VendeeGlobe starts TOMORROW.

The Vendee Globe, a historical solo-handed non-stop Round the World Sailing Race, is starting Saturday 10th November 2012 at 12:02 GMT (13:02 French winter time= CET) 

The Start location is Les Sable d'Olonne, France, and the the route starts to sail south over the Atlantic to round Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. 
There will be 20 sailors at the start, one of which is a lady and some have sailed this VendeeGlobe before. 
All sailors sail in similar Boats, IMOCA60 Open, be it that some are older than the other. 

Alongside the 20 Real Boats, there are a huge number of virtual sailors, now some 90,000 that have registered in VirtualRegatta to sail alongside their favorite sailors and even try to beat them. 
Want to try sailing from your comfortable arm-chair alongside your hero's, than register at VR. 
Or you might want to sail some alternative virtual World tours in LiveSkipper or Sailonline. Plenty of options. 

Route for VendeeGlobe 2012-2013

Recruitement for Future VendeeGlobe

The 7th VendeeGlobe is to Start in about 12 days and all Boats are now in the harbor for last checks, stocking up and for the public to have a look at the boats and a talk to the skippers.

Vendée Globe: Two weeks to go before the start! by VendeeGlobeTV

Apart from the Real Boats sailing the VendeeGlobe this is also a large group of Virtual Sailors that will sail the VendeeGlobe alongside their hero's. 

The official Virtual VendeeGlobe will be sailed in VirtualRegatta.  There is still time to register and find yourself a Sailing Team that is looking to complete its 10 Boats and challenge some other 17 register Virtual Sailing Teams. It looks our Sailing Team VG2012 0$ Sailors is the only English speaking team with 17 French speaking teams!
In some other Virtual Sailing programs, like LiveSkipper there will be some alternatives Round the World tour sailed.

Virtual Sailing in VendeeGlobe

Virtual Sailing becomes more and more popular!

The recently finished VolvoOceanRace, had some 60,000 virtual sailors in its VolvoOceanRaceGame and while the VR, the official virtual player for VendeeGlobe, has only recently started the registration, there already 20,000+ boats on the list.

VR virtual sailing the VendeeGlobe

The virtual Sailing Race will start on 10th November 2012 alongside the Start of the Real Boats in the VendeeGlobe. See the countdown counter in the Game till the Start at 12:00 GMT (13:00 French time).

Did you try virtual Sailing?
If not this is your change to start, and sail alongside 20 Real boats skippered by the Sailing professionals. The boats virtual and real have about same capacities, that is to say if in VR you are prepared to purchase extra sail packages. The Basic boats with 2 standard sails will not be able to sail same speed as the real boats and you will most likely not beat the sailors that buy themselves the speedy sails, waypoints and what not?

Will Sailing the Basic boat give any fun?
Yes , it will, especially if you can beat many of the Boats that have paid for the extra options but cannot use them to their advantage :)
Another advantage of sailing the Basic Boat is that you can join the 0$ Sailors Club; this is a club that also existed very successful in the VORG as well and will not spend any real money to sail the VendeeGlobe. Amongst the members of this club  will be sailed in an even playing field with a seperate 0$ classification.
Check out the VR  0$ Sailors club and if you can find yourself in the principles for the Club, you may apply for a free membership.

Is VR the only Virtual Sailing site to Sail the Vendee route?
No, apart from VR, there is e.g. Liveskipper, that sails an alternative Global tour. The advantage of Liveskipper is that it is a free virtual sailing player where all boats sail in an even playing field, no options for speedy sails as the boats have all  the speedy sails already in standard package.
There is also, SailonLine, as virtual player, but I cannot see any global race in there.

My Blog to report on VendeeGlobe

Soon, on 10th November, the VendeeGlobe2012-2013 will start a Solo-Sailing Race around the World. About 20 skippers will take the historic race in challenge with the Sea, Oceans, Winds and Waves and of course each other. 

This blog will try to report on some interesting aspects of the Vendee race and its Virtual counter parts. 

The race will be possible to track via a tracker on internet, see my TAB "ROUTE" and I try to give some daily locations on a map. In this map I will show the Real boats alongside the Virtual Boats and hopefully they can sail a close battle. 

Some interesting maybe even useful links for this VendeeGlobe:

• The official website for the VendeeGlobe
• For Virtual Sailors the VR is the official virtual  sailing game.   
• Another Virtual Sailing Site is LiveSkipper, which I prefer actually. To sail in Liveskipper you may register for free, choose your Boat-name and start sailing an alternative Global route.