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A world tour… 4 words are enough to make you dizzy. The Vendée Globe, a solo round-the-world sailing race without assistance, is about to celebrate its 10th edition. 35 years since this race has made the heads of all offshore racers turn! For the Normand Louis Duc and his partners, this is a great first.

The skipper of the IMOCA Fives Group – Lantana Environnement shares his vision, his desires and the links he has forged for a long time with this extraordinary circumnavigation. “It’s a very complex whole; that’s the challenge I want to take on. My ultimate goal is to be at the finish.

A total discovery for me Louis Duc

I have about 20 transatlantic vessels to my credit…but now we’re attacking a big chunk. It’s going to be the total discovery for me.

I’ve been dreaming about it for 30 years

The South Seas have been my dream since I was 10 years old. Since the first Jules Verne Trophy in 1993, tried and succeeded by Bruno Peyron: first sailor to go around the world in less than 80 days: a historic moment, a tribute to Phileas Fogg. It really struck me.

It was my turn to write a story 

After that, there was the Vendée Globe 96 won by Christophe Auguin. I was starting to get a little older. I’ve been doing a lot of research. I knew all the runners by heart, all the history of all the boats, all the stories of the seas…

Since then, I have never stopped learning about ocean racing and soaking up all these stories! Now it’s my turn to write one.

I may have reached this necessary maturity

The Vendée Globe is an extraordinary adventure, a culmination of everything I’ve done so far. You have to come armed to participate in this race. Today, I may have reached that necessary maturity.

It’s already my story

I’ve been dreaming about it for so long and fighting to get there that the Vendée Globe is already part of my history. This is my life path for a long time.

This project is magical 

We have prepared this project well, which is just magic. It went off in an extraordinary way, much better than I could have hoped when I initiated it. We still recovered a wrecked boat. We didn’t have the funds to fix it, no sponsors. We started from scratch and we had to move fast.

We were able to take on all the challenges and pass through all the stages until we qualified for the Vendée Globe.

We worked a lot on the boat, we know it by heart. There is a way to be even better prepared but it’s already a beautiful outcome.

The Vendée Globe: a whole, exciting

The Vendée Globe is a whole:

  • 2 months and a half to 3 months of sea, alone. I’ve never sailed this long.
  • Multiple weather situations and strategic decisions: it has always fascinated me.
  • Daily traps to be fooled.
  • A complicated pace to find to be both efficient and preserve the boat.
  • Go into the cold, pass through equatorial latitudes and plunge back into the cold…
  • The weeks of crossing the South Seas in the cold, bringing it all…
  • Cape Horn…
  • The ascent of the Atlantic with many pitfalls and a tired boat

It’s still great all this!

This is what I’m passionate about! It’s still great all this! It’s a very complex whole that is the challenge I want to take up. My ultimate goal is to be at the finish.

A respectuous and circular sporting event

The Fives IMOCA is an "upcycled" boat. Thanks to Louis, it lives a 2nd life!

Louis and his team gave a new life to a very damaged IMOCA because of a fire. This refurbishment undertaking was a real technical challenge... that succeeded in only 10 months!

Louis and his team continue to apply this upcycling principle and optimization research with a constant effort on sobriety throughout this Vendée Globe program.

Louis is also very keen on respecting everyone's work and giving a chance.

The Fives Group, a major partner in this Vendée Globe program, has been seduced by such commitment and values, as it shares the same values and responsibilities.

Fives, your partner for a more virtuous industry

For over 200 years, the Group has designed the breakthrough solutions and technologies that make industry what it is. From the first railways to the Eiffel Tower, through the spatial conquest, Fives always spearheaded the industry of the future. Pioneering decarbonization, the Group is an unconditional partner of the industry's energy transition. Through digitization, the promotion of a circular economy and the development of new processes and new energy sources, Fives puts its technological leadership to its customers' service.
www.fivesgroup.com