The organization of the 8th Vendée Globe unveils itself. An exceptional edition. Already 28 skippers are registered and 3 others are pre-registered. If a total of 31 skippers have a good chance of leaving, the final counter may be lower. Let's remember that the record of registration of the 2008-2009 edition was beaten with 30 boats on the starting line. Will this year's edition beat this record?
Registering for the Vendée Globe is not limited to a registration and payment of the registration fee. To be able to pre-register (the first step), you must have a boat. And precisely, the number of boats meeting the IMOCA standard and remaining available is close to zero today. Then you have to put the boat under IMOCA rules. A rule that imposes constraints on the stability in particular. The older generation boats do not meet this standard. So they have to be modified, which takes time and money� Once the boat is up to standard, the skipper has to be qualified by doing a 2500 mile offshore race with at least one ocean crossing.
The boat has to be qualified, the skipper has to be qualified, and the budget has to be found... This is why a certain number of the 28 skippers who are officially registered today will not be at the start of the race.
Small anecdote, the maximum number of participants is set byâeuros¦ the number of places at the pontoon in Sable d'Olonne. Today, with the boats whose outriggers widen them (kind of bar of flèches which overflow on each side), the port can only accommodate 27 participants. Their place on the pontoon is distributed as their registration is finalized.
Among all these registered skippers, there are also 9 nations (France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, United States, New Zealand, Switzerland, Hungary, Netherlands). This is probably a record number of foreign participants.
Greater openness to the public
For this edition, the race headquarters will be set up at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The city of Paris welcomes the organization on the Mail Branly. It is here, in a space of 1700 m2 that will be hosted the various animations, exhibitions, but also a restaurant bar or green to the public. It is of course in this space that you can follow the daily press conferences. There will be 3 of them this year (9:30 am, 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm) with in addition the three weekly analysis programs (Wednesday, Friday, Sunday), all broadcasted from this space open to the public. Discover the video presentation of this future PC Course at the end of this article.
A broader follow-up
But if the Parisians will be lucky enough to be able to go to the race HQ, the Vendée Globe will also be able to be followed on the internet with a new multi-support website, a mobile application and a live Web TV. We hope that all this technology will be up to the task of receiving the numerous connections. It is indeed common to see a saturation that blocks access at the time especially departures and arrivals. The Live of this first press conference (February 3, 2016) supposedly accessible, but blocked all afternoon shows the problematic of this kind of promiseâeuros¦
Hopefully, everything will be in place for departure day on November 6, 2016.
The skippers
01 Jérémie Beyou (FRA) /Maître Coq.
02 Tanguy de Lamotte( FRA) / Initiatives C?ur.
03 Vincent Riou (FRA) / PRB.
04 Morgan Lagravière (FRA) / Safran.
05 Armel Le Cléac'h (FRA) / Banque Populaire.
06 Paul Meilhat (FRA) / SMA.
07 Sébastien Destremau (FRA) / FaceOcean.
08 Eric Bellion (FRA) / Comme Un Seul Homme.
09 Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA)/StMichel-Virbac.
10 Fabrice Amedeo (FRA) / Newrest-Matmut.
11 Sébastien Josse (FRA) / Edmond de Rothschild.
12 Yann Eliès (FRA) / Queguiner-Leucémie Espoir.
13 Thomas Ruyant (FRA) / Le Souffle du Nord.
14 Nicolas Boidevézi (FRA) / adopteunskipper.net.
15 Kito de Pavant (FRA) / Bastide-Otio.
16 Jean Le Cam (FRA) / Sponsor search.
17 Bertrand de Broc (FRA) / MACSF.
18 Louis Burton (FRA) / Bureau Vallée.
19 Nandor Fa (HUN) / Spirit of Hungary.
20 Rich Wilson (USA) / Great American IV
21 Alex Thomson (GBR) / Hugo Boss.
22 Arnaud Boissières (FRA) / La Mie Câline.
23 Richard Tolkien (GBR) / Sponsor search.
24 Alan Roura (Switzerland) / Sponsor search, Un Vendée Pour La Suisse.
25 Stéphane Le Diraison (FRA) / Sponsor search.
26 Pieter Heerema (NDL) / Sponsor search.
27 Romain Attanasio (FRA) / Sponsor search
Pre-registration:
28 Didac Costa (Spanish)
29 Alessandro di Benedetto (Italian)
30 Jean-François Pellet (FRA) / Come in Vendée
31 Conrad Colman (New Zealand)
Presentation of previous editions
| Year of the race | Number of participants | Number of boats at the finish | of boats finishing the race |
| 1989-1990 | 13 | 7 | 54% |
| 1992-1993 | 15 | 7 | 47% |
| 1996-1997 | 15 | 6 | 40 % |
| 2000-2001 | 24 | 15 | 62% |
| 2004-2005 | 20 | 13 | 65% |
| 2008-2009 | 30 | 11 | 37% |
| 2012-2013 | 20 | 11 | 55% |
