With less than two years to the start of the Vendée
Globe, Bruno Retailleau, President of the Saem Vendée, gave a complete rundown
of the situation concerning the eighth Vendée Globe at the Paris Boat Show this
afternoon (Tuesday). As well as confirming the start date for Sunday 6th
November 2016, we also learnt that around fifteen sailors are already certain
to compete and that 20-25 were well advanced in their project. This press
conference was also an opportunity for Sodebo and the town of Les Sables
d’Olonne to announce that they have renewed their commitment to the race. Many
skippers were also present to present their projects.
The start date is now official. The start of the eighth edition
of the non-stop solo round the world race, the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe, will
take place on Sunday 6th November 2016. Bruno Retailleau, President of the
Vendée Council and the SAEM Vendée, the event organiser, appeared very
optimistic. “Everything
seems to be looking favourable for this edition, both in terms of the race and the
organisation.” After showing a teaser video, Bruno Retailleau
reminded everyone of some very impressive figures. “The Vendée Globe is already France’s leading sporting
event in terms of media coverage along with the Tour de France and
Roland-Garros with coverage representing 200 million euros. We can also
see some other data about the 2012 event, which illustrated how exceptional the
impact was for such an ocean race. 9 million single visitors looked at
the website during the three months of the race, 285 million pages were viewed,
30 million videos watched, 500,000 players joined in with the Vendée Globe
Virtual Game, 85 hours of live TV were watched, 1,700 accredited
journalists attended the Race Village at the start…”
