Vendée Globe : les dernières infos Tip & Shaft

At the age of 42, Antoine Koch has had a dual career as a sailor and an engineer, which enabled him back at the start of the last decade to join Gitana Team. Since 2018, he has been working alongside Thomas Ruyant on enhancing the amazing performance of the Verdier-designed Imoca LinkedOut, one of the favourites of the 2020 Vendée Globe. Tip & Shaft met up with him to find out more.

The last preparatory practice race before Vendée Globe organized by the pole Finistère race off Port-la-Forêt ended last Thursday. Charlie Dalin was out there in the mix and, at a month before the start of the ninth Vendée Globe it was the ideal opportunity to catch up with the skipper of Apivia, one of the favourites for the solo round the world race.

The Vendée Globe Notice of Race gives entrants the opportunity of substituting themselves with a replacement skipper should something happen which means they cannot take the start (that replacement has to be appointed before October 1). Of course this is a scenario which becomes all the more relevant, a choice closely considered by some teams while Covid-19 remains a threat. Tip & Shaft lit up our phones to ask all teams whether or not they are employing this option.

The Vendée Globe organization is entering the final stage of planning and preparation before the start on November 8. From the sports perspective the Vendée-Arctique-Les Sables d’Olonne race in June provided some reassurance, but the current evolving health situation in France leaves room for doubt especially as to the final shape and format of the village, the organizational arrangements and the final rules and regulations. Two months before the start gun fires Tip & Shaft takes stock.