Vendée Globe 2020, an update on the entries

Between the new IMOCA boats being launched, the building sites being extended and the cancellation of races, we're a bit lost on the skippers already qualified for the Vendée Globe. After all, you have to rack up miles to be able to set off around the world. So who is qualified and who isn't pas?? Let's take stock of the situation.

Chloé Torterat Published on June 2, 2020

May 11th signed the end of the IMOCA winter construction sites. While some were impatient to get back in the water to get back on their feet, others were impatient, happy to be able to test their brand new boats, like Armel Tripon (L'Occitane en Provence) or Nicolas Troussel (Corum l'Epargne), who have just launched the two brand new monohulls in the 60-foot fleet.

While these first navigations should make the boats more reliable, they will serve above all to prepare for the Vendée-Arctic race- Les Sables which is scheduled to depart on July 4. Indeed, seven skippers still have to qualify single-handed on a course of 2?000 miles: Alex Thomson, Nicolas Troussel, Sébastien Simon, Sébastien Destremau, Didac Costa, Conrad Colman and Louis Burton. For this category, there is no need to sail this course in a race.

For four others, they have to race and finish the equivalent of a single-handed transatlantic race. We're talking about Kojiro Shiraishi, Armel Tripon, Isabelle Joschke and Clément Giraud. However, as the programme has been shaken up by the health crisis linked to Covid-19, only the new race remains to qualify.

parcours de la VendÃ©e-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne — the Vendée-Arctic route- Les Sables d'Olonne

A race to train or qualify before the Vendée Globe

To replace the many races that were lining up in the IMOCA class schedule, the organisation has decided in partnership with the Vendée to launch a new race between Les Sables-d'Olonne and Les Sables-d'Olonne, via the west of Iceland and the north of the Azores.

And many skippers are keen to test their boats in the run-up to the Vendée Globe, which is due to start on 8th November. Like Isabelle Joshke: "This race stimulates me at fond?! We'll have to prepare for it: we're going into the cold, into some rather hostile corners. Even if the weather should be fairly mild, it's no small feat to sail between Iceland and Greenland. It's a lot of fun to think that we're going to climb all the way up north when, at the end of the year, it will be the great south that awaits us. We'll be all the way around planète?! On the competition side, I can't wait to face the others in race mode with the foils, which impose a completely different way of sailing. I'm also going to take advantage of this to validate various points, such as life on board, manoeuvres and the low and high limits of the boat. And while I still have some miles to compile for my qualification for the Vendée Globe, I'm focusing above all on my need to train."

That is also the case for Armel Tripon, who will be sailing alone for the first time and who is obliged to take part if he wants to win the pass for the Vendée Globe: "... I'm very pleased to be able to take part in this race, as it's the first time I've ever sailed alone The aim is to get back on the water as quickly as possible to get ready for the start of the Vendée-Arctique Les Sables-d'Olonne. It will be an opportunity for me to discover the boat single-handed. For the moment, we've sailed a dozen times, often in false solo manoeuvres, but we're going to have to get back into the reference points and the rhythm. L'Occitane en Provence will have been equipped with her second foil, she won't be making any more circles in the water (he laughs). I'm going to attack the race with different objectives: to create a cohabitation between the skipper and the boat, to gain experience, to improve my understanding of the boat on a nice course. Going so far north, to places that nobody knows, it opens up the game, it's a great way to get piment?!"

For Nicolas Troussel, who launched the latest addition to the IMOCA fleet, there is no obligation for him to take part. As such, he will be able to see where the preparation of his boat is at. "In terms of qualifying, I don't have to compete in the race. If it starts well at the beginning of July, we'll see where our preparation is at. We first need to sail the boat and test everything before committing to a race. It's very positive to have this opportunity, but our first goal is to be ready on November 8th. If it puts us in the red on the schedule, we won't do it..."