The 18-meter sailboats (Imoca) set off off the coast of Les Sables d'Olonne (Vendée), starting town of the Vendée Globe, the race around the world solo and non-stop, for a journey of 3,500 miles (about 6,500 km) as close as possible to the Arctic Circle before returning to the Vendée port.
"I've never even set foot in Iceland," joked Jérémie Beyou (Charal) to AFP the day before departure.
“We have never gone so high (in offshore racing), it is a great first. Only (the skipper) Guirec Soudée sailed around Greenland, he told me that he had been locked up by the ice cream, I hope it doesn't happen to us!"
French skipper Jérémie Beyou, aboard his monohull "Charal", on June 12, 2022, before the start of the 2nd edition of the Vendée Arctique from Les Sables d'Olonne Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP
This four-year race, qualifying for the Vendée Globe 2024, will put competitors to the test, five months before the big event of the year, the Route du Rhum, a solo transatlantic race between Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine ) to Guadeloupe.
"You have to go there with caution. It's an island with a lot of relief, very fresh air, very cold water, breeze. In terms of wind strength, there's a lot of work. Around the "Island is a hundred miles, it's not on this portion that we're going to sleep. We mustn't do anything stupid, the whole course is hefty", continued Beyou, winner of the first edition in 2020 but whose route did not go beyond the southern tip of Iceland due to weather conditions.
French skipper Jérémie Beyou, aboard his monohull "Charal", on June 12, 2022, shortly after the start of the 2nd edition of the Vendée Arctic from Les Sables d'Olonne Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP
The winner is expected around June 23.
© 2022 AFP