Series 2 - Ep14 - Vendee Globe Part 2

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The world renowned Vendee Globe, the non-stop solo lap of the planet, is the topic of this month's podcast, as Shirley Robertson talks to five soon to depart skippers and one IMOCA designer in this two part Vendee Globe extravaganza.

In Part 1 Robertson has already talked to Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss - 5th Vendee Start) and Clarisse Cremer (Banque Populaire x - 1st Vendee Start) as well as world renowned naval architect Juan K about the progression of the IMOCA Class, and the use of foils through out much of this edition's fleet.

In this Part, Robertson catches up with long time friend and previous podcast guest Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur), as she prepares for her third Vendee attempt.   Sam finished fourth at her first Vendee back in 2009 but four years later suffered a cruel dismasting after just five days at sea.  This time around, she's racing in another of the retro fit foilers, and is confident, after a well thought out build up to the race.  As a French resident, she's also perfectly placed to explain just how big the race is in France.

"The Vendee is huge in France, its a race and a competition but it's not just that, it's huge, all the schools follow the Vendee Globe while it's happening.  Maybe the reason why it's so huge is because it's so simple at the same time as being so hard, and such an extreme event because it's just one person on a boat sailing around the world non stop without assistance."

In this part Robertson also talks to the impressive Charlie Dalin (Apivia), about taking on the race for the first time, and how his skills as a naval architect helped finesse his new generation foiling machine.  And Robertson talks to the first ever German entrant into the race, the very experienced Boris Herrmann, (SeaExplorer Yacht Club de Monacco) 

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