Many of the New York Vendee competitors will stage at Safe Harbor Newport Shipyard before they depart for NY and the start of the New York Vendee transatlantic race.

With just a few months to go before the Vendée Globe, the round the world candidates will be competing against each other for the very last time, in a single-handed transatlantic format.

After an exhibition race under the Statue of Liberty, which promises breathtaking images of the IMOCA boats, the forty or so sailors taking part in the race will leave New York on 29 May for Les Sables d'Olonne in Vendée.

As well as being the last qualifying race for the Vendée Globe, it is also the last event in which the skippers will rack up miles. And this race counts more than any other: for every mile sailed, the sailors log 1.5 nautic mille! At stake: the precious pass to take part in the Vendée Globe...

This 2nd edition of the New York Vendée - Les Sables d'Olonne, the first organised by the Vendée Globe organisers, will set off from the United States next May. The transatlantic race is already shaping up to be a major event, attracting a huge amount of sporting interest: around forty skippers are expected to line up, compared with 14 in 2016... The first record is therefore all but set. 

And considering the lightning technological development of the boats in recent years, the record time for the race, set by Jérémie Beyou in 2016 - 9d 16h 57min 52s - should also be smashed!