Vendée Globe

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August 01, 2008D-Day-100

The countdown to the start of the sixth Vendée Globe has just reached a crucial moment. We are in fact 100 days from the start, on Sunday 9th November, of what the skippers now call the Everest of Sailing. The closer we get to that all-important date, the more questions we hear being raised.
Who will be up there with the winners in the single-handed round the world race? Which skipper will add his name to the list of honour drawn up with the names of the previous winners: Titouan Lamazou (1989-1990), Alain Gautier (1992-1993), Christophe Auguin (1996-1997), Michel Desjoyeaux (2000-2001 and Vincent Riou (2004-2005)? Will someone put an end to French supremacy (there are twelve in this category hoping for a win)? How many of the thirty boats lining up at the start will cross the finish line off Les Sables d´Olonne? Will Vincent Riou’s 87 day record be broken?
What we can already say is that when talking about the forthcoming Vendée Globe, we will be using many superlatives! Never in the history of ocean racing, has an event come up with such a line-up from a sporting and technological perspective. Never has the Vendée Globe had such a great international impact, with more than one third of the skippers coming from outside of France. Whoever manages to predict what is going to happen, is certainly very clever. We will start to get some idea in less than 100 days...

August 01, 2008Roxy back home

Having set out from Lorient three weeks ago for some PR operations in Biarritz, Sam Davies took advantage of the voyage to train in fairly rough conditions. On her way down the Bay of Biscay, the wind reached 45 knots, which allowed Roxy to reach peak speeds in excess of 20 knots at times. After this severe gale, things quietened down with some sunshine and ideal conditions in the Basque region for demonstrations for the public. Sam also took advantage of the opportunity to go surfing in Biarritz and meet some of the leading sportsmen in the field. The return journey was upwind and on Wednesday, Roxy was taken out of the water in Lorient for some final checks. The boat should be ready in early September, leaving her two months to go before the start of the Vendée Globe.

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.