After “dancing with death” in a solo around-the-world race, Chinese sailor Xu Jingkun aims to inspire a new generation of dreamers.
Chinese skipper Xu Jingkun clearly recalls the day he first learned about the Vendée Globe, a solo, nonstop, around-the-world sailing race that starts and finishes on the west coast of France. It was 2007, he was 17 years old, and his eye was drawn to a magazine cover story while visiting New York.
But it wasn’t the challenge of the gruelling race that struck him — it was the yachts. Or, as he calls them, “the beasts.”
In February this year, Xu fulfilled his “ultimate dream” by becoming the first Chinese sailor — and only the 100th in history — to complete the Vendée Globe, after spending almost 100 days sailing a secondhand IMOCA 60 yacht 27,616 nautical miles. What makes the feat even more impressive is that Xu has only one arm.
“I would never dare say that I’ve conquered the seas or anything like that,” says the 35-year-old skipper. “But through my personal story, I really want to share with young people … that the path to achieving one’s dreams involves many sacrifices and setbacks, requiring a faith-like devotion.”
On that day in 2007, Xu had been in the United States to compete in the Sailing World Championship, in Rhode Island, and was laser-focused on his preparations for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. It was about eight years later that he started taking a serious interest in the Vendée Globe, when he spotted a collection of super-sleek, next-generation racing yachts during a visit to a training base in France. “It was then that I truly understood what kind of races these boats are meant for,” he says.
The Vendée Globe — a one-design race in which all competitors must sail IMOCA 60 yachts — has been running since 1989 and is held every four years.
In 2016, the event’s organizing committee invited Xu to the departure ceremony in Les Sables-d’Olonne, a small French resort town, where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered to send off the 30 or so competitors. It left a deep impression. “With courage — from where, I do not know — I told the few Chinese friends around me that day that, one day, we would form a Chinese team and take part in this race,” he says.
Xu Jingkun adjusts and tests equipment aboard the secondhand IMOCA 60 he bought in 2021. Courtesy of Xu
Against all odds
Xu, who grew up in Pingdu, a city in China’s eastern Shandong province, was 12 years old when an accident with a firecracker cost him his left forearm. Yet, he wasn’t about to let the disability hold him back. Within just a short time he’d joined the Shandong Disabled Athletics Team as a sprinter, later switching to sailing at age 14.
He couldn’t swim, and had never even seen the ocean, but he was a quick learner. After just two years, he’d earned a place in the Chinese National Disabled Sailing Team, and was part of the Chinese delegation to the Beijing Paralympics. Xu says that it was only after the team was disbanded following the 2008 Games that the idea of sailing around the world began to take root.
The years that followed that life-changing day in Les Sables-d’Olonne in 2016 were dedicated entirely to preparing for the Vendée Globe. As he honed his sailing skills, Xu racked up an impressive list of accomplishments, including in 2017, when he and his wife, Xiao Shuyao, became the first Chinese sailors to circumnavigate the globe in a catamaran, covering 34,000 nautical miles past more than 40 countries and regions.
Xu Jingkun and his wife Xiao Shuyao. Courtesy of Xu
After securing several sponsorship deals, Xu spent more than 4 million euros ($4.55 million) in late 2021 to purchase a secondhand 2007 Finot-Conq IMOCA 60, now named the Singchain Team Haikou, which he sailed to complete the 2022 Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race and the 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre double-handed transatlantic race with British yachtsman Mike Golding — both firsts for a Chinese sailor.
Xu discovered that there was almost no information in Chinese on IMOCA 60 yachts, let alone Chinese-language manuals. He had to figure things out on his own, studying the boat’s structure and translating vast amounts of documentation to understand how the equipment worked.
He spent four years getting familiar with his “beast,” repairing and maintaining it alone while competing in various races. “Before the Vendée Globe, I had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean six times,” Xu says, adding that he was in no rush to take on the Vendée’s hazardous route, which passes the world’s three great capes: Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, and South America’s Cape Horn. “By the time I finally entered the race, my synergy with the boat was excellent.”
Although mentally prepared, he still faced several disadvantages compared with his competitors — his budget was one-tenth that of the top teams, while his boat was also 16 years old and 2 tons heavier than the lightest yachts in the race, with an average speed efficiency 1.74 times lower. To save on cost, Xiao was the only full-time member of his shore team, with two others working part-time. Most teams had at least 20 crewmembers.
Before the race, an international media report raised doubts over whether the Chinese team would even finish. In response, Xu wrote to the publication, highlighting China’s long maritime history and declaring that now is the time to reinvigorate this tradition.
Xu Jingkun poses during the Vendee Globe 2024 in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, Nov. 10, 2024. Emma Da Silva/Icon Sport via VCG
Xu Jingkun is welcomed by locals during his voyage. The words on the board read “Well done, Xu.” Courtesy of Xu
The cruel sea
On the opening day of the 2024 Vendée Globe, Xu wore hanfu, a traditional outfit in ancient China, leaving hundreds of thousands of spectators in no doubt that his team — although lagging behind in budget, technology, and manpower — was determined to leave its mark on the race.
“I think this must be the only race on Earth where the entire planet is the arena,” he says. “The only obstacles are icebergs and storms, no competitors interfere with you, and the only referee is nature itself.”
During his 99 days, 19 hours, 6 minutes, and 11 seconds at sea, Xu had to endure everything from the “doldrums” of the calm belt near the equator, where boats can get stuck on windless waters, to ocean storms producing 10-meter-tall waves. He saw no sunlight for more than a month straight, and sailed in temperatures as low as minus 5 degrees Celsius.
Seventeen days from the finish line, he almost quit when the rope to raise and lower his gennaker — a 380-square-meter specialty sail primarily used on racing boats — snapped. “If that sail couldn’t be lowered and a storm had hit, it would’ve torn the boat apart,” he says.
To fix the problem, Xu had to climb the boat’s 30-meter mast — the equivalent of scaling a 10-story building. “It felt like the mast was beating me up,” he recalls, the dread palpable in his voice. “If my rope had snapped, I would’ve been thrown into the sea with no hope of getting back onto the boat.”
Left: A general view of “Singchain Team Haikou.” From xujingkunracing.com; Right: A screenshot shows Xu climbing the boat’s 30-meter mast to replace damaged rope. Courtesy of Xu
He made the climb three times over three days to replace the damaged rope. And when he finally lowered the gennaker, it fell into the sea, forcing him to dive into the water to haul it back bit by bit. In an interview after the race, he admitted this episode had led to a rare emotional breakdown. He even called his wife in tears, telling her that he couldn’t go on. “During that time, I really had fleeting thoughts of giving up. It was just too hard,” he says.
The incident was just one in a string of near-calamities that befell Xu during the voyage. When asked how he passed the time, he laughs and says, “Many people wonder if I get bored on the boat, but I’m actually extremely busy. There’s so much work every day that I can’t finish it all.”
The 60-foot-long IMOCA 60 has eight sails, and Xu had to constantly switch them depending on the wind condition, while also filming videos to keep his shore team updated. “Sailing at high speed 24 hours a day, I could only sleep intermittently, 10 to 20 minutes at a time. This meant a total of three to five hours of sleep a day. In bad weather, I couldn’t rest for a day or two at a time.”
Xu finally arrived at the finish line — also in Les Sables-d’Olonne — at 8:08 a.m. on Feb. 18. More than 10,000 people had gathered at the port to welcome him. “I felt incredibly happy, because when we first set out to do this, many doubted us and I faced huge resistance,” he says. “Almost no one believed we could do it. After all the hardships, we’d earned everyone’s recognition and turned our dreams into reality.”
Screenshots show Xu arriving at the finish line in Les Sables-d’Olonne. From Xu’s Bilibili account.
Xu celebrates his achievements in Les Sables-d’Olonne, Feb. 18, 2025. From The Paper
Yet, his aspirations don’t end here. Xu now hopes to share his story with young people across China to help them understand, engage with, and develop an interest in sailing, as well as inspire them to chase their own dreams.
“What sailing teaches us is to prepare properly. Truly great sailors never take risks,” he says, adding that the Vendée Globe is ultimately a “dance with death.” Yet, Xu doesn’t believe the seas are dangerous. “They don’t mean to harm you, they just possess immense power — only when you become equally strong and understand the rules can you play this game.”
Circumnavigating the globe in a boat takes decades of training, he adds. “When you truly master the boat and are familiar with the laws of nature, then you can try it. Chasing a dream should be approached like a professional challenge. It takes the correct attitude, expertise, and solid preparation.”
Xu Jingkun leaves Sables-d’Olonne Port during the Vendee Globe 2024 in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, Nov. 10, 2024. Bruno Vandevelde/Eurasia Sport Images via VCG
Reported by Ma Zuoyu.
A version of this article originally appeared inThe Paper. It has been translated and edited for brevity and clarity, and is republished here with permission.
Translator: Vincent Chow; editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.
(Header image: Xu Jingkun, wearing Ming-dynasty-styled “hanfu” clothing, waves from aboard the “Singchain Team Haikou” prior to the start of the Vendee Globe 2024 in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, Nov. 10, 2024. Christophe Archambault/AFP via VCG)
