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August 01, 2008Eight IMOCA boats at Cowes Week

Cowes Week will officially begin tomorrow, Saturday 2nd August, with one of the highlights next week being the Artemis Challenge, an event reserved for Open 60 monohulls. Eight IMOCA boats plan to fight it out around the Isle of Wight: Artemis I, Artemis II, Aviva, Ecover3, BT, Hugo Boss, Pindar and Spirit of Weymouth.

July 31, 2008Jean Le Cam qualifies

Jean Le Cam has returned to his homeport of Port la Forêt on board VM Matériaux, which has now qualified, joining the 25 sailors registered and the 5 pre-registered for the Vendée Globe. As stipulated in the rules, the Lombard designed boat fitted with a new keel has completed a 1500-mile non-stop voyage on the high seas. \"There were three of us on board,\" explained Jean Le Cam, relieved to have finished with this formality. The yachtsman from Port la Forêt naturally took advantage of this compulsory voyage to check out the thousand and one new features on the 2008 version of VM Matériaux, which was more or less refitted and has now been optimised.

July 24, 2008The British yachtsman Steve White, 25th entrant

Steve White has been dying to take part in the Vendée Globe for years. Steve worked alongside skippers, such as Pete Goss and Chay Blyth before winning his first single-handed transatlantic race, the 2005 OSTAR, at the helm of the Open 50 Vail Williams belonging to the legendary Mike Plant. After mortgaging his house to buy his monohull, \"Spirit of Weymouth\", the former Pindar, no one can doubt his determination...

July 24, 2008Results of the Vendée Globe competition in Les Sables d´Olonne

The results of the first draw for the Vendée Globe competition organised by shopkeepers in Les Sables d´Olonne are now available at the foot of the official website homepage. For this first week, Madame Suzanne Bondou has won a trip on a passenger boat to watch the start of the race on 9th November. All of the results and prizes are available at the Vendée Globe shop on the seafront, 21 promenade de l´Amiral Lafargue in Les Sables d´Olonne.

July 02, 2008Dee Caffari, 24th name on the list!

Dee Caffari has fulfilled all the requirements and has thus become the 24th sailor to register officially for the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe. At the age of 35, the British yachtswoman will be competing in the Everest of the seas for the first time on board her new Owen-Clarke design, Aviva. However, this will of course not be the first round the world voyage for this former sports teacher and marathon runner, as back in 2006, she became the first woman to sail around the world alone “the wrong way”, against the prevailing winds and currents in a voyage that took her 178 days.

July 01, 2008Raphaël Dinelli’s monohull relaunched

Raphaël Dinelli’s boat "Fondation Océan Vital" was relaunched on Monday 30th June 2008 in Les Sables d´Olonne. For his fourth attempt at the Vendée Globe, the skipper from Les Sables is committed to a citizen project, where renewable energy is a major feature. "I’m really attached to this project. After a few months of work, it’s always a great pleasure to relaunch the boat. Of course, there is all the enjoyment of sailing, but this time we will be able to launch our campaign based around the technologies we have been working on for several years." Raphaël Dinelli is thus back at sea with his old boat, which has been refitted to be able to use the new technologies developed in the framework of his work with the "Océan Vital" Foundation: "I’m not taking any fossil fuel on board for the Vendée Globe. The electrical power on board will originate uniquely from the new solar panels and a wind turbine."