Ad Lib 93

 

In the shadow of the Vendee Globe hall of fame, two, very different, solo race fleets form up.

Seventy Classe Mini 6.50's (the boats' length in metres) will sail to the Azores and back. Leaving on the twenty second of July. The craft forever pushing the boundaries of nautical design. Spawning, for example, the scow bow and square top main.

The Mini Atlantique race is established as an important rung, on the career ladder of aspiring Class40 and IMOCA skippers. Such as Ambroggio Beccaria. A past winner. Before becoming the skipper to beat in the Class40 calender. Last month, he was victorious in the Vendee Arctique, aboard an IMOCA.

Further along the pontoon, an emphatically "old school" solo fleet is assembling. Bound around the world. Departure date the sixth of September. "Sail like its 1966," the race strapline. August 1966 being the date of Francis Chichester's celebrated solo circumnavigation, aboard Gypsy Moth. 

Entrants for the Golden Globe Race are required to sail traditional long keel designs, between thirty two and thirty six feet long, with no 'modern' electronic aids. Such as GPS, autopilot, AIS and radar. No internet or mobile phone connectivity, nor outside weather routing assistance of any kind, is permitted.

Skippers must sail arduous qualifying passages prior to the start. Daniel Alfredsson deciding, whilst Stargazer was sheltering in Camaret (see Ad Lib 64), to retire as a result. After facing four severe North Atlantic gales in succession, whilst on passage from Norway to Les Sables.

The svelte looking, Holman & Pye designed, Rustler 36 is a popular choice for competitors. The more so since Sablaise local, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede ('VDH'), won the 2018 event, at the spritely age of seventy three, aboard one.