Les Sables-d'Olonne (France) (AFP)
Jérémie Beyou (Charal), at the helm of a new generation monohull capable of + flying +, won Tuesday evening the Vendée-Arctique, a race to prepare for the legendary Vendée Globe, after 10 days of navigation in the North Atlantic.
Beyou, who had left Les Sables d'Olonne on July 4 with 19 other competitors all candidates for the Vendée Globe, returned to cross the finish line off the Vendée city at 20:44, a race completed in 10 days 5 hours and 14 minutes.
The skipper, 3rd in the 2016/2017 Vendée Globe, should be quickly followed by Charlie Dalin (Apivia) and Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) - also aboard new generation monohulls - with whom he fought hard throughout this race at particularly atypical course of 2,807 nautical miles (5,198 km).
It was a loop in the North Atlantic first taking the fleet as close to the Arctic Circle, near Iceland, to descend to the Azores and return to Vendée.
The Vendée-Arctique was created to prepare the next Vendée Globe, a solo and non-stop round-the-world race aboard Imoca class monohulls (60 feet or 18.28 m long), which will start on 8 November Sables d'Olonne.
Of the 35 skippers registered for the Vendée Globe, 20 have aligned themselves in the Vendée-Arctique. Three of them were forced to abandon due to damage: Sébastien Simon (Arkéa-Paprec), Damien Seguin (Apicil Group) and Armel Tripon (L'Occitane en Provence).
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