This Friday, January 29, at 09:05:05 and 20 seconds UTC, Benjamin Dutreux crossed the finish line off Les Sables d'Olonne after 81 days, 19 hours, 45 minutes and 20 seconds of racing around the world solo nonstop and without assistance. The skipper of OMIA- Water Family, whose first Vendée Globe it was, finished 9th after leading the race and staying in the main peloton most of the race often alongside Jean Le Cam and Damien Seguin. At 30, armed with a 2007 generation boat which finished third in 2012-13 with Alex Thomson, a boat with classic daggerboards, Dutreux was one of the revelations of this edition.
He struggled to get his campaign up and running and had to fight hard out on the water, but in both cases, Benjamin was successful. Based in Les Sables d’Olonne since he was a teenager, he started his sailing career on racing catamarans, before becoming the beneficiary of the Vendée ocean racing training scheme. In the past few years, he started to make a name for himself in the Figaro circuit, with a particularly good result in 2018, when he finished fifth in the Solitaire.
During the first few days of the Vendée Globe down to the Azores, he was up with the frontrunners and for a short while even led the fleet on 10th November after passing Cape Finisterre. He was one of the rare sailors to enter the heart of tropical storm Theta, following Jean Le Cam and Alex Thomson. Benjamin was in tenth place when he entered the Southern Ocean. He wrote, “I really enjoyed myself in this first month. I was able to race against some of the finest boats. Finding myself in this position in the rankings at this point in the race is incredible for such a small budget and a small team like ours.”
Although he was only just discovering the hostile Southern Ocean, he excelled. Along with Jean Le Cam, Damien Seguin and Boris Herrmann with whom he would continue to do battle, he clearly enjoyed this closely fought downwind battle. He rounded Cape Leeuwin in fourth place. At Cape Horn on 4th January, he was fifth just over two days after the race leader, Maître Coq.
He lost a little ground in the Doldrums, which were not as simple for him as for those ahead of him and made his return to the North Atlantic in ninth position – the place he would occupy when he crossed the finish line this morning in his home town.
Key moments
Equator (outward bound)
10th on 19/11/2020 1003hrs UTC after 10d 20hrs 43mins, 20hrs 44mins after the leader Hugo Boss
Cape of Good Hope
9th on 02/12/2020 at 1035hrs UTC after 23d 21hrs 15mins, 1d 11hrs 24mins after the leader Apivia
Cape Leeuwin
4th on 14/12/2020 at 0051hrs UTC after 35d 11hrs 31mins, 13hrs 25mins after the leader Apivia
Cape Horn
5th on 04/01/2021 at 1452hrs UTC after 57d 01hr 32mins, 2d 1hr 10mins after the leader Maître Coq
Equator (return voyage)
9th on 17/01/2021 at 1420rs UTC after 70d 01hr, 19hrs 8mins after the leader Bureau Vallée.
Benjamin sailed the 24,365 miles of theh theoretical course averaging 12.41 knots.
Her actually sailed 27,832 miles averaging 14.17 knots out on the water/
