A foretaste of the Vendée Globe on the Azimuth Challenge (September 9-13, 2020)

From September 9 to 13, Lorient la Base will welcome some of the best sailors in the world for the Azimut Challenge. 20 IMOCA boats will set off on frenzied runs and then for 48 hours of competition, including the latest high-tech foilers.

Chloé Torterat Published on September 8, 2020

The cream of the crop

As before every major race, but especially in this year 2020, the Azimuth Challenge will have a special flavour for IMOCA sailors. Organised from 9th to 13th September, two months before the start of the Vendée Globe, it will bring together the cream of the skippers for 5 days of competition at the start in Lorient and around the island of Groix.

Twenty skippers will set off on Wednesday for runs in the bay, accompanied by their partners. September 10th will mark the start of 48 hours of competition with an onboard mediaman. This will be an opportunity for the general public to experience the daily life of the sailors. Finally, on Sunday 13 September, it will be the record of the Tour de l'île de Groix in crews with the technical teams and guests.

La flotte du DÃ©fi Azimut 2019 Â© Yvan Zedda — The 2019 Azimuth Challenge fleet © Yvan Zedda

Latest Foilers and IMOCA from the previous generation

With the last IMOCA boats all in the water, the spectacle and battle promises to be grandiose. Among the technological foilers will be Charal (Jérémie Beyou), LinkedOut (Thomas Ruyant), Arkéa-Paprec (Sébastien Simon), Apivia (Charlie Dalin) and L'Occitane en Provence (Armel Tripon). It is worth noting the absence of two of the latest boats: Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson) and Corum l'Epargne (Nicolas Troussel).

"At the last start of the Vendée Globe in 2016, we said to ourselves that we couldn't go any faster. But si?! The boats are gaining performance percentages with each generation, whereas man doesn't move as fast. Today, the skipper has to adapt to the discomfort of speed" says Charlie Dalin, skipper of Apivia, a latest-generation IMOCA hydrofoil boat, a serious contender for the podium in the next solo round the world race.

However, the older generation IMOCA boats transformed into a foiler will also be in the running, with two sailors who have not said their last word: Samantha Davies (Initiatives-C?ur) and Isabelle Joschke (MACSF). In total, 15 IMOCA hydrofoil and daggerboard boats will be fighting for victory alongside the latest generation of flying boats.

"The boats have all undergone optimizations since last year. In the Azimuth Challenge, we're lucky to see them competing against each other on speed runs. We can judge the quality of the work done on these boats. In a sense the die is cast, but the skippers are going to be able to measure themselves explains Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, naval architect at VPLP Design.