Vendée Globe, it’s the big day of departure. Whose round-the-world race?

The big day is here, at 1:02 p.m. today the 40 skippers entered in the Vendée Globe will set off, from Les Sables d’Olonne, for the solo round-the-world race, without stopovers and assistance, aboard Imoca 60s. Also on the line for this 10th edition will be Giancarlo Pedote on Prysmian, in his second participation, and in the roster of 40 there are 6 women ready to do battle. The start of this round-the-world race is expected to be in soft weather conditions, before getting into the thick of the race with the first Atlantic depression fronts that will dictate the pace of the southward course. The route is the famous one: 25 thousand miles starting and finishing in Les Sables, leaving the three big capes on the left: Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn. The time to beat is the 74-day time set by Armel Le Cleac’h in 2016-17.

Our live commentary

The Sailing Newspaper will follow this day with the second episode of The Vendée Globe Trial, in collaboration with Raymarine, airing at 6:30 p.m. on our YouTube and Facebook channels. We will have as guests Alberto Bona, former winner of an Absolute Class 40 Championship; then there will be Francesca Clapcich, winner of a round-the-world crewed The Ocean Race. For technical insights we will have our route and weather expert Gianni Bianchini and Antal‘s Technical Application Manager Bernardo Zin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w8qZnGfWMM

Vendée Globe – Favorites

Everyone is ready to bet on Macif by Charlie Dalin or Arkea Paprec by Yoann Richomme. Two boats and two skippers who are given one step ahead of the others, although in a regatta like the Vendée Globe, anything can really happen. So watch out for the various Jeremie Beyou, Boris Herrmann, and Thomas Ruyant, but also to be closely monitored is Samantha Davies, with a new boat and the right experience to be able to play on an equal footing with everyone this round-the-world race.

What about Giancarlo Pedote? The Tuscan sails a first-generation Imola 60 foiler, a boat that had debuted at the 2016 Vendée Globe with Jean Pierre Dick.

Pedote has updated her steadily, right down to the massive bow and foil replacements of the last year. Prysmian however is not a very first-place boat, and the fight to get into the top 10, probably within Pedote’s reach, will still be very tough, against boats that have done a lot of upgrade development and will be very fast especially in medium wind conditions.

The Italian has in his chops the ability to have a good race, as eighth place was in the last edition, but it will be difficult to see him on the attack from the start: as he himself declared on the eve he does not have the pace to keep up with the very first ones, and he will rather focus on trying to make the best possible trajectories and preserve the boat as best he can for when there will be the big South, in which the fleet will inevitably be put under pressure and anything can happen even in the rankings.

Vendée Globe – Live coverage of the start

Mauro Giuffrè