The French organisers are also calling the new Globe40 the "Grande Route": in 2021/22, the race will take its participating double-handed crews around the globe on monohull yachts that comply with the Class 40 regulations. The organiser is Sirius Evènements, a company affiliated with the French Sailing Federation Fédération Française de Voile (FFV). The standard entry fee is 15,000 euros. Anyone registering after 1 July 2020 pays 20 percent more. Anyone registering after 31 December 2020 will have to pay a 30 percent surcharge. The Notice of Race is to be published before 1 July 2020. As calmly as the initial information is presented, the sailing scene is positively excited.
Some things are already known about the race around the globe, which is also electrifying potential double-handed circumnavigators here in Germany and is causing quite a stir in the scene. For example, the fact that crew members can be swapped at any stopover harbour. The race is scheduled to start on 27 June 2021 from an as yet undetermined port - probably in France, although the organisers do not want to rule out another European port at this point - via São Vicente (Cape Verde), Mauritius, Auckland, Papeete, Ushuaia, Recife and Grenada back to the start and finish port, where the leading boats are expected to arrive in mid-March 2022. The route will take them from the North to the South Atlantic, across the Indian Ocean, to Polynesian coasts, around Cape Horn and to Tierra del Fuego over Christmas. "That would be something!", enthuses not only transat sailor and TO driver Andreas Deubel. Jörg Riechers and other German Class 40 specialists are also taking a closer look.
According to the organisers, the race was created with both top-class sporting competition and an interest in the journey and the destinations themselves in mind. It is intended to inspire ambitious regatta sailors as well as adventure-hungry enthusiasts, professionals and amateurs. The legs will be between 2115 and 6225 nautical miles long. In total, around 30,140 nautical miles and 140 days at sea are to be completed.
However, the race organisers have also built in a safeguard in case there are too few participants: if there are fewer than 15 registered boats on 31 December 2020, the race will not start and registered teams will receive 90 percent of their entry fee back. This means that sailing enthusiasts in France are not thinking small.
Here to go to the organisers' homepage and the details of the race.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
