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Bruno Retailleau, President of the Vendée Council, officially launched the seventh edition of the Vendée Globe, at a press conference organised yesterday at the Paris Boat Show. An opportunity for Luc Talbourdet, President of the IMOCA class to reaffirm the objectives of the class, both in the area of safety and in terms of its future development.

© Jean-Marie Liot/DPPI/Vendée Globe

Luc Talbourdet : "It is both an act of homage and a responsibility for the IMOCA class to work with the Vendée Globe. Our relationship has always continued in an atmosphere of trust and loyalty.  We have the same goal of making our sport more international and share the objective of the ongoing quest for improved safety for our skippers. We are engaged in useful ongoing work with the SAEM Vendée with whom we can always discuss our ideas and projects.  

Thanks to this constructive work together, we have learnt lessons from the last Vendée Globe and shared decisions about safety and the reliability of our boats. Our work involved changing our rules, aiming to build a fleet where the boats are of a similar standard. We want safer and more reliable monohulls. We have limited the power, and the current boats remain competitive in comparison to the latest boats.

Looking forward to the next Vendée Globe today we can count on the presence of 23 monohulls (including six new boats) all serious contenders to win the race. Never before has the standard in the IMOCA fleet been so consistent. From an economic perspective, the IMOCA class skippers have not yet all found their partner, but we are pleased to welcome newcomers, like the MACIF which recently announced its commitment to our circuit by going alongside François Gabart.

Our development is a long-term goal and we wish to ensure that partners get the most they can in terms of communication in particular from their involvement and their investment. I’m pleased to see too that the Sodebo company remains just as loyal to the Vendée Globe and I’d like to pay homage to their President Patricia Brochard, who is always available to share her huge experience of sailing sponsorship after achieving the success we have seen.

I’m pleased too that the internationalisation of the Vendée Globe is at the heart of the objectives of the SAEM Vendée, as it is also our concern. The Barcelona World Race is contributing to making our race an international affair, just like the Europa Race. The Vendée Globe will also certainly include foreign skippers, coming in particular from Britain, Spain and Switzerland.

As far as the prize money is concerned, the 2012 Vendée Globe has announced that it will be increased by 100,000 euros in comparison to the previous race to reach a total of 600,000 euros. This is a measure that will contribute to rewarding the commitment and talent of our sailors and goes along with our development plans and the professionalisation of our sport”.