2000/01 At the start of the november
“More than 90 days on that route teaches you a lot of things.
2000 race sailors and landlubbers had the tragedy
There are some very tough moments, and some great ones too.
of the previous non-stop single-handed round
This single-handed trip around the world, is an incredible
the world trip on their minds. While over the last
page in your life history: it adds years to your age, it makes
four years the low-pressure areas had continued
you more mature and throws things into perspective.”
to swirl around with the same aggression in the Michel desjoyeaux 2000 winner 93 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes
Deep South, designers had spent many weeks
working on improving the stability of the 60-foot
open monohulls in an effort to minimise the dangers. Safety was
top of the agenda and attention had been given to building safer,
better adapted, made to measure yachts for this type of event,
built to cope with all the hurdles from flat calm periods to violent
storms. In 2000, the Vendée Globe turned a page in its history: it
was time for competition racing on a global scale. As proof of this,
competing were the Yves Parlier team’s “Aquitaine Innovations“,
the pair of Michel Desjoyeaux and his “PRB“, and Roland Jourdain
and his “Sill Matines La Potagère“, added to which was the British
contingent, with small, but tenacious Ellen MacArthur in Kingfisher
and the great round the world yachtsman Mike Golding of Team
Group 4. All these famous names made a great list of entrants,
with 24 competitors from the four corners of the globe; the
same globe which Michel Desjoyeaux would round at incredible
speed in 93 days and 4 hours, smashing the record established
four years earlier by Christophe Auguin. The oceans took no lives
this time and the event was competed to a very high standard
with all the boats completing the course. An unwavering race of
endurance resulted in one of the finest races in history delivering
some real heroes.
The Vendée Globe racers sail their machines at an incredible
pace and the rhythm was set from the first few miles. It was
no longer the case that they were managing the long term, but
ensuring they got one over on their challengers from the outset.
2004/05 The event had gathered so much pace and
world recognition that an unprecedented 300,000 people
watched the start of the 2004 race which, for once, took place
in mild weather. While the emotions were higher at the rear of
the pack rather than at the front, the first few days resembled
c
H
e
T
something of a sprint – a kind wind in Bay of Biscay enabled
light downwind sailing, with just a quick low off Cape Finisterre,
c
URUT
T
and some fine trade winds off Portugal to enable the fleet to incen
; V
get around the Canaries after four days, then the Equator after O
n
e
ill
just ten days, three days faster than the previous race. All of the
AP
l
OB
G
starters were still sailing. As they approached the Cape of Good
e
S V
c
QU
endee
Hope, Vincent Riou and Jean Le Cam were sailing in sight of each
i
/ V
T
OS: JA
other after 6,000 miles of racing! The two sailors widened the
d
PP
PHO ©
28 YACHTWORLD.COM DeCeMbeR 2008
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