Vendée Globe

The sixth edition of the Vendée Globe got underway at 13h02 today (Sunday), on a gloomy day of variable south-westerly breezes with confused choppy seas inshore and a heavier swell out at sea.

But the overcast conditions couldn’t dampen the atmosphere, with hundreds of thousands of spectators lining the sea walls and clambering onto precarious vantage points to give the 30 skippers the famous Les Sables d’Olonne send-off. After emotional farewells on the pontoons, the sailors were treated to a crescendo of applause, cheering, horn-blaring and flag-waving from the crowds as they made their way out to sea.

Mike Golding was heading out for his third Vendée but said, “It doesn’t feel any different to any others, it’s just as nerve-wracking and frightening. You can’t help but feeling like a condemned man walking down the dock as everyone’s being so nice to you. But it’s an extraordinary feeling here in Sables d’Olonne. It’s amazing to see sailing with such a high profile with such a lot of strong support from the public. It’s something as a British sailor we’re not used to seeing, and so it is really lovely to have that feeling when you’re here in France.”

At the start it looked like Mike Golding on Ecover 3 was set for the best start, but was OCS, while Alex Thomson showed great pace off the line in Hugo Boss. It was defending champion Vincent Riou on PRB who got his nose in front first, with Paprec-Virbac (Jean-Pierre Dick) and Sebastien Josse on BT climbing to join him on the charge out to sea, Josse taking the lead after around an hour of racing. Dee Caffari got a confidence-boosting flying top-five start on Aviva, carrying full mainsail – as did Riou and Thomson, while the rest of the fleet opted for a reef.

This evening conditions are set to worsen with the arrival of a low over Ireland generating south-westerly winds in excess of 30 knots gusting to more than 45.

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