to abandon his first two attempts in 2004-05 and 2008-09 due to boat damage, Thomson finished third in 2012-13 and then second last time out in 2016-17, when he would have won but for a broken foil which hampered him for most of the race.
Despite the setbacks in 2017, Thomson completed the course in 74 days 19 hours 35 minutes and 15 seconds. The winner of the next edition could circumnavigate the globe in fewer than 70 days, given the performance of the boats.
Thomson said: “There’s two parts to it, performance and reliability. We can make the fastest boat in the world, but it has to be able to finish the race.
“We’re going to work hard on both of those – it looks like she’s going to be a fast boat, now we have to work hard to make her reliable.”
Next year’s Vendee Globe starts on Sunday, 8 November 2020 from Les Sables-d’Olonne in western France.
