The Vendée Globe is a single-handed (solo) non-stop round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. It is named after the Département of Vendée, in France, where the race starts and ends. The Vendée Globe is considered an extreme quest of individual endurance and the ultimate test in ocean racing.
The Jules Verne Trophy is a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions on the size of the crew provided the vessel has registered with the organization and paid an entry fee. A vessel holding the Jules Verne trophy will not necessarily hold the absolute round the world record. The trophy was first awarded to the first yacht which sailed around the world in less than 80 days. The name of the award is a reference to the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days in which Phileas Fogg traverses the planet in 80 days. The current holder is IDEC Sport skippered by Francis Joyon in 40 days 23 hours 30 minutes 30 seconds.
Bruno Tristan Peyron is a French yachtsman who, along with his crew on the catamaran Orange II, broke the outright round-the-world sailing record in March 2005. He was the first winner of the Jules Verne Trophy in 1994, for completing a round-the-world trip in less than 80 days. Peyron was born in Angers, France and grew up in the French Atlantic coast city of La Baule. He has been one of the main organisers behind the round-the-world-race, The Race.
The Race was a round-the-world sailing race that started in Barcelona, Spain, on December 31, 2000.
Orange II is a large catamaran designed for ocean racing, a "maxicat". The boat is 36.80 m long and has a 45 m mast and was designed by the Gilles Ollier Multiplast design team and built by the Multiplast yard in Vannes, France.
Tracy Edwards, MBE is a British sailor. In 1989 she skippered the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, becoming the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy and was appointed MBE. She has written two books about her experiences.
Olivier de Kersauson de Pennendreff is a French sailor and sailing champion.
Cheyenne, formerly known as PlayStation is a large catamaran created for the 2000 around the world race known as The Race. Like its competitors, Cheyenne was created for sheer speed, pushing the state of the art in materials, construction, and operation. PlayStation was skippered and owned by Steve Fossett. It is owned by and operated by Virgin Oceanic's co-founder Chris Welsh.
Groupama 3 is a high performance racing sailing trimaran designed for transoceanic record-setting IDEC SPORTBanque Populaire VII, Lending Club 2, IDEC 3). She is one of the world's fastest ocean-going sailing vessels and the current holder of the Jules Verne Trophy for circumnavigation of the world. She was originally skippered by French yachtsman Franck Cammas, with a crew of ten and sponsored by the French insurance company Groupama. She is currently skippered by Françis Joyon.
Banque Populaire V, is an offshore-racing trimaran which was originally run by Team Banque Populaire. It was Team Banque Populaire's fifth boat designed to set oceanic records. She was launched on 4 October 2008 in Nantes, France. She holds multiple records for sailing over set courses, as well as the record for distance sailed in 24 hours by any class of sailing boat, 908.2 nm.
Geronimo is a French trimaran designed to break great offshore records. It was skippered by the French yachtsman Olivier de Kersauson. It was launched on Saturday 29 September 2001 in Brest, France by Marie Tabarly.
Daedalus is a maxi-catamaran, that participated in numerous open-ocean races under various owners and names.
Doha 2006 is a maxi-catamaran, that has participated in many offshore races under several names:
Gitana 13 is an ocean-racing catamaran. She has had several names, including:
The first around the world sailing record for circumnavigation of the world was Juan Sebastián Elcano and the remaining members of Ferdinand Magellan's crew who completed their journey in 1522. The first solo record was set by Joshua Slocum in the Spray (1898).
VPLP design is a French-based naval architectural firm founded by Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, responsible for designing some of the world's most innovative racing boats. Their designs presently hold many of the World Speed Sailing records.
Brian Thompson is a British yachtsman. He was the first Briton to twice break the speed record for sailing around the world, and the first to sail non-stop around the world four times. He is highly successful offshore racer on all types of high-performance yachts, from 21-foot Mini Transat racers to 140-foot Maxi Trimarans.
Thomas Coville is a French yacht racer.
Alex Pella is a Spanish yachtsman. In 2014 he became the first and only Spanish to win a transoceanic single-handed race, the Route du Rhum. Alex Pella made history once again, on the 26th of January 2017, when he broke, with the rest of the team, the absolute round-the-world speed sailing record, known as the Jules Verne Trophy., aboard the sophisticated maxi-multihull IDEC 3. They circumnavigated the planet in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.
Nick Moloney is an Australian professional yachtsman, born on 5 May 1968 in Melbourne, Australia. Having completed 3 circumnavigation and set 15 speed records and competed in pinnacle yachting events.
