ANGELA BIRD'S

 

The 2004 logo

Follow this link to the English section of
the official
Vendée-Globe website

THE VENDÉE GLOBE
2008/2009

Starts Les Sables-d'Olonne
on 9 November 2008.
Finishers arrive back at Les Sables between
early Feb and mid March 2009.

2004/2005 result
1. PRB (Vincent Riou), arr 2 Feb 2005
2.
Bonduelle (Jean Le Cam), arr 3 Feb 2005
3.
Ecover (Mike Golding), arr 4 Feb 2005
 

The 2004 logo

Follow this link to the English section of
the official
Vendée-Globe website

 

 

 

 

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
port of Les Sables-d'Olonne.
 
 

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.

 

Benefic is sailed by one of the 2005 edition's courageous female competitors, French yachtswoman Karen Leibovici, who finished in last place on 13 March 2005.

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

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
.

YANNICK BESTAVEN – Cervin EnR – French, born 1972, lives La Rochelle (France) – First attempt

 

  JEAN-PIERRE DICK (FR), aged 43.
Paprec-Virbac
Dick's second attempt at the Vendée Globe. Based in Nice, he arrived in 6th place in 2004/2005.

 JÉRÉMIE BEYOU – Delta More – French, born 1976, lives Loctudy (France) – First attempt

 

 MIKE GOLDING (UK), aged 47.
Ecover
The Southampton-based skipper is a strong contender, having arrived 7th in the 2000/2001 Vendee-Globe, and 3rd in 2004/2005.

 ARNAUD BOISSIERES – Akena – French, born 1972, lives La Teste de Buch (France) - First attempt

 

 SEBASTIEN JOSSE (FR), aged 33.
BT
Second attempt for Josse, who came in 5th in 2004/2005 edition of the Vendée-Globe.

MICHEL DESJOYEAUX – Foncia – French, born 1965, lives Port La Forêt (France) – Winner of Vendée Globe 2001

 

 

 ROLAND JOURDAIN (FR), aged 48.
Véolia
Experienced skipper who came in 3rd place in the 2000 Vendée Globe. But had to retire from the last edition.
Answers to the nickname of "Bilou".

 KITO DE PAVANT – Groupe Bel – French, born 1961 lives Montferrier sur Lez (France) - First attempt

 

 JEAN LE CAM (FR), aged 49.
VM Matériaux
Last time, came 2nd a
fter an incredibly closely-fought duel with Riou, Le Cam crossed the line less than 7 hours behind the winner.

 JEAN-BAPTISTE DEJEANTY – Maisonneuve – French, born 1978, lives Caen (France) - First attempt

 

 ANNE LIARDET (FR), aged 47.
?

Second participation for Liardet, who arrived in 11th place. In 2005

 YANN ELIES – Generali – French, born 1974, lives Saint Brieux (France) - First attempt

 

 DEE CAFFARI – Aviva – British, born 1973, lives Fareham, Hampshire (UK) - First attempt

 

 VINCENT RIOU (FR), aged 36.
PRB
Winner of the 2004/2005 Vendée Globe.
in 87 days 101 hours 47 minutes.

 SAMANTHA DAVIES – Roxy – British, born 1974, lives Tregnuc (France) - First attempt

 

 NORBERT SEDLACEK (AUSTRIA), aged 46.
Nautichsport-Kapsch
Second endeavour in this race for a skipper.

 JOÉ SEETEN (FR), aged 57.
Arcelor Dunkerque
Second attempt for Seeten, this time in a 60-footer. The oldest competitor in this year's race, he came in 10th in the 2000-01 Vendée-Globe and was 3rd in the 2002 Route du Rhum.
8th place.  Fought to the last with Conrad Humphreys. Arrived 20.2.05

 MARC GUILLEMOT – Safran – French, born 1959, lives Saint Philibert (France) - First attempt

 

 ALEX THOMSON (UK), aged 34.
Hugo Boss
Second participation for Thomson, from
Gosport, who was forced to abandon the race during the last edition.

 DOMINIQUE WAVRE (SWISS), aged 53.
Temenos
Experienced transatlantic and round-the-world sailor, from
Geneva, Wavre came in 4th in the last Vendée Globe.

DEREK HATFIELD – Spirit of Canada – Canadian, born 1952, lives Mahone Bay, Novia Scotia (Canada) - First attempt

 

ARMEL LE CLEAC’H – Brit Air – French, born 1977, lives La Forêt Fouesnant (France) - First attempt

 

JONNY MALBON – Artemis – British, born 1974, lives Cowes, Isle of Wight (UK) - First attempt

 

LOÏCK PEYRON – Gitana Eighty – French, born 1959, lives Pornichet (France) – 2nd in the Vendée Globe 1990; abandoned in Vendée Globe 1993

 

BERNARD STAMM – Cheminées Poujoulat – Swiss, born 1963, lives Saint Pabu (France) – Abandoned in Vendée Globe 2001

 

BRIAN THOMPSON – Pindar – British, born 1962 , lives Cowes, Isle of Wight (UK) - First attempt

 

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


 

The Virtual
Library
of Sport

Provides global links to key resources in all sports with a strong section on Sailing

 

 

 

HERE ARE SOME GREAT READS,
GUARANTEED TO SHIVER YOUR TIMBERS !

use the links on the titles, below, to order from

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.)

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.

Saved - Tony Bullimore's account of his incredible survival during the 1996 Vendée-Globe, thanks to the Australian rescue services.

And to understand something about the
difficulties of navigation, try:

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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