Saturday 11 June 2022: Act One of the GLOBE40!
The event prologue in LORIENT AGGLOMERATION France will be a symbolic and momentous occasion for a project launched nearly 3 years ago – the perfect prelude then to the excitement of the RACE START in TANGIER on 26 June.
The wait is almost over for the highly committed competitors preparing to set sail on the adventure of a lifetime.
After two years punctuated by an unprecedented health crisis in a world forced into lockdown and an ongoing international crisis, the GLOBE40 could well have remained on the drawing board.
And yet, an extremely committed group of international competitors – 80% of racers are from overseas – has managed to overcome a series of difficulties to ensure they’ll be at the start of this pioneering event, structured around a novel yet simple concept: a race around the world that is both affordable and accessible on a competitive level, with an innovative course optimised around the boats, where a passion for competition and an openness to the world take centre stage.
As we go to press, the first entry from North America, skippered by Canadian Mélodie Schaffer, has begun the delivery trip to Europe. American Joe Harris is planning to launch his Gryphon Solo 2 next week in Portland and a second US team skippered by Micah Davis is on track to arrive in Lorient in early June. Meantime, the Moroccan team is taking charge of their boat this week, Eric Grosclaude is completing a month-long refit prior to relaunch, Japanese skipper Masa Suzuki has just presented his project at the International Boat Show in Tokyo and Dutch sailor Frans Budel is ready to go…
The entry list has been updated and can be viewed on the race website, with the final line-up likely to be revealed in June, last-minute partnerships being a speciality of offshore racing of course.
A world opening up for the first time in two years
With the announcement that New Zealand is opening up its borders on 4 May 2022 for most of the countries, the entire GLOBE40 course is now accessible to the competitors. As such, the GLOBE40 will be the first offshore event to reconnect with this new world, a powerful message if ever there was one.
With a final reconnaissance mission in March to the island of Grenada in the West Indies, all the host cities – with the notable exception of New Zealand for the reasons highlighted above – have been visited by the organisation team. Over the past 3 years, an amazing, enthusiastic network of key contacts and correspondents has been put together with many new relationships forged along the way. For a great many host cities, the race will also be the perfect platform from which to champion their destination after the enforced silence of the past 2 years.
In Tangier, the city is buzzing as it prepares to host the first ever start of a major offshore race from African and Arabian soil. Further down the track, in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where the racecourse is typically much further south, teasing the ice limits, the GLOBE40 will instead see crews venturing up to Mauritius and French Polynesia, in the wake of adventurers Bernard Moitessier and Eric Tabarly.
A media sensation with international scope
A melting pot of adventure, unique venues, epic tales, colourful characters and sporting prowess, the GLOBE40 will be an endless source of entertainment for many months to come.
The technical means are in place to share this adventure with the widest possible audience on a planetary scale: a video team in attendance at every stopover, a highly renowned marine photographer Jean-Marie Liot, a special programme produced at each venue, with international distribution of the images and numerous press trips.
Finally, an exclusivity deal is being finalised with an American production company based in New York and aiming to develop a project spanning several episodes for a major global network.