SAEM Vendée unveiled the notice of race for the 11th edition of the Vendée Globe on Wednesday, which will start on November 12, 2028. No revolution compared to the previous one, but an evolution of the qualification and selection system. Sailorz tells you more.
It was at the Vendée Parnasse, which houses the Parisian offices of the Vendée department, opposite the Montparnasse tower and station, that Alain Leboeuf, President of SAEM Vendée, and Nicolas Chénéchaud, Mayor of Les Sables d’Olonne since September 29, accompanied by the president of the Imoca class, Antoine Mermod, invited the press on Wednesday, November 19, to present the notice of race (the document is here) for the 11th edition of the Vendée Globe.
The event, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary on the occasion, will start on November 12, 2028 at 1:02 p.m. and will be based on a new qualification and selection system, put in place by SAEM and Imoca, which, incidentally, have renewed the agreement linking them until the end of the 2032 edition – subject to a financial contribution from the former to the latter of 100,000 euros per year. “The objective was to evolve the system based on what we had observed in the previous cycle so that it would be more equitable and agile,” announced Alain Leboeuf in the preamble.
Before going into detail, first with a changing qualification rule, since, to tick this box, a sailor will have to finish one of the five Grade 2 solo races listed in the 2025-2028 calendar on their Vendée Globe boat – in chronological order: Vendée Arctique, Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe, Retour à La Base, Transat CIC, and New York-Vendée – in a time less than twice that of the winner. Previously, one had to take the start of two solo races (one of which had to be before the end of 2023) and finish one in a time less than one and a half times that of the winner.
As for the selection, which will only apply if there are more than 40 entries, where the number of miles covered previously served to decide between candidates, this time it is a points system that is being introduced. In the 18 events of the Imoca Globe Series 2025-2028 (including the Vendée Globe 2024), classified from Grade 1 to 4, points are awarded on a decreasing basis according to the results, which also take into account their format (solo, double-handed, crewed) – crew members and co-skippers, for example, score 50% of the main skipper’s points.
In order to take into account individual situations that posed a problem during the previous cycle – maternity, illness or injury, foreigners who have more difficulty getting to the start of races – this system only takes into account the 9 best results recorded over the 13 Grade 1 to 3 races, while, according to Alain Leboeuf, “half the points of the last finisher will be awarded to those who abandon but complete at least 50% of the race.” Finally, SAEM Vendée reserves the right to award three wild cards – compared to one in 2024.
Less pressure on the skippers
Can we therefore speak of a less demanding system? “I would rather say different,” replies Antoine Mermod. “The 2024 system was based on quantity, so you had to start your project very quickly. The limitation was that it put a lot of pressure on the skippers and there were side effects that jeopardized some projects; it was probably a bit excessive. Here, it is more based on quality.”
Reached by Sailorz on Thursday, Clarisse Crémer, who was directly concerned by the issue of maternity in the previous cycle, believes that these new rules “smooth out the problem of having to be fully committed for four years, so the trend is positive, and if you take my case last time, I would have been much calmer with this regulation.” However, she questions why the issue of maternity was not treated as a separate case, “when having a child does not have the same consequences for a woman as for a man.”
Present at the Parisian press conference on Wednesday, Sébastien Marsset expressed his satisfaction: “The race for miles clearly put my entire project under pressure and a year after the start, I am still paying for it. This new system will take some pressure off the skippers’ shoulders.” Reached on Thursday while he was delivering his Imoca back from Martinique, Louis Duc adds: “Four years ago, the stress was permanent because we knew there were many projects and that we absolutely had to do all the races. This is less the case today; I have counted about twenty truly anchored projects for 2028; there will inevitably be ten more, but I am not sure it will go much beyond that.”
Is this new system also motivated by a more complicated economic context? “It is not a response to the economic context, but the fact is that it allows for a more gradual arrival at the Vendée Globe,” indicates Antoine Mermod. “Today, we clearly see that projecting three or four years ahead is more difficult for companies, but the Vendée Globe remains an XXL event, and I would not be surprised if projects are set up in 2027 and we reach 40 entries.”
A system that is too “easy”?
The fact remains that some sailors, and not the least of them, now find themselves left out, a point highlighted by Jérémie Beyou, interviewed with Morgan Lagravière by Ouest-France after his victorious arrival in the Transat Café L’Or, suggesting that “the selections for the Vendée Globe are not tough enough.” Questioned on the subject on Wednesday, Alain Leboeuf replied: “The Vendée Globe is a marvelous race because it welcomes great sportsmen, and Jérémie is one of them, but also adventurers, who do not set out to be first but make the public dream.” Clarisse Crémer agrees: “I understand Jérémie and Morgan’s point of view as sportsmen because that is their DNA, but I think they are mistaken about what people like to watch in 2025. And you cannot blame less-well-ranked sailors for having more following.”
Reached by Sailorz on Thursday while he too was delivering his Imoca back to Brittany, the skipper of Charal wanted to clarify his thinking: “The idea is not to criticize certain projects, but just to say that the Vendée Globe must remain a high-level race. Today, people like Tom Dolan, who wins the Figaro, Morgan Lagravière, three-time winner of the Transat Café L’Or, Nico Troussel, or even Franck Cammas cannot find a budget for the Vendée. Shouldn’t sponsors rather bet on profiles like that, who will put in a great performance, like Sam (Godchild) or Justine (Mettraux), in the top 10 of the last Vendée with a second-hand boat?”
And Jérémie Beyou added: “What bothers me, and I’m not the only one, is that there is a very large gap between the first ten or fifteen and those behind. And when I see in the new notice of race that you can qualify by doing twice the time of the first finisher on a transatlantic race, I find that enormous. I think that even those who have fewer resources and take part to the Vendée for the first time, we can ask a little more of them, because with these rules, they can settle for the minimum and secure their thing, which is understandable.”
For Sébastien Marsset, this does not prevent the “small” projects from also aiming for performance: “In the last Vendée, we also had an incredible competition. We found ourselves ten boats within 100 miles in the Indian Ocean, four finishing on the same day. OK, we didn’t get a podium or a top 10, but we were still engaged in a sporting endeavor; that’s why we were welcomed within the Finistère offshore racing training center. And today, you have to accept that to be a good sailor, you must certainly train on the water, but not only that. In some ways, whether we like it or not, the competition is also played out on other fronts, including communication; we must manage to evolve our benchmarks, which are no longer the same as they were ten or twenty years ago.”
What Sailorz also learned from the press conference:
- The NY Vendée maintained in 2028. Although its holding immediately after The Transat CIC was not guaranteed, the New York-Vendée will indeed take place in spring 2028. “We had imagined scheduling it a year earlier to have one race per year – Vendée Globe start in 2024, arrivals in 2025, Vendée Arctique 2026, New York-Vendée 2027, then Vendée Globe 2028 – but we saw the difficulty of organizing a race like this in parallel with The Ocean Race. And we clearly felt how much our Vendée Globe contenders needed this last training phase a few months before the start,” said Alain Leboeuf.
- Towards energy autonomy? While the Imoca class rule has changed little compared to the previous cycle, it contains two main novelties: a new, stronger one-design mast and the objective of energy autonomy for the Vendée Globe 2028, which, Alain Leboeuf explained, comes with a penalty system. “Sailors will embark 60 liters of diesel which they can use at their discretion and an additional 60 liters sealed, the eventual use of which will be assessed by the jury, which will issue penalties if necessary,” Antoine Mermod specified. “It is a significant effort because in the last Vendée, competitors consumed an average of 240 liters, and it is a real technological challenge.”
- A Race HQ and a Vendée Globe gallery. Nicolas Chénéchaud and Alain Leboeuf announced the future construction of a permanent Race HQ and a Vendée Globe gallery, expected for 2028. “For the Race HQ, the idea is to make savings, rather than setting one up again each time, knowing that since the city organizes other major races, it can have multiple periods of use,” explained Alain Leboeuf, before clarifying: “We are currently working with a local player who can make these premises profitable; the department will not build directly.” What it will do, however, is for the gallery, intended “to keep the Vendée Globe alive all year round,” for which the president of SAEM indicated: “I have set a condition for it to be built, which is that there must be no operating costs weighing on the department.”
- An increased prize-money. Alain Leboeuf announced an increase in prize-money of 200,000 euros compared to the previous edition, including 50,000 for the winner, who will receive 250,000 euros.
- The Vendée Globe TV series not before September. The six-episode series, filmed during the Vendée Globe 2024, will not be broadcast on France Télévision (in prime time) before September 2026, with Red Bull also responsible for its international distribution.
Photo : Jean-Marie Liot / Alea
