Embark on the Ultimate E-Venture

Winter is coming, you are too rational to join the frostbiters, and you are in step with a growing number of people that are not watching the National Football League. What better way to fill the offseason than to compete in a three month, virtual race around world.

Four years ago the Virtual Vendée Globe Race attracted 487,000 players, with Lilian Launay (aka Llyl) winning in 78 days, outlasting and outwitting the 201,742 that finished the race. But that was then, and now the 2016 edition is ready to be bigger and better.

As 29 skippers prepare their IMOCA 60s in advance of the non-stop solo race around the world, entries are now open for the 2016 edition of the Virtual Vendée Globe Race. Since the 2012-13 race, the work done by the Virtual Regatta’s team will allow thousands of players to discover a new way to play by truly handling the different parameters.

The updates implemented will literally put you on board your boat thanks to the “3D viewer“, more realistically matching the true conditions, whether it be flat or choppy seas, day or night, storms or dead calms. All the innovations have also been rethought for the web as well as for the mobile versions.

But the initial principle of sailing around the world on the same boat has not changed, but different rankings are available to boost up the competition. Each entry can match their needs, being for your sailing club, your school, your friends, your country, your county or your town.

“We have been very ambitious for this issue with major innovations in all areas,” said Philippe Guigné, Virtual Regatta‘s CEO and founder. “All that we hope is to give a max of pleasure to the max of people.”

The Virtual Vendée Globe race starts on November 6 1:02 p.m., at the same time as the real race. Online registration is now open at www.virtualregatta.com, with iOS and Androids apps for smartphones and pads to be available from October 28.

 
About Virtual Regatta
With more than a million active players in 2016, Virtual Regatta – created by Philippe Guigné, winner of the TDFV (Tour de France à la Voile) 1997 – is the virtual sail online games world’s leader. Beyond the conception and production of online and mobile games, Virtual Regatta’s main business is to create nautical events on the Internet. Thousands of sailing fans are able to follow the races in a unique and dynamic way: the players compete on their own boats. The www.virtualregatta.com website allows races organizers, teams and sponsors to create more solid relationships with their audience. Settled in Paris, France, Virtual Regatta proposes three games: Virtual Regatta Offshore, Virtual Regatta Inshore and Virtual Regatta Arcade. The company has tied partnerships with the biggest world‘s nautical events: Vendée Globe, Volvo Ocean Race, Route du Rhum, America’s Cup, Transat Jacques Vabre, Clipper Round The World, Tour de France à la Voile, La Solitaire du Figaro, Rolex Fastnet Race, 900 Nautiques Saint Tropez, etc…

About Vendée Globe
The Vendée Globe is the hardest and most famous round the world sailing race. Named « the Mont Everest of the Seas », it’s a non-stop solo round the world sailing, starting from – and arriving to – the Sables d’Olonne via the three mythical capes (Good Hope in South Africa, Leeuwin in south-eastern Australia and the renowned Horn at the bottom of South America). The race crosses the North and South Atlantic Oceans before sailing around the Antarctic continent, then crosses the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. As any big international sport events (Olympic Games, Soccer World championship…), it happens every four years since 1989. This merciless event is a human and technologic adventure raced on 60“ (18,28 m) monohull sailing yachts of the IMOCA 60 Class. The Vendée Globe has crowned huge seamen: Titouan Lamazou, Alain Gautier, Christophe Auguin, Vincent Riou, François Gabart. Only one has won it twice, Michel Desjoyeaux, in 2001 and 2009. The event record is hold by François Gabart in 78 days. The eighth Vendée Globe will start from the Sables d’Olonne on Sunday November 6th, 2016.