Vendée Globe Competitors to Deploy Scientific Testing Equipment

Twenty-five boats in the IMOCA class will deploy data-gathering equipment.

Twenty-five sailors competing in the Vendée Globe 2024, the biggest solo around-the-world race, will be launching oceanographic research and weather forecasting equipment during the voyage. The equipment is provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, who will train the captains in the use of the instruments.

Once deployed, the equipment will collect and distribute data to scientists in real time looking to expand global knowledge of climate and the ocean. The goal is to improve operational weather forecasting services in less-frequented areas of the globe like the Big South, a remote section of the Southern Ocean.

The equipment includes surface buoys, weather stations, autonomous Argo floats, Calitoo buoys and thermosalinographs. The data will feed the Global Ocean Observing System that is coordinated by UNESCO.

Institutes including stakeholders of GOOS, Ifremer, Météo France, UK MetOffice, CNES, GEOMAR, CLS, the TARA Fondation and ETH Zurich have supported the acquisition of the test gear. In the 2028 edition of the race, taking similar equipment will be manadatory for all competitors.

“Last February, we presented our 10 ambitious environmental commitments in partnership with UNESCO,” Alain Lebeoeuf, president of the Vendée Globe and the Vendée Department, said in a statement. “It is important to us that this is now rolled out by real actions such as the embarkation of these measuring devices during the race thanks to the support of many partners. This is a strong gesture from these 25 skippers who are contributing to advancing scientific acknowledge about our ocean and thus helping to protect it better.”

Added Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, “To protect the ocean better we must also know it better. I salute the commitment of the Vendée Glove, the IMOCA class and the skippers alongside Unesco to advance oceanographic by integrating these instruments on board their sailboats. This project illustrates the tremendous potential for cooperation between the worlds of sport and science.”

The 25 skippers who are taking on measuring instruments are as follows:

  • Denis Van Weynbergh (Weather Buoy)
  • Fabrice Amedeo (OceanPack + Argo Float)
  • Yoann Richomme (Argo Float + ARGOS Marget II)
  • Louis Duc (Weather Buoy)
  • Manu Cousin (Weather Buoy)
  • Louis Burton (Calitoo)
  • Jingkun Xu (Argo Float)
  • Oliver Heer (OceanPack + Argo Float)
  • Antoine Cornic (TSG Gaillard + Weather Buoy + Weather Station)
  • Tanguy Le Turquais (Weather Station)
  • Kojiro Shiraishi (Argo Float)
  • Sam Goodchild (Argo Float + Calitoo)
  • Sébastien Marsset (Weather Station + Argo Float)
  • Romain Attanasio (TSG Gaillard + Weather Buoy)
  • Boris Herrmann (OceanPack + Weather Buoy)
  • Guirec Soudée (Argo Float)
  • Maxime Sorel (Argo Float)
  • Szabi WEORES (Argo Float + Weather Station)
  • Arnaud Boissières (Weather Buoy + Calitoo)
  • Sam Davies (Calitoo)
  • Pip Hare (Calitoo)
  • Paul Meilhat (Planctoscope)
  • Nicolas Lunven (OceanPack)
  • Benjamin Dutreux (Weather Station)
  • Clarisse Crémer (Weather Buoy)
By Eric Colby