The start of the Vendée Globe will take place as planned on Sunday November 8 at 1:02 p.m. local time but behind closed doors without local spectators. It will be broadcast live on vendeeglobe.org and on many television channels.

Following the confinement measures announced by the President of the French Republic last night the Vendée Globe race village has been closed today. Only accredited staff attached to the organisation and the race teams have been on site.

Closure of the Vendée Globe village

Why the start village had to be closed

Following the national confinement measures decided by the President of the French Republic as part of the fight against Covid-19, the Vendée Globe Village will be closed to the public as from Friday October 30.

behind closed-door start show, five hours of live!

The start of the Vendée Globe will take place as planned on Sunday November 8 at 1:02 p.m. local time but behind closed doors without local spectators. It will be broadcast live on vendeeglobe.org and on many television channels.

Ten teams took advantage of the light winds and sunshine to sail and make final checks on the waters off Les Sables d’Olonne.

The race pontoon has been eerily quiet. Teams are making the required changes to their start day plans in accordance with the ‘behind closed doors’ policy for Sunday 8th, many already had contingency Plan B and Plan C options in their roadbooks.

On the dock we caught up with:

Joff Brown boat captain (Medallia): ” It does not really affect us at all from a technical point of view but for Pip for whom this is a 20 year ambition and even a year ago she might have thought the chances of getting here were still remote, to have to now phone here parents and say ‘sorry you can’t come’ there will be a handful of crew and five other people and no one on the canalside is sad for her. It is another variable in the mix. But from a technical point of view it was always a possibility so there is nothing we are waiting on coming from a far flung place for example, our jobs list is well under control. ”

Marcus Hutchinson (LinkedOut): “We have heard from the race office this morning what the plans are for start day and we had really already anticipated a lot of these measures, but it is nice to have it firmed up that we only have two RIBs with a limited number of passengers on board which basically includes the technical team and one or two members of Thomas’ family and the photographer. We are a week out and so we can make arrangements around that. It is a particularly tricky time but we are not unique in this situation. We have to adapt. We have only ever had one priority and that was to make this race start on the 8th from a team’s point of view, from the sponsors’ point of view and from the organisers points of view and we are still here a week away from it.”

Stu McLachlan (Sea Explorer Yacht Club de Monaco): ” Nothing changes too much for us on the technical side but on the sponsors and technical side it has quite an impact. Boris is here now and will quarantine in a couple of days time. He will do some weather studies, run routings and some comms stuff. He has been back on the boat and is involved with things?”

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by Vendee Globe