Most competitive Vendée Globe ever?
Published on October 30th, 2024
Could the Vendée Globe 2024-25 be the most competitive ever? In Yachting World, Helen Fretter finds out what the skippers will be facing:
“When you think about the Vendée Globe, you always remember the good stuff. I’ve done three now, and you remember the good bits of all the races. So it seems like the race is condensed into a really short length of time. But once you get out there, that’s when it hits…” says Initiatives-Coeur skipper Sam Davies.
“The hard thing is when you realize just how long it is and how you’ve got to survive in those conditions.”
The Vendée Globe can be a powerful drug. For some skippers, it’s an experience so transformative it draws them back again and again. For first-timers it’s a daunting prospect: can they endure three brutal months? Will they even be the same person afterwards? – Full report
Event information – Entry list – Facebook
The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers will start the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France. Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.