Graphic: Thomson's voyage round the globe

Assuming no late calamities, Alex Thomson will take his place this weekend on the start line for the sixth Vendée Globe, humbled and grateful for the support given to him by the sailing fraternity after the accident that almost scuppered his hopes of competing in the solo non-stop circumnavigation.

Three weeks ago, Hugo Boss, Thomson’s boat, was anchored off the west coast of France when she was struck by a clueless and careless French fishing vessel, which ripped a large hole in the hull and brought down her mast. Many skippers would have despaired, but Thomson saw the accident as a mere setback. For more than a week, a team of 40 people worked on repairing Hugo Boss and, touchingly, several of Thomson’s rivals in the race lent parts or expertise.

Last weekend, the boat returned to the water and Thomson, one of seven British sailors in the race’s 30-strong field, is hoping that, by the skin of his teeth, everything will be ready in time. “I have had so much help from the sailing community,” he said. “I will be for ever grateful.”

“We were extremely lucky,” Jason Carrington, the shift leader for the repair effort, added. “If the boat had been struck 50cm to the aft it would have been impossible to repair.”

Accidents are part and parcel of the life of the long-distance sailor. A few years ago on a previous circumnavigation, Thomson narrowly escaped a collision with another 60ft fishing boat. “It was a beautiful moonlit night and I was on the foredeck,” he said. “I suddenly thought, ‘The moon’s rather bright,’ put my head round the sail and saw this boat steaming towards me with its lights on. It must have missed me by ten feet.”

Thomson, 34, is known jokingly as “The Wrecker” for the way that accidents tend to follow him. A broken mast ended his first Vendée in 2004 and two years later, in the Velux 5 Oceans race, he had to be rescued from the Southern Ocean by Mike Golding, his British rival, after a keel failure. Only hours after picking up Thomson, Golding’s mast broke.

Some may wonder if Thomson has a touch of Jonah about him. When we met recently, he managed to break a piece of gym equipment and then, while showing the Vendée route on a wall map, a sweeping gesture sent a glass flying across his office.

But if he is a bit clumsy, he is also a talented and committed sailor. The Vendée will be his fourth attempt at a circumnavigation in five years. After the aborted Velux race, Thomson came second in the two-handed Barcelona World Race, with Andrew Cape, last year. If his boat remains in one piece, he could stop the French domination of the Vendée.

Above all, Thomson is a details man, particularly when it came to the design of his £2.5 million boat. “Single-handed sailing is all about detail,” he said. “A tiny mistake compounds itself and ends up costing you miles. And 100 miles builds to 1,000 really easily.”

Every measure to save weight and thus cut time around the world was taken, such as the twin coach roof, one over each wheel, rather than an overarching roof. “It costs £1,000 a kilo, so I wanted to save weight,” Thomson said. “It creates a ‘tunnel of death’ as the water pours down the middle of the boat, but it means you can walk down the middle, which is more comfortable. It’s different and either it will work — and everyone will want to copy it — or it won’t.”

Thomson has also saved weight by not painting the carbon inside the cabin. “I love the look,” he said of the bare black walls, “and it will make it easier to get to sleep.”

Not that sleep is on the agenda for the next three months. Thomson, like the other 29 competitors in the race, will nap for 20 to 40 minutes at a time. Anything more becomes dangerous.

Sleep, as Thomson observed, is for cissies. “The motivation to get out of bed is to make the boat go faster,” he said. “I haven’t spent four years of my life on this just to lie in bed.”

The drive and determination of these solo sailors, as brought to public awareness in Britain when Ellen MacArthur came second in this race in 2001, is astounding. The claim that the Vendée is an aquatic Everest is not mere hyperbole. Of the 88 attempts at the race since 1989, only 48 were completed. Three sailors have died, many others have had to be rescued.

“There are times when you think that you can’t continue,” Thomson said. “And then after five minutes you think, ‘Well, if I don’t do this, it will cost me miles and I’ll have to work harder to catch up.’ ” It is this stoicism that will keep Thomson going, no matter what fate throws in his way.

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