The Vendée Globe will celebrate its twentieth anniversary this year, demonstrating the spectacular vigour of the IMOCA class. In the middle of the debate regarding the new regulation 60 footers, this sixth edition of the regatta reaches an historic level of participation and presents more boats, especially made for this regatta, than ever. 30 solo sailors have formalized their inscription in the race around the world, one handed and non-stop; an unheard of victory over all if we have in mind that 19 of the ultimate generation boats, designed and constructed especially for this regatta, display high levels of specialisation. In successive articles we will analyse the boats and their innovations, some of which we have already seen in the Barcelona World Race. 

Various generations of solo sailors

In terms of the big names, almost all are big IMOCA protagonists from the last decade, highlighting two large returns to the class: that of Loïck Peyron and of  

the professeur Michel Desjoyeux. Loïck, 49, is an historic ocean sailor who had the honour of parading in an open top car in the Champs-Élysées with Titouan Lamazou after his first race in 1989/90, in which he came second and Michel won in 2000/01 and is the most laurelled sailor in sailing history and in France he´s considered to be the most likely heir to the throne of Eric Tabarly, the father of French ocean sailing.

There has not been a lack of protagonists in the class nor in the Vendeé Globe during the last few years: Vincent Riou, Jean-Pierre Dick, Dominique Wavre, Roland Jourdain, Mike Golding, Marc Thiercelin, Alex Thomson, Sébastien Josse, Jean Le Cam, Bernard Stamm and Unai Basurko. But recent young and not so young arrivals to the class come from the Mini and from the Figaro with powerful figures like Jérémie Beyou, Yann Eliès, Kito de Pavant and Armel Le Cleac'h. The new generation of British solo sailors such as Dee Caffari, Jonny Malbon and Brian Thompson are challenging the French supremacy of the class. Although there are more French sailors than from any other nation in the race, the British improvements are still evident. There are 17 French sailors, 7 British, 2 Swiss and one representative from Spain, Canada, United States and Austria respectively. 

The majority of the boats that participated in the Barcelona World Race were:  Paprec-Virbac 2 with its grand victor Jean-Pierre Dick; Hugo Boss with Alex Thomson; Temenos II with Dominique Wavre; PRB with Vincent Riou; Veolia Environnement with Roland Jourdain; Delta Dore with Jérémie Beyou and Estrella Damm will appear as BT, sailed by Sébastian Josse. Alex Thomson  saw his participation compromised at the last moment due to a collision with a fishing boat which meant that against the clock, he had to repair a hole in the hull and change the mast of the Hugo Boss boat.

Internationalisation of the design and construction

The design and construction of the boats in the Vendée Globe follow the international trend of expansion already initiated in the previous race. Bruce Farr created eight designs, without a doubt due to the success of Virbac-Paprec. The first boat sailed by Jean-Pierre Dick and the confidence placed in the New Zealand designer with his second boat the Paprec-Virbac 2, which won the Barcelona World Race, has projected his work into the internatrional IMOCA arena. The faith in Farr demonstrated by skippers like Vincent Riou, Jéremie Beyou, Michel Desjoyeux y Loïck Peyron, has provoked a notable increase in demand for the New Zealander´s work.  

Finot-Conq who designed the boats that won the last four Vendée Globes have been the great innovators in the history of IMOCA and have had a hard competition creating four designs, the same number as those from British company Owen-Clarke. An interesting new edition to the world of IMOCA comes in the form of Juan Kouyoumdjian with the design of Bahrain Team Pindar and that of Van Pétéghem Lauriot-Prévost in collaboration with Guillaume Verdier, specialists in multi-hulls, designed for Safran and Groupe Bel. At shipyard level, the French continue ahead with nine boats, but New Zealand have launched six and the United Kingdom, three. 

Innovations in security

The 30 participants have obligated the organisation to create new mediums of security to prevent incidents and to improve the communication of possible rescue operations. Firstly there has been a swift introduction of these measures by moving the security gates further north, due to the increasing thawing of polar cap ice, as has already been seen in the recent Barcelona World Race. The track has also been moved nearer to the Australian and New Zealand coasts, to enable rescue missions from both these countries. Secondly a website has been created, dedicated to security with the aim of giving international rescue bodies better coordination and in the case of a rescue mission, this tool will help to save precious minutes. Alain Gautier, the winner of the 1992 race continues this year as a security advisor and his work will be over-seen by the Australian David Adams. As in every race, the distance medical services will be directed by Jean-Yves Chauve.

Unai, in the wake of José Luis

After his extraordinary third place ranking in the Velux 5 Oceans, Unai Basurko   sent Pakea Bizkaia for a major re-fitting in Gexto. The process was directed by the boat designer Andy Dowell and mast designer Pete Kula and included the modification of the design of the helms, new rigging and the renovation of all of the sails. This has been jointly realized by Quantum España and in the process the sail-maker Toni Tió has worked intensively to interprate the special needs of Unai. They have also installed new automatic pilots and electronic improvements. Unai tested all of these improvements in the 1,500 miles he covered in the Artemis Transat, before retiring in order to preserve his boat. Later in Vigo, Pakea Bizkaia received a new water-maker, solar panels, and new bailer to empty and fill the tanks of the ballast faster than in the Velux.

Unai became the first Spaniard after José Luis Ugarte to complete sailing solo around the world in a  leg-race and the first to rise up the podium of an ocean regatta. Unai faces the Vendée Globe as a natural consequence of his success and continues on the path of his good friend and master. Three months after the grand Basque navigator Ugarte left us half-orphaned, his spirit and that of thousands of navigators and fans will navigate with the Pakea Bizkaia. The legacy of José Luis lives on, as he has given us a completely different way of looking at the sea.