Vendee Globe - the boats

We look at the heritage of the Open 60s taking part in this year's singlehanded non-stop round the world race

Boat	Skipper	Designer	Launched	Beam	Disp	Keel	Rig	Sail area:	ex
VM Materiaux	Carpentier	Joubert/Nivelt	1999	5.2	9.5	Canting	26m fixed 3 spreader	255/465	Solidaires
Virbac-Paprec	Dick	Farr Yacht Design	2002	5.5	9	Canting	28.5m fixed 4 spreader	270/530	-
Akena Verandas	Dinelli	Nandor Fa	1996	5.85	11.5	Canting	25.5m fixed 3 spreader	260/410	Budapest
Ecover	Golding	Owen Clarke	2003	5.7	8.3	Canting	26m: rotating	260/500	-
Hellomoto	Humphreys	Groupe Finot	1998	5.6	8.5	Canting	25m: rotating wing	270/490	Team Group 4/Ecover
VMI	Josse	Groupe Finot	1998	5.4	8.5	Fixed	26m: fixed 2 spreader	285/620	Sodebo
Sill et Véolia	Jourdain	Marc Lombard	2004	5.5	8.5	Canting	Rotating wingmast	270/560	-
UUDS	Laurent	Groupe Finot	1994/2000	5.95	9.5	Canting	25m fixed 3 spreader	245/510	ex Sceta Calberson, Geodis, Voila
Bonduelle	Le Cam	Marc Lombard	2004	5.5	8.5	Canting	Rotating wingmast	270/560
Benefic	Leibovici	Harle/Mortain	1991	3.76	9.5	Fixed	Yawl: 20.7/10.5 fixed	217/337	Groupe SOFAP-Helvim, Whirlpool-Europe 2, Nord-Pas-de-Calais/Chocolats du Monde
Roxy	Liardet	Briand/Lombard	1989/98	5.54	10.5	Canting	27m fixed 3 spreader	250/400	Fleury Michon X, Votre Nom Autour du Monde, Uunet, Aquarelle.com
Skandia	Moloney	Kingfisher Design Group	2000	5.3	8.7	Canting	26m fixed 3 spreader	237/469	Kingfisher
Max Havelaar/Best Western	Pernaudeau	Phil Morrison	1990	4.2	10.5	Fixed	23.5m fixed 2 spreader	220/450	ENIF, Club 60è Sud, DDP/60è Sud
PRB	Riou	Groupe Finot	2000	5.4	9	Canting	26m fixed 2 spreader	260/560	-
Ocean Planet	Schwab	Tom Wylie	2001	3.8	8.6	Fixed	26m, unstayed rotating	204/465	-
Brother	Sedlacek	Joubert/Nivelt	1995/2000	5.15	11	Fixed	24m fixed three spreader	240/420	Zen
Arcelor Dunkerque	Seeten	Groupe Finot	1998	5.6	8.5	Canting	25m rotating wingmast	270/540	Somewhere, Active Wear
Pro-From	Thiercelin	Marc Lombard	1998	5.56	8.6	Canting	28m: fixed 2 spreader	300/600	Whirlpool, Tiscali
Hugo Boss	Thomson	Marc Lombard	1999	5.56	9.5	Canting	26m wingmast	260/590	Sill
Temenos	Wavre	Groupe Finot	1999	5.8	8.5	Fixed	28m fixed 3 spreader	330/700	UBP

The fleet for the fifth running of the Vendee Globe is now 20 strong following the withdrawal of Charles Hedrich's Objectif 3 (formerly Josh Hall's Gartmore) and Patrick Favre's entry (Jean-Luc van den Heede's 36.15 Met from the first Vendee Globe).

A significant difference between this race and previous Vendee Globes is that the fleet now comprises only Open 60s - Open 50s have been banned (to find out why read our interview with Race Director Denis Horeau - here).

Interesting too is that for this Vendee Globe only four new boats have been built - compared to eight in the 2000-1 race.





Among the designers Marc Lombard has come to the fore with two of the new boats taking part - Jean le Cam's Bonduelle and Roland Jourdain's Sill et Véolia, both sisterships built by JMV Industries in Cherbourg and evolutions of Jourdain's previous Sill. To read more about these boats - see our review of Bonduelle here. Aside from their glaringly different red and yellow paintjobs, the main difference between the two boats is that Sill uses sails by Incidences, Bonduelle by North France.



Since the last Vendee Globe, Owen-Clarke Yacht Design, previously one part of the design team that created Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher (now Nick Moloney's Skandia) is also showing itself as a force to be reckoned with having come up with Mike Golding's race favourite Ecover ( click here to read about her) and a boat that should be taking part in this race but isn't - Emma Richards' Pindar. While Richards has publicly retired from solo offshore racing, boyfriend Mike Sanderson who might have taken it and drove the boat to third place in The Transat earlier this year is now tied up with his ABN AMRO Volvo Ocean Race project and Bernard Stamm - another sad omission from the race - was unable to take it because the boat needed a new keel and this was not possible to organise in the time available. Stamm tells us that his own Open 60, that was nearly written off in The Transat, is currently being repaired and should be back in the water by April.



A significant new face among designers in the Vendee Globe is Farr Yacht Design. Farr has come up with its first Open 60 design in the form of Jean-Pierre Dick's Virbac Paprec (read the full story about this boat here). Compared to the Lombard and Owen-Clarke designs the boat is 'large' with the tallest rig, the biggest cabintop and a small cockpit tucked away well aft in the boat.

Perhaps one of the reasons why there are fewer new boats this time round is that were a number of good boats built for the last race. All the top contenders from last time are back having had considerable work carried out on them:



Michel Desjoyeaux's 2000-1 race winner PRB is now in the hands of Desjoyeaux former shore team head and technical guru Vincent Riou. Aside from her new lightweight two spreader rig, Tthe boat has been fitted with new longer daggerboards and higher aspect rudders.



Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher that came second in the last Vendee has returned as Nick Moloney's Skandia. The boat has been de-Ellenised and Moloneyised by for example moving the orientation of the coffeegrinder through 90deg and completely removing the chart table and replacing it with one Moloney can get his legs beneath. The boat also has a neat stacking system whereby food, spares and other paraphernalia can be quickly and easy dropped down to leeward prior to a tack. Skandia has a new rig and PBO rigging since the last Vendee, but the size of the rig is the same and the boat a shade underpowered compared to the competition.



Sill, third in 2000-1 is now Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss. As we wrote recently the boat has been through a full refit and now has substantially longer daggerboards than before and a larger staysail area.



Mike Golding's Finot-Conq design Team Group 4/ Ecover returns in the hands of another former BT Global Challenge winner Conrad Humphreys and is now called Hellomoto. The boat has also had a major refit, although mods to the boat including the addition of a coffee grinder and a redesign of the cockpit layout are more skipper performance improvements rather than boat performance ones.



Sistership to this boat, Marc Thiercelin's Finot-Conq design Activewear from the last race has now been bought by Joe Seeton and is called Arcelor Dunkerque.



Thiercelin meanwhile returns for his third Vendee Globe this time aboard Pro-Form, originally Catherine Chabaud's Whirlpool and the Marc Lombard-designed sistership to Hugo Boss.



Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre is back once again in his Finot-Conq design Temenos. This boat was the fourth of the Finot-Conq boats to come from the same mould as Team Group 4, Gartmore and Activewear but significantly has a more bulbous cabintop in order to make the righting requirements of the IMOCA class rules. Up until this year the boat hasn't seemed impressive despite Wavre's massive credentials in both the Whitbread (he's sailed in four), Figaro and America's Cup. However the boat has a new rig that is substantially lighter than the old one while still being one of the tallest and now has PBO rigging. The boat has also been fitted with a new tungsten bulb (we believe she and Hellomoto are the only boats with tungsten bulbs in the race).



Thomas Coville's Sodebo, that came sixth in the last Vendee, is another Finot-Conq design - although not from the same moulds as the other Finot-Conq designs (she's narrower) - is now Sebastien Josse's VMI. The boat notably dismasted at the start of the 2002 Route du Rhum.



Bernard Galley's voila.fr from 2000-1, before that Christophe Auguin's 1996 race winner Geodis, returns for a third crack this time as UUDS in the experienced hands of Herve Laurent, who himself finished third in the 1996-7 race. The boat has had new longer daggerboards and rudders fitted and now has a removable inner forestay.



Thierry Dubois' Joubert-Nivelt designed Solidaires which retired with electronic problems in the last race but has since finished second in Around Alone, has now been acquired for the race by old sea dog and eminent French journalist Patrice Carpentier, editor of the magazine Course au Large and renamed VM Materiaux. See our review of the boat when Thierry Dubois was sailing her here.



One of the most unusual boats in the fleet is Ocean Planet of the sole American entry Bruce Schwab. His Tom Wylie design, along with Benefic (see below) is one of the two 'narrow' boats in the fleet and is alone in having a giant unstayed carbon fibre rig. Since this photo was taken during Around Alone Ocean Planet has had two 'anti-dive' wedges added to her bow and the bowsprit has been further raised up to prevent the gennikers from being buried in the water. Schwab has had the benefit of having already raced his boat two years ago in Around Alone.



Aside from Dominique Wavre, Raphael Dinelli is the only other skipper to return in the boat he sailed in the last race - the 1996 vintage Budapest originally designed, built and sailed by Hungarian sailor Nandor Fa. As was typical of boats of this generation, Dinelli's Akena Verandas looks to be the beamiest boat in the fleet, but in fact Herve Laurent's UUDS is 10cm wider. Dinelli had been attempting to get a new Open 60 built for this race to a design by Guillaume Verdier but was unable to find adequate sponsorship.



The four remaining boats we have yet to mention are the oldest in the fleet. Brother of the race's only ever Austrian competitor Norbert Sedlacek is a 1996-7 generation Joubert-Nivelt design that has never previously done the race. She is the only boat in this year's fleet with an aluminium hull (all the new boats are carbon fibre).



Karen Liebovici's Benefic is a 1992-3 generation boat, originally built for the bearded French giant Jean-Luc van den Heede who raced her to second place in that race and then to second again in the subsequent BOC Challenge despite a brief encounter with an Australian beach. She was subsequently sailed by Catherine Chabaud in the 1996-7 race before van den Heede took her back to make his first attempts on the non-stop westabout singlehanded round the world record. The boat is unique in the fleet for firstly being the least beamy boat - 2m narrower than some - and by having a yawl rig (tiny mizzen stuck behind the rudder). The boat is a joy to sail, but not a race winner.



Benard Parnaudeau's Open 60 Max Havelaar/Charente Maritime was built for the second Vendee Globe. The origins of this boat are in the UK - designed by Phil Morrison she was built by the master of the cedar strip, Spud Rowsell in Exmouth for British solo sailor and subsequent Round Britain winner Richard Tolkien. As DDP/60eme Sud she was raced by Didier Munduteguy to 14th place in the last Vendee Globe.



Anne Liardet's Roxy is one of the most well travelled Open 60s ever. She was originally designed by Philippe Briand for Route du Rhum winner Philippe Poupon to take in the first Vendee Globe. However she was fitted with an additional mizzen and famously just as the boat was getting into the Southern Ocean she was laid over on her side and wouldn't recover. In an impressive display of seamanship Loick Peyron came to the rescue and having been thrown a halyard was able to right the boat under sail... Four years later Poupon was lying second behind Alain Gautier when a day out from the finish his mizzen fell over board and he was overtaken by Jean-Luc van den Heede. In the third Vendee Globe she was sailed by Bertrand de Broc, the man famous for having to sew his tongue up mid-Southern Ocean, but did not finish.

The boat was then given a full refit and modified to designs work made by Marc Lombard and taken around the world westabout singlehanded by Philippe Monnet, who established a new non-stop record for this course. Then in the last Vendee Globe she taken by the late Simone Bianchetti, finishing a lowly 12th. We feel it is high time this boat was turned to cruising...