The Vendée Globe: a great adventure

The Vendée Globe begins on Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 1:02 p.m. and will end... at the end.

The Vendée Globe takes place, or rather will start from France, from Les Sables-d'Olonne in Vendée, with 40 participants of different nationalities, including 6 women. The youngest is 22 years old and she is a woman.

This adventure will be played out with 26 French, 3 Swiss, 1 New Zealander, 3 English, 2 Germans, 1 Japanese, 1 Belgian, 1 Hungarian, 1 Chinese, 1 Italian, among them 2 disabled athletes, these are professional sailors for all participants. Registration costs 20,000 euros.

Its name is "The Vendée Globe" and its nickname is "The Everest of the Seas", describing the difficulty. The first took place in 1989 with the participation of 13 boats, and is held every 4 years. It is a race and not just any race: a round the world trip by boat, solo, non-stop and without assistance with the obligation to pass through 3 capes, the capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn..

The 40 players in the Vendée Globe, authentic skippers among the most experienced in the world for having participated in the biggest world events such as: The Route du Rhum, the Vendée Arctiques-Les Sables-d'Olonne, Retour à la Base, etc. qualifying for participation in the Vendée Globe. Allowing them to be on the starting line of the most prestigious of offshore races, the Vendée Globe. Some have already participated in the Vendée Globe, some have won it, and for others this will be their big first.

They are skippers, but also top-level athletes: physical fitness counts, but also a mental strength that can withstand anything. Sailing around the world alone, by boat, in extreme conditions, in a hostile environment requires optimal physical condition to make efforts for weeks, day and night, to compensate for the boat's behavior and deal with the various breakdowns, because there are some. The record for the event is 74 days and 3 hours and dates from the 2016/2017 edition. The theoretical distance to be covered is estimated at around 40,000 km or 22,000 nautical miles, starting and finishing in Les Sables-d'Olonne. The slower ones can take 150 days.

These special boats belong to the IMOCA series. Sailing boats "tailored" for racing, 20 meters long and with a maximum height of 29 meters out of the water, can reach a speed of 70 to 75 km/h (40 knots). Only racing, no comfort: the only goals are speed, navigation of the boat with a complete dashboard and the survival of the sailor.

In addition to the navigation and care equipment, it is of course necessary to provide food for about 3 months, or between 150 and 200 kg of dehydrated meals requiring a kettle and a mini pressure cooker. Another thing, no toilets, only a bucket and fork prohibited.

The price of such a boat is around 5 to 6 million euros.