Paris (AFP)

A participation record with 33 skippers including six women ready to do battle, an international dimension, "flying" boats and a party that wants to be popular despite the health crisis: the stage for the 9th edition of the Vendée Globe is set at two months departure.

The actors of this round the world solo and non-stop, were gathered Thursday at the Palais Brongniart in Paris for a launch pad before a departure given on November 8 in Sables d'Olonne (Vendée).

Masked, kept at a good distance from each other, the protagonists engaged in the exercise in person with the exception of Yves Auvinet, president of the Departmental Council of Vendée and of SAEM Vendée, organizer of the event, considered to be a Covid-19 contact case but tested negative.

He said that the health protocol for the village was "being finalized so that as many people as possible can benefit from this Vendée Globe".

"Reception will be limited to 5,000 people with real-time flow management, reservations to be made to access the village. All this is to be specified".

The Vendée Globe, a quadrennial event aboard Imoca class monohulls (18.28m), recorded a record number of candidates, 18 of whom will make for the first time this circumnavigation of 40,075 theoretical kilometers (21,638 nautical miles).

- "Something different" -

With in particular eight boats of the very latest generation, that of the "foilers", the "flying boats" (the foils being appendages which raise the boat above the water to make it spin at full speed).

Among this new fleet, the big favorite Jérémie Beyou (Charal) is approaching his 4th Vendée Globe with a little "bizarre" taste due to preparation disrupted by the pandemic.

"It's still not as usual, we were confined for two months, we add additional constraints. There's something different," says AFP Beyou, who will quarantine before departure for 7 days.

"It's not nothing to swing all alone around the world for three months. You need to see people first, your surroundings, your routine and you have to switch from all that. It will be more like the life of 'an astronaut,' he continues.

Another sailor at the helm of a "foiler" and Sablais of origin, Sébastien Simon (Arkéa - Paprec) plans to do more than seven days of quarantine in order not to risk compromising his first Vendée Globe.

"If there is a case of Covid in one of my relatives, I am not leaving. I do not want to destroy four years of work", warns Simon, who hopes that "the Vendée Globe will remain popular otherwise it will lose its magic ".

"I would have the feeling of having my Vendée Globe stolen. It would be tough to leave in anonymity," he explains.

- "On the right path" -

Instead of the 100,000 to 200,000 people usually massed along the channel used by the boats before departure, they will certainly be fewer this time.

"I have no idea what it's going to look like, it's going to be a highlight even if they will be fewer, it will be an extraordinary moment, a moment awaited for 4 years, it can only be magic even if it will be special ", slips the young Alexia Barrier (TSE - 4myplanet), one of the six women involved.

No woman had set off in 2016/2017.

"We are on the right track, but at the same time there are six women out of 33 participants. I will let you think about it", wanted to put Isabelle Joschke (MACSF), Franco-German sailor into perspective.

There will also be many foreign skippers who hope to overtake the French, which has never happened since the creation in 1989.

Welshman Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), second in 2016/2017, could well be the spoilsport, followed by Briton Samantha Davies (Initiatives Coeur), who will have among other rivals her ... husband, Romain Attanasio (Pure - Best Western).

All sailors must be in Les Sables d'Olonne on October 16 for the village to open on October 17.

The goal: beat the 74 days of Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire), defending champion.

© 2020 AFP