The start village of the Golden Globe Race opens this Saturday at 10 a.m. Sands of Olonne in Vendee. This old-fashioned world tour with only the sextant, the map and the compass, will start on Sunday September 4th. In the meantime, at the Vendée Globe pontoon, the public will be able to meet the 18 sailors from 11 nationalities who will set off. In addition to being deprived of modern technologies, the skippers must sail aboard standard sailboats of 10.97m maximum, similar to that of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo and non-stop around the world in 1968-1969.
The competitors will be presented to the public from 4 p.m. this Saturday at the start village, in the presence of Jean-Luc Van Den Heede who had won the event in 2019 after 211 days at sea. At 7.30 p.m. the latter will give a concert with his group “Globally Yours” then a big welcome fireworks display will follow at 10.30 p.m.
– Marc-Bertrand