ANGELA BIRD'S
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The 2004 logo
Follow this link to the English section of |
THE VENDÉE GLOBE Starts Les Sables-d'Olonne 2004/2005 result |
The 2004 logo
Follow this link to the English section of |
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Mike Golding celebrates
his return to Les Sables-d'Olonne, 4.2.05
Photo:
Vendée-Globe website
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/fr
The world's most notorious circumnavigation, this non-stop,
single-handed and unaided sailing race departs
every four years from the Vendée
The Vendée-Globe Challenge has been called "the Everest of the sea". The
race is open to a maximum of 25 60ft monohulls. Its origins lie in the
voyage made by the Canadian Joshua Slocum - the first of the great
single-handed circumnavigators - who sailed the 42,000 kilometres in three
years, finishing in 1895. A hundred years later, today's non-stop sailors
accomplish this incredible feat in about three months, and the finishers will
return to a heroes' welcome at Les Sables from early February 2009. The winner
stands to pocket 150,000 euros (about £100,000).
Safety is the
organisers' watchword each time, and the contestants - who each pay entrance
fees of more than £6,000 - must complete certain
qualifying races, and sail 2,500 miles in their Vendée Globe yacht. For two or
three weeks before the race, they have to be present in Les Sables for trials,
safety checks and to attend medical and survival courses.
Contestants
receive digital weather maps, showing the position of large areas of low pressure
(indicating storms); yachts must be self-righting, unsinkable, and have
watertight bulkheads, survival doors, radar transponders, and fluorescent
keels.
For weeks
before the start, visitors throng the pontoons in Port Olona (the Les Sables
marina, below, in 2004) to admire the sleek lines of these craft, and to give
encouragement to the courageous yachtsmen.
Seen against
other yachts, the 25-metre-high masts of the Vendée-Globe boats is an
impressive sight - especially when you think that skippers often have to scale
the mast to carry out running repairs while under way in hostile weather
conditions.
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Benefic is sailed by one of
the 2005 edition's courageous female competitors, French yachtswoman Karen
Leibovici, who finished in last place on Photo: Angela Bird |
The broad stern of Temenos,
the vessel of Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre, is typical of the sturdy
60-footers in this race. Wavre came in 4th in 2004/2005. Photo: Angela Bird |
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New name, new livery and
new skipper for Ellen MacArthur's former Kingfisher Renamed Skandia,
she was piloted for 2004/2005 by Australian Nick Moloney. Photo: Angela Bird |
Mike Golding's Ecover
came in 3rd in 2004/2005. The black diagonal objects are daggerboards that
are pushed down fully when sailing with wind on the beam (from the side). Photo: Angela Bird |
The 28 “pre-registered” contestants in the
2008/2009 Vendée-Globe,
with personal web pages where available
These will be whittled down in July 2008 to the best 27, who will be allowed to
be on the starting-line.
If you need a little help with the languages, you can
copy-and-paste French text into the Alta Vista translation software.
It may come out in slightly dislocated English, but you should be able to get
the gist of the information.
Boxes shaded in dark grey indicate competitors who have dropped
out of the race - usually because of some
technical fault that they have, unfortunately, not been able to rectify.
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YANNICK BESTAVEN
– Cervin EnR – French, born 1972, lives La Rochelle (France) – First attempt |
JEAN-PIERRE
DICK (FR),
aged 43. |
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MICHEL DESJOYEAUX
– Foncia – French, born 1965, lives Port La Forêt (France) – Winner of Vendée Globe 2001 |
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DEREK HATFIELD –
Spirit of Canada – Canadian, born 1952, lives |
ARMEL LE CLEAC’H
– Brit Air – French, born 1977, lives La Forêt Fouesnant (France) - First attempt |
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JONNY MALBON –
Artemis – British, born 1974, lives |
LOÏCK PEYRON –
Gitana Eighty – French, born 1959, lives Pornichet (France) – 2nd in the Vendée
Globe 1990; abandoned in Vendée Globe 1993 |
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BERNARD STAMM – Cheminées
Poujoulat – Swiss, born 1963, lives Saint Pabu ( |
BRIAN THOMPSON –
Pindar – British, born 1962 , lives |
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STEVE WHITE –
Spirit of Weymouth – British, born 1972, lives Dorchester (UK) - First attempt |
RICH WILSON – not known – American, born
1950, lives Rockport, Massachussetts
(US) - First attempt |
If you would like
to read about more sporting events – including sailing -
visit the following site
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Provides global links to
key resources in all sports with a strong section on Sailing |
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HERE ARE SOME GREAT READS, use the links on the titles, below, to order from |
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Taking on the World - Autobiography of Ellen
MacArthur, who came second in the 2000/2001 Vendée Globe with the monohull Kingfisher,
and later made the fastest-ever solo circumnavigation in her trimaran B&Q.
(This record has since been surpassed.) |
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Close to the Wind - Pete Goss describes the
long build-up to the 1996 Vendée-Globe, including the hard work of obtaining
sponsorship, and his hair-raising rescue of fellow yachtsman Raphael Dinelli. |
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Saved - Tony Bullimore's
account of his incredible survival during the 1996 Vendée-Globe, thanks to
the Australian rescue services. |
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And to understand something about the |
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Longitude - Dava Sobel tells the
fascinating story of the search for a way of measuring longitude and
therefore for a method of establishing a vessel's exact position. In the 18th
century, ships' navigators could calculate their latitude with relative ease,
but still were unsure whether they would fetch up safely in - say -
Portsmouth, or find their ship wrecked on rocks hundreds of miles to east or
west. A huge cash prize was offered by the government of the day to anyone
who could come up with a solution. Luckily,
today's Vendée-Globe skippers have state-of-the-art global positioning
systems... |
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