Conseil Général de Vendée

The Vendée Globe: forever in Vendée It was not by chance that the Vendée Globe was created in the Vendée area of France: this is a land of entrepreneurs, where people willingly take up challenges, so our "department" looking outwards to the Atlantic was the obvious choice.
Since the very first contest back in 1989, the sports fans and adventure lovers of Vendée have turned out in force for those skippers, attempting to overcome the Everest of the seas every four years. It was quite natural that they got together with the County Council to ensure that this race was forever linked to Vendée and that the planet's greatest skippers would choose the port of Les Sables d'Olonne as the starting point and finish for the craziest project in their career.
The gamble has clearly paid off, as the last Vendée Globe race was an unprecedented sporting success with Vincent Riou shattering the race record (a little over 87 days) after a toughly fought battle on the seas with "King Jean".

Going beyond the purely sporting aspect, the Vendée Globe remains a fantastic media and tourism opportunity for the whole of Vendée. Thus, in 2004, 842,000 visitors strolled along the pontoons in Port Olonna and more than 30,000 press articles (printed press, radio, television) were published around the world.
The story continues and already a large number of skippers are dreaming of becoming part of the legend when they cross the starting line for the next Vendée Globe on 9th November 2008.

Website: www.vendee.fr

Sodeb'O

As the only private main sponsor, the Vendée-based company has confirmed its commitment to transoceanic sailing, and more specifically to non-stop, single-handed world circumnavigations. As Patricia Brochard, co-president of Sodeb'O, stated, "A world circumnavigation is an all-encompassing adventure where the values of commitment, simplicity, and boldness come together with those that our company has stood for since it was founded 33 years ago".

With growing brand and product presence in Europe, Sodeb'O is proud to support the 27 French and foreign skippers who've signed up. The company would like to share this new round-the-world trip with a very wide audience. Sodeb'O's co-president, who knows what she's talking about, pointed out this morning that this is "a world circumnavigation that should definitely not be taken lightly". In a matter of weeks, Thomas Coville, skipper of the Sodeb'O maxi trimaran, will attempt to beat the world record for single-handed, multihull world circumnavigations: "Whether you're racing or setting records, sailing around the world is an exceptional athletic, technological, and human challenge. It's a true lesson in life that can even be relevant in the corporate world".

Websites : www.sodebo.fr and www.sodebo-voile.com

Les Sables d'Olonne

Website: www.lessablesdolonne.fr