On a grey and cold mid-February morning in Concarneau, France, a brand-new IMOCA was launched—marking the start of Elodie Bonafous’ campaign for the 2028 Vendée Globe. A relative unknown outside France, the 30-year-old has earned a strong reputation at home through steady progression and standout results.
For some, sailing around the world is a lifelong dream—but doing it single-handed and non-stop might seem less appealing. Unless you live in Brittany. There must be something in the salty, rarely warm air that makes such a challenge feel achievable.
From an early age, Bonafous was immersed in sailing. Her father first took her on day cruises along Brittany’s north coast on their family’s 6m boat, with longer summer trips further fuelling her fascination. “I was immediately hooked,” she recalls. Like many young Bretons, she grew up captivated by the Vendée Globe. “I was only five years old but I remember following Ellen MacArthur’s 2000–01 race. After that, when asked what I wanted to do for a living, I said I wanted to be a sailor like Ellen!”
She was soon pleading with her parents to let her join the local sailing school. “They finally signed me up in the middle of winter, thinking the cold, wet and windy conditions would put me off. But I loved it!” At 15, Bonafous moved to Brest to join a sports-study programme that let high-performing athletes train more intensively. Though keen to race solo, her small stature initially kept her out of the Laser Radial class, so she focused on 420s.
At university, she formed a successful all-female team that won the 2018 J80 university world title. But she soon realised her passion ran deeper than her peers’. “My crew had professional aspirations linked to their studies, but I wanted to sail as a career.”
Once she finished her studies, her parents stopped supporting her sailing ambitions financially. “If I wanted to keep going, I had to pay for it myself. I worked as a sports coach in a retirement home for a year while planning my next steps.”
In 2019, the Brittany Region and Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne launched an all-female selection process to helm a Figaro boat. Bonafous won—beating, among others, 2024 Vendée Globe finisher Violette Dorange—and joined the prestigious Team Région Bretagne – CMB, following in the footsteps of sailing legends like Franck Cammas and Armel Le Cléac’h.
“In my mind, the Solitaire du Figaro was a necessary step before the Vendée Globe,” says Bonafous. “But I didn’t want to just do it once. I wanted to really learn and perform.” The Figaro circuit, she explains, is a place where you develop meticulous attention to detail and push past physical and mental limits. “After those first exhausting solo races, I was so happy. It felt like a drug—I was just so happy to be alone at sea.”
Over five years on the Figaro circuit, Bonafous became the most consistently successful woman the series has ever seen. She finished in the top 10 of the Solitaire three years in a row and became only the second woman—and first Frenchwoman—to finish on the podium of a leg, a feat she achieved twice. She also notched up race wins—feats achieved not with Team Région Bretagne – CMB but with Groupe Quéguiner.
Groupe Quéguiner has a long track record in sailing, having supported Yann Eliès to three Solitaire wins and a fifth-place Vendée finish in 2016, followed by a stint backing Tanguy Le Turquais. When they partnered with Bonafous, a Vendée campaign wasn’t on the table, but she had it in mind. “It was definitely there in a corner of my mind,” she admits.
When the time came, it turned out that Bonafous didn’t need to do much convincing. “The Quéguiner family is passionate about sailing. They loved their 2016 Vendée experience with Yann and were already thinking about 2028. After seeing my results and steady progress over three years in Figaro, they decided to go for it with me.”
The new IMOCA is owned by the Quéguiner family, while Groupe Quéguiner serves as main sponsor. And this isn’t just any boat—it’s a sister ship to Macif, the 2024 Vendée Globe winner. “We never considered designing a new boat,” says Bonafous. “It was financially out of reach and felt like too big a leap. Our goal is to perform in the Vendée Globe, not just take part.”
They wanted a proven platform they could sail as early as possible. “When we were offered the chance to build Macif’s sister ship, we knew it was the right move. The involvement of Guillaume Verdier as designer, Charlie Dalin’s Macif sailing team, and François Gabart’s Mer Concept as the boatyard, was a powerful combination that gave us both reliability and performance. But I wasn’t expecting to get such a great boat for my first campaign!”
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Seeing Dalin win the 2024 race only confirmed their choice. “The goal is to be sailing this boat at 100 percent of her potential in four years,” says Bonafous. “We trust the design won’t be outdated.” The sister ships are structurally identical, though a few ergonomic tweaks were made—“We’re not the same height, so I lowered the grinding pedestal and adjusted the watch seat”—but otherwise the focus is on logging miles and learning before a year-end refit based on experience.
For now, 2025 is about crewed and double-handed races. “I won’t be solo much this year,” she says. “I want to bring experienced sailors on board to help us in the areas we’re still learning.” The 2026 season will ramp up with solo races and culminate in the Route du Rhum.
Asked about The Ocean Race Europe, Bonafous explains that her sponsor isn’t focused on international exposure. “It’s a local company in western France, so we won’t enter those races. But I’d love to join a crew for The Ocean Race to gain experience.”
Bonafous is clear-eyed about her ambitions. “One day, I want to win the Vendée Globe. But it doesn’t have to be the next one. I’m just discovering the world of IMOCA. As a competitor, I have to aim for the podium—and if possible, the top step.”
That would be a monumental achievement—not just for Bonafous but for the sport. No woman has ever won an IMOCA race. But it’s not something she fixates on. “Ideally, a woman winning wouldn’t be seen as special anymore. We’re all on the same start line. That said, it’s great to see the sport evolving and those barriers breaking down. I think we’ll see a woman win this cycle, whether it’s me or someone like Justine (Mettraux). She’s shown she can do great things, even with an older boat. On a level playing field, anyone can win.”
Initiatives like France’s mixed-gender races and The Ocean Race’s mandatory inclusion of women are helping to shift the narrative. “These steps are great,” says Bonafous, “but I hope soon we won’t need to impose mixed crews or have female-only selections. Women have already proven they can win—just think of Ellen MacArthur or Florence Arthaud (winner of the 1990 Route du Rhum).”
Bonafous, like many in her generation, prefers to be seen simply as a sailor. “It gets a bit redundant, always answering the same gender-related questions. Why don’t men get asked about equality in sailing? It’s a societal issue that concerns everyone. The media has a role to play, too.”
Nevertheless, she’s optimistic. “I think a lot of male sailors are now aware of the gender barriers and are working to help remove them. Efforts are being made to give women the opportunities they deserve. We’ve proven that we can perform, push our limits, and contribute just as much. The aim should always be to build the best possible team, regardless of gender. Diversity helps every crew perform better.”
Bonafous and her team recently sailed their IMOCA for the first time—a key milestone ahead of their first race of the season: the Course des Caps, a crewed race around the British Isles starting and finishing in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France.
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