1st September- the crucial date

As you can imagine, in order to take part in an adventure like the Vendée Globe, each competitor must supply the organisers with guarantees about their own skills and about the suitability of their boat. That is why before each edition, qualifying rules have been put in place: they concern safety rules, of course, with the obligation for each skipper to take part in training sessions (survival techniques, etc.) and an obligatory qualifying run. As Denis Horeau, the race Director stresses, the basic idea is to: «put forward a text allowing each pairing of boat and sailor to be ratified and ensuring absolute fairness… » In other words: ensuring that each yachtsman respects the same rules, whatever his reputation, real or supposed. While the system may seem very limiting, it nevertheless avoids any subjectivity concerning those taking part.

The various cases concerning qualification
1 –A competitor plans to set sail again on the same boat as on which he was ranked in the Vendée Globe in 2000 or 2004: That is the case for example of Jean Le Cam and Norbert Sedlacek. They do not have to complete any qualifier, except for a 1500-mile qualifier if major changes have been made to the mast or keel.


2 – A competitor, who has been sucessful in a single-handed transatlantic race on the boat, aboard which he plans to sail in the Vendée Globe. The competitor qualifies, as long as he carries out the 1500-mile qualifier, as in the previous example: that is the case for all the competitors, who were ranked in the Transat B to B in 2007 or the Artemis Transat in 2008 (Loïck Peyron, Yann Elies, Kito de Pavant, Marc Guillemot, Derek Hatfield, Dee Caffari and Rich Wilson, among others…)


3 – A competitor was ranked in the 2000 Vendée Globe, the 2004 Vendée Globe or a non-stop two-handed race. He will have to complete on board the boat he intends to sail, a 2500-mile qualifier without mooring in a harbour. That was the case this year for yachtsmen like Michel Desjoyeaux and Roland Jourdain (Vendée Globe 2000), Jean-Pierre Dick and Alex Thomson (Barcelona World Race) and Dominique Wavre, Vincent Riou and Sébastien Josse (Vendée Globe 2004).


4 – For a competitor, who has not fulfilled these criteria: they have to complete a compulsory qualifier set by the race directors. In the Northern Hemisphere, the course means they have to sail to the north of 52°N (latitude of Shannon in Ireland or North of Newfoundland) for at least twelve hours and pass through the longitude on the way out and back of 5°W (longitude of the tip of Brittany) and 50°W (slightly east of Newfoundland).

We can see that even in mid-Summer, this is a long way to sail and requires some effort… Jonny Malbon, for example, is currently completing this qualifier.

The date limit of the 1st July: in theory, all the competitors should have carried out their qualifier before this date. But given some delays in the yards and damage in races, some entrants were unable to sail the number of miles required. After studying their files in conjunction with French Sailing Federation officials, the race directors may have allowed some to have pushed back the date to the 1st September. It will be time to look at the situation more closely in the coming days…