The IMOCA Globe Series is the result of a shared desire among skippers and race organisers to create a stronger link between the different events. Officially launched in June 2018, the championship programme comprises eight of the most prestigious events, in double-handed and singlehanded format, spread over four seasons (2018-2021). At the end of this programme, the World IMOCA Champion title is awarded to the sailor who has racked up the greatest number of points over that period.
Also serving as a qualifier for the Vendée Globe 2020-21, the events that make up the championship enable the skippers to amass the precious miles required to integrate the list of skippers at the start of the famous singlehanded, non-stop, unassisted round the world race.
- Monaco Globe Series (1-8 June 2018): double-handed race, coefficient 2
- Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe (4 November 2018): singlehanded race, coefficient 4
- Bermudes 1000 Race (5 May 2019): double-handed, coefficient 2
- Rolex Fastnet Race (3 August 2019): double-handed, coefficient 1
- Transat Jacques-Vabre (27 October 2019): double-handed, coefficient 4
- The Transat CIC (10 May 2020): singlehanded, coefficient 4
(postponed in 2024)
- Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne (4 July 2020): singlehanded, coefficient 4
- Vendée Globe (8 November 2020): singlehanded, coefficient 10
Each skipper scores a certain number of points according to their ranking and the number of participants and a coefficient peculiar to each event. For example: if 10 boats take the start of a race with a coefficient 4, the first scores 10 x 4 = 40 points, the 2nd scores 9 x 4 = 36 points, etc.
To access the IMOCA Globe Series ranking and all the events, click here
To access the replay race tracker of the championship events, click here
An IMOCA Champion will be crowned at the end of the 2020-21 Vendée Globe. This will conclude the first cycle of the IMOCA Globe Series, which began in 2018, and will open the new cycle from 2021 to the end of the 2024-25 Vendée Globe. For the first time, the two historic circumnavigations of the globe will be brought together in a single programme. This is of course The Ocean Race, a crewed event, which joins the Championship for the next 4 years and will feature no less than 18 races and 14 countries will be visited. Find out more here
2021
May : Grand Prix Guyader (Douarnenez) - TBC
May-June : The Ocean Race Europe (Brittany-Cascais-South of France-Genoa)
8th of August : Rolex Fastnet Race (start Cowes-arrival Cherbourg)
15-19 September : Défi Azimut (Lorient)
8th of November : Transat Jacques Vabre (Le Havre-Martinique)
2022
May : Grand Prix Guyader & Bermudes 1000
June : Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d’Olonne
Juillet : Drheam Cup
September : Défi Azimut
October : The Ocean Race
October : Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe
2023
January-June : The Ocean Race
June : Legs 8 and 9 of The Ocean Race - Aarhus-La Haye-Gênes
August : Rolex Fastnet Race
September : Défi Azimut
Octobrer : Transat Jacques Vabre
2024-early 2025
May : The Transat CIC
June : New York-Vendée-Les Sables d’Olonne
September : Défi Azimut
November-February : Vendée Globe
Download the IMOCA Globe Series 2021-25 preview
The Vendée Globe is the flagship race of the IMOCA Globe Series. From its first edition in 1989, the famous singlehanded race around the world has exceeded its status as a solitary sports event. This utterly unique human adventure has a very special place in the heart of the public, who every four years, follow the action in this epic race, which crowns the achievements of the top sailors. The 9th edition will set sail on 8 November 2020 from the iconic port of Les Sables d'Olonne in France’s Vendée department.
Thirty-four sailors will be on the start line on the big day aboard ever more innovative monohulls. Eight latest generation boats have been built for this edition and nineteen competitors will be equipped with foils. The fleet is also shaping up to be one of the most international to date with around a dozen nationalities, which may well set a precedent in terms of gender equality with some five female sailors preparing for this legendary encounter.
For further information about solo sailors’ Holy Grail, click here
Since 2018 and for the first time in the history of our sport, a lasting link has been established between the Vendée Globe and The Ocean Race (ex-Volvo Ocean Race) enabling a rapprochement between the planet’s two major offshore races.
At the centre of this revolution, IMOCA monohulls will now be able to participate in the greatest singlehanded event, the Vendée Globe, as well as the longest and most extreme crewed marine marathon, The Ocean Race.
The next running of this crewed round the world race with stopovers is scheduled to set sail in October 2022 from Alicante in Spain. The racecourse was revealed in March 2020. Once again, the boats will cross three oceans, round the three major capes and make a stopover on five continents.
Indeed, following on from Alicante, the crews will make a stopover in Cape Verde, Cape Town in South Africa, Shenzhen in southern China, Auckland in New Zealand, Itajai in Brazil, Newport on America’s eastern seaboard, AArhus in Denmark and The Hague in Holland, before finishing in the Mediterranean off the port of Genoa in Italy.
For the class, its sailors and their partners, this agreement is an opportunity to build on its race programme, in solo and/or crewed format, thus favouring visibility across new markets, which had not necessarily been reached by IMOCA thus far, notably in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
It’s also heralds a natural rapprochement between two events with a rich historic heritage, whose protagonists have often been involved in the Vendée Globe and then the Whitbread, the latter becoming the Volvo Ocean Race and finally The Ocean Race, whether they are sailors, engineers, meteorologists, technicians, etc. Today, a real dynamic has been established between these two worlds, which are now one and the same.
For further information about the legendary crewed round the world race, click here
The inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Europe, scheduled to start late in the spring of 2021, will bring international top-flight, competitive ocean racing to up to five European cities.
•••The IMOCA Class meeting marking the end of the summer holidays was held on Thursday 27th August using virtual technology. This meeting enabled the members of the Class to carry out an early appraisal of what has happened…
•••Charlie Enright, the co-skipper of 11th Hour Racing, believes the new schedule for The Ocean Race – with the next race due to start in October 2022 – will give his team and rival IMOCA entrants more time to make the best…
•••They are the initiators, organisers and partners of the Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d'Olonne, surrounded by a passionate and efficient team. Gwen Chapalain, Antoine Mermod, Jacques Caraës, Yves Auvinet and Yannick Moreau …
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