Episode Details

The Vendée Globe is a solo, nonstop, unassisted race around the world over roughly 44,000 kilometers, about 24,000 nautical miles. It was created as the Globe Challenge by French sailor Philippe Jeantot, who had twice won the staged BOC Challenge in the 60 foot class (1982 to 1983 and 1986 to 1987) and wanted to remove the safety net of port stops. The first edition in 1989 to 1990 had 13 starters and was won by Titouan Lamazou in just over 109 days, with Jeantot finishing fourth. Since 1992 it has run every four years from Les Sables d'Olonne, down the Atlantic, past the Cape of Good Hope, clockwise around Antarctica leaving Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn to port, and back north, timed from November to February for the austral summer.

The rules ban any outside help, including external weather routing, so sailors download raw GRIB files and plot their own routes on onboard computers while sleeping in 20 to 40 minute bursts. After Canadian Gerry Roufs was lost in the 1996 to 1997 race, organizers added a GPS ice exclusion zone that squeezes the fleet between Southern Ocean storms and drifting icebergs. Foiling IMOCA 60s changed everything: in 2024 to 2025 Charlie Dalin finished aboard Macif Santé Prévoyance in 64 days, 19 hours and 23 minutes, and Sébastien Simon covered 615 nautical miles in 24 hours. Of 238 starters only 146 have finished, 152 starters have been French, and every overall winner has been French.

• A sailor who breaks down early may return to the start to repair, but only within a 10 day window.
• Qualifying can mean a solo passage of at least 2,500 nautical miles at an average of 7 knots.
• Sailors wear crash helmets and body armor inside cabins where carbon fiber noise requires noise cancelling headsets.
• Michel Desjoyeaux is the only two time winner, taking the 2000 to 2001 and 2008 to 2009 editions.
• Ellen MacArthur finished second in 2000 to 2001, one of 15 women to compete, with starters aged 23 to 66.