an air of Vendee Globe in Les Sables d’Olonne in Vendée. 25 skippers set off this Sunday for the 2nd edition of the Arctic Vendéea race aboard the large Imoca monohulls which will take them round Iceland and cross the Arctic Circle before heading back down to the Vendée. An unprecedented route of 3,500 miles or 5,633 km for this first qualifying event for the next Vendée Globe 2024. The defending champion Jérémie Beyou hopes to do it again on Charal: “It’s unprecedented, it’s going to be hard, even when you go down in the Vendée Globe in the south, you never go down to these latitudes, so it’s going to be very, very north”. The Finisterian will sail for the last time racing with this sailboat, before the launch of his new Charal.
– Yves-Rene Tapon
We will have an endless day. Charlie Dalin
Other favorites include Le Havre Charlie Dalin, recent winner of the Guyader Bermuda 1000 Race: “It’s going to be very physical, very involved with a lot of maneuvers all the way to Iceland, after when we’re up there it’s going to be quite magical because it will never be dark, we will have an endless day. What is also interesting is that it is a race which lasts for a period close to the Route du Rhum“. The Route du Rhum which is also the big goal of the season for most skippers.
It’s a new challenge. Benjamin Dutreux
“We are used here in Les Sables d’Olonne to turn left out of the channel to go south and go around the world, there the route is atypical” says the Vendée Benjamin Dutreux involved in Guyot Environnement Water Family “it’s a new adventure, weather and waves that we don’t necessarily know, it’s a new challenge”.
– Yves-Rene Tapon
– Yves-Rene Tapon
The route of this 2022 Arctic Vendée
In detail, the skippers will have to “leave Ireland to starboard then round Iceland to port” says race director Francis Le Goff “a virtual buoy to extend the course in the Atlantic and we return to Les Sables d’Olonne. It’s new and it shows, there are a lot of questions about the ice zone and the depressions. That’s what makes the beauty of a new course”. By having the skippers climb at such a northern latitude, the race management took precautions, “the ice zone is marked as in the south for the Vendée Globe, but at the last moment you can decide not to go around the island” reassures Francis Le Goff. The first are expected around June 22 in Les Sables d’Olonne.
