Vendee Globe, sailing around the world via the three capes

A round-the-world sailing race like no other and after 36 days and 13,000 miles at sea there were just 40.2 miles separating Armel Le Cléac’h from the leader Francois Gabart yesterday morning. Le Cléac’h had clawed back 10 miles overnight as they sail their almost identical boats on an almost identical track into the Furious Fifties, a thousand miles south of Australia.

The Vendée Globe is a round-the-world single-handed yacht race, sailed non-stop and without assistance. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. The 2012-2013 edition  started Saturday, November 10, 2012.

As the only single-handed non-stop round-the-world race in contrast to the VELUX 5 Oceans Race, which is sailed in stages), the race is a serious test of individual endurance, and is regarded by many as the ultimate in ocean racing.

The race starts and finishes in Les Sables-d'Olonne, in the Vendée département of France; both Les Sables d’Olonne and the Vendée Conseil Général are official race sponsors. The course is essentially a circumnavigation along the clipper route: from Les Sables d’Olonne, down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope; then clockwise around Antarctica, keeping Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn to port; then back to Les Sables d’Olonne.[5] The race generally runs from November to February; and is timed to place the competitors in the Southern Ocean during the austral summer.

 

Additional waypoints may be set in the sailing instructions for a particular race, in order to ensure safety relative to ice conditions, etc. For example, in 2004, the racers had to pass north of the following flexible waypoints:

The competitors may stop at anchor, but may not draw alongside a quay or another vessel; they may receive no outside assistance, including customised weather or routing information. The only exception is that a competitor who has an early problem may return to the start for repairs and then re-start the race, as long the re-start is within 10 days of the official start.

The race presents significant challenges; most notably the severe wind and wave conditions in the Southern Ocean, the long unassisted duration of the race, and the fact that the course takes competitors far from the reach of any normal emergency response.

To mitigate the risks, competitors are required to undergo medical and survival courses. They must also be able to demonstrate prior racing experience; either a completed single-handed trans-oceanic race or the completion of a previous Vendée Globe. The qualifying race must have been completed on the same boat as the one the sailor will race in the Vendée Globe; or the competitor must complete an additional trans-oceanic observation passage, of not less than 2,500 miles (4,000 km), at an average speed of at least 7 knots (13 km/h), with his new boat . Since trans-ocean races typically have significant qualifying criteria of their own, any entrant to the Vendée Globe will have amassed substantial sailing experience.

Read more; http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/