News Around the World
FRANCE La Grande Route promises a great success! ‘The Globe 40 is a round-the-world race accessible to both experienced amateurs and professional skippers. It combines competitive performance, adventure and travel, a round-the- world whose course takes skippers off the usual round-the-world track and offers some unique stopovers, a round-the-world on a suitable and affordable boat (a Class40), both competitively and financially. ‘The Globe 40 is a round-the-world that heralds a return to the
original values of offshore racing: “La Grande Route” in the wake of Bernard Moitessier’s famous book, La Longue Route.’ So said Manfred Ramspacher, who served several years in the
French Navy, is founder and manager of Sirius Events and well- known for the organisation of offshore events like the Normandy Channel Race and previous Tours Voiles, plus international inshore races in the original TP52 circuit and GC32 cats. The Class40 has already had two round-the-world races but
always with only a few boats and on a conventional track. Despite the lukewarm success of those races there is a growing demand in the class for a new round-the-world event... taking full account of those lessons of the past. In his editorial in the last issue of the Class40 yearbook president
Halvard Mabire wrote: ‘Class40 deserves its own great round-the- world event, combining adventure with a high level of competition, an event capable of seducing the press, public and therefore sponsors, so that our skippers can stay in Class40 instead of changing classes because they are attracted by longer events which Class40 does not yet have…’ In many ways Manfred Ramspacher is answering that request even
if the Grande Route has been tailored to encourage Corinthian sailors as much as hardened professionals climbing the racing ladder. First section of the Grande Route is quite a long, original and
very attractive course: ‘Eight legs of varying duration, a balanced course, no marathon legs of over 30 days or so at sea, no long
18 SEAHORSE
stages in the deep south, except for rounding the great capes, south of Australia and more especially for the Horn coming from French Polynesia… along with some unique destinations. ‘It is a course that comprises both long periods of oceanic sailing
with a significant coastal portion using numerous (stunning) islands as passage marks.’ The Grande Route visits São Vicente (Cape Verde), Mauritius,
Auckland, Papeete, Ushuaia, Recife and Grenada. The longer legs are leg 2 and 3 to Mauritius and to Auckland (6,000nm each). The shorter stages are to Papeete from Auckland and between Recife and Grenada. In total then, an odyssey spanning 30,000nm and 140 days at
sea for the first boat, provisionally setting sail on Sunday 27 June 2021 and returning mid-March 2022 for the frontrunners, late March for the tail end of the fleet. The legs for the frontrunners will last from 12 to 24 days. The final short leg will be around eight days. The Great Circle Company has been commissioned to carry out
a meteorology study of the new course. The average speed for the whole tour is estimated at 10kt according to the (latest) Class40 speed polars. Note that the overall placing is decided by points not by the accumulations of times. The start/finish port will be confirmed in the coming months. It should be a place in France but, as Manfred said, ‘We’re in discussions with several groups, without closing the door to proposals from another European offer.’ The Globe 40 is sailed two-handed – the DNA of the class – for
human interest and safety. The crew can be changed at each stopover but there must always be at least one sailor onboard who has sailed a previous leg in the race. Regarding admission of the entries, Manfred told us:
‘Qualification will be made on the basis of the nautical CV of each competitor. We will consider both ocean sailing and ocean racing experience with a minimum mileage in the past five years plus expe- rience sailing the boat to be used for the event.’ As the entries may be confirmed up to July 2020 the organisation will have time to ask for extra qualification miles if necessary.
CHRISTOPHE BRESCHI
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