SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS

For the best part of four years, Alex Thomson and his British ocean racing team have been in the business of boat building. Their £5.5m Hugo Boss IMOCA 60 creation has been painstakingly designed with one challenge in mind: an event justifiably dubbed ‘the Everest of sailing’.

The Vendée Globe tasks sailors with singlehandedly navigating the world. It’s a title that has so far eluded Thomson, having finished in third and second place in the past two editions. But now the 46-year-old, who made history in 1999 when he won the Clipper Race – thus becoming the youngest skipper ever to win a round-the-world event – is looking to grace the record books once more by becoming the first Briton to conquer the Globe.

Men’s Fitness: With the Vendée Globe commencing in November, do you feel any additional pressure from sailing a boat that you’ve been instrumental in designing and building?

“The opposite, actually: I’ve kind of felt the pressure taken off me. Ultimately, all the decisions have been down to me,