Vendée Globe

All of the skippers got together this morning (Monday) for two briefings with the Race Directors, the Race Committee, the Protest Committee and the Rules Committee, in order to learn about how the measurement and safety checks will take place aboard the monohulls during the next two weeks. Denis Horeau, the Vendée Globe Race Director explains.

Two briefings this morning on safety and measurement rules…
«These were two important meetings to ensure that everything runs smoothly over the next three weeks of preparation and indeed during the race itself. First of all, we dealt with the measurement checks to ensure the boats satisfy maritime rules. With the assistance of his twelve measurers, Jean-Luc Gautier was able to draw up the schedule for visits with the shore teams.»

What do these checks entail?
«There are, for example, tests on the communications equipment to ensure that the satellite phones are working, on safety equipment to check the emergency beacons… All of the information supplied by the skippers is checked, including phone numbers, the date when the life raft was certified… In all, there are fifty points to run through. It is vital that the organisers have all the information to allow them to act as quickly as possible, if there are ever any problems on board.»

When do these checks begin?
«From today (Monday). The first session runs until Sunday and a second is planned for between 2nd and 6th November for a final verification of the information.»

The second briefing dealt with safety at sea.
«We examined eight subjects in this area: firstly, the means of contact between the race organisers and the competitors and their shore teams; an explanation about the beacons taken on board and the way they trigger an alarm ashore; how the drifting of ice will be monitored in the southern seas with everything made available by the CLS satellite data agency, the French and European Space Agencies (which could lead to the "ice gates" being moved); defining how a crisis situation is dealt with and the use of a colour code (green, yellow, orange, red); the analysis of an emergency situation with some explanations from French Navy pilots, who fly over the victims; how the rescue teams work in the Southern Hemisphere (South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile) as their methods are not the same as those used in France. Finally, there is the question of medical monitoring, which the Vendée Globe organisers take care of and the weather data supplied to the competitors during the race... »

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