Vendée Globe: Guide to the Atlantic race home

Pip Hare

Before setting off on her Vendée Globe, Pip Hare gave Yachting World this guide to the final stretch of the Vendée, the the Atlantic north-bound

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The Vendée Globe is the world’s ultimate race course: one non-stop lap of the globe. The race started in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, on 10 November. There are three marks of the course – the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn – all of which must be rounded to port, before finishing back in Les Sables d’Olonne.

Beyond these marks, skippers must choose our own way around the world and that navigation will be primarily defined by weather, rather than geography.

Pip Hare wrote these guides for Yachting World ahead of setting off as one of 40 skippers – and the only British-based entry – in the Vendée Globe. Sadly Pip was dismasted at the tail end of 2024 ending her race and leaving her Vendée dream in tatters.

The leading skippers in the 2024-25 edition of the Vendée Globe are locked in a close battle and already closing in on the finish, with the top three expected into Sables d’Olonne some time next week, but the bulk of the fleet still has much of the trick north-bound Atlantic to navigate.

Pip’s Atlantic Northbound guide

Passing Cape Horn feels monumental; a release from the stress of big Southern Ocean conditions and like the final 6,500 miles of the course should be downhill. But it’s a mistake for any skipper to believe they are home and free on re-entry to the Atlantic.

The tactical demands of this leg, combined with tired boats and tired brains, will keep the competition keen all the way home. The Atlantic Ocean may not carry the reputational might of Southern Ocean conditions, but the complexity of weather systems make this return leg complicated and painful at times.

Picking their moments to head north will depend hugely on the weather systems both ahead and behind each skipper after they round the Horn

Exit from the South

Once Cape Horn has been rounded, sailors must head north, but it’ll be critical not to step off the Southern Ocean train too early. Making early miles to the east will avoid getting trapped along the Brazilian coast later when entering the north-east tradewinds.

If there are depressions to factor in – either coming through the Drake Passage behind you or forming to the east of Cape Horn – then it will be worth riding one more front, Southern Ocean-style, to make miles east, and then north.

If no depression is on offer the route will turn north earlier, even passing between Islas Estados and the mainland, but skippers must be watchful for any small high pressure systems developing at the latitude of Uruguay which could then migrate towards the Falkland Islands and block a path north.

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Semi-permanent cold front

Once heading north, the next feature to cross will be the semi-permanent front, which extends south-east from the Brazilian coast, close to Rio de Janeiro. Once again skippers must be on the lookout for developing low pressure areas, which form along the semi-permanent front and can appear quickly and in rapid succession.

Getting stuck to the east of a developing depression will result in northerly headwinds: passing west of a system would be quicker but could force a competitor closer in to the coast where there is a south-going current.

If there are no active depressions the semi-permanent front will create a barrier with light, fickle airs, through which boats must battle. The light air zone is another place where the fleet can compress, holding up those ahead while others ride the last stop of the Southern Ocean train, potentially eroding leads of hundreds of miles. This happened to me in my 2020 race and it was heart-breaking.

Rounding Cape Horn is a seminal moment for any Vendée Globe skipper, but the Atlantic return is still challenging and can see many place changes. Photo: Amory Ross/11th Hour Racing/The Ocean Race

South Atlantic tradewinds

The temperature increases rapidly once the fleet is back in the tradewinds, with fast reaching conditions and squall activity. These conditions once again will favour foiling boats and particularly those capable of early flight. The balance needs to be made between holding ground to the east and sailing a fast angle.

Decisions will need to be made at this stage about where to cross the doldrums. In Part 1 of this series, I described how the windless area of the doldrums forms a wedge shape, with the fat end of the wedge close to the African coast.

This means on a typical ascent of the Atlantic there is less risk of being trapped in large windless areas, as this route on ascent will be up the western side of the Atlantic.

Instead, sailors must take note of the position and size of the North Atlantic high pressure which ultimately will dictate how much easting is required and where it is feasible to cross the doldrums. They’ll need to have their eyes some 3,500 miles up the track, and their brains fast forward another two weeks.

The Atlantic low pressure systems can be much more complex than those in the south, with multiple fronts. The leg to the finish is far from a breeze for tired boats and sailors – sea states can be brutal and boat breaking in the final 1,000 miles

Doldrums

The majority of the fleet will choose to cross the doldrums between 27° and 32°W – the further east, the better the angle in the North Atlantic tradewinds.

Using radar, satellite imagery to avoid large areas of cloud, and confirming GRIB file forecasts with real time scatterometry the tactic is to pick your spot and then make best ground due north. It should be less painful than on the descent but can provide another opportunity for compression.

The North Atlantic

Another curveball for these final few weeks is that some boats may not have a full sail inventory, having damaged sails beyond repair over the previous 10 weeks. Some sailors have lost reefing points in the mainsail, as well as headsails, which can severely impair performance.

But the race will still very much be on – positioning relative to other competitors will be crucial – and we may see boats choosing routes that work for their own changed circumstances to avoid underperforming in certain conditions.

The north Atlantic can be volatile in January. Systems develop quickly and different forecast models don’t always align weeks ahead. The position, size and stability of the Azores High is critical to the final two-week strategy of the Vendée Globe race. In a classic scenario, where the Azores high is stable and centred over the Azores, the fastest route would be a reach through the tradewinds, arrival to the west of the high pressure, then round the top. However, in the last two years I’ve made two Atlantic returns in December and neither one of them showed this classic scenario.

Mixed conditions for the Vendée fleet in January 2021 as they sailed north up the Atlantic and through the doldrums. Photo: Romain Attanasio/PURE – Best Western Hotels and Resorts

A high pressure system centred to the east will allow a more direct route through the mid latitudes from the tradewinds. An elongated shape or a centre further west will provide light airs across the course and headwinds along the European coast – yet another chance for compression of the fleet.

In the case of a huge high pressure blocking the rhumb line we may also see a marked difference between foiling and non-foiling strategies. The speed differentials between the two types of boats allow big foilers to sail many more miles than the direct route. This could take boats a long way north of their final intended latitudes, to ensure good breeze all the way in.

This phenomenon was well demonstrated in the New York-Vendée Race in June 2024, where a high pressure blocked the rhumb line and the foiling boats chose routes around the high pressure, which added nearly a thousand miles, while non-foilers went through the middle.

Ride the final Front

Once the Azores High has been cleared, we hand over to the North Atlantic’s depression train, looking for a final front to push east and home. The trajectory of North Atlantic depressions normally allows their trailing cold fronts to pass into the Bay of Biscay, grazing Cape Finisterre. The wind ahead of the front is from a south-westerly direction.

Nearing Les Sables d’Olonne after 24,000 miles: a huge relief but skippers must remain vigilant– Boris Herrmann suffered a collision approaching the finish in 2021 (see damage to bowsprit). Photo: Yvan Zedda/Alea

North Atlantic fronts travel slower than their southern hemisphere counterparts, at a speed of around 25 knots so – for a not-too-tired foiling IMOCA skipper – it would be possible to place themselves ahead of a cold front and ride it all the way to the finish.

Cape Finisterre

If there is no depression to take advantage of then the direct route will be the fastest one to the finish. Entering the Bay of Biscay there are challenges and advantages that can be offered by Cape Finisterre. At this stage the fleet will start to encounter regular traffic. There is an exclusion zone around the Traffic Separation Scheme off Cape Finisterre, but on either side of this zone there’ll be a steady stream of traffic heading across Biscay to Ushant or up and down the European Atlantic coast. Inshore at Finisterre a wind acceleration zone can be used to advantage and the effects of wind shadows or accelerations caused by the Cantabrian Mountain Range in northern Spain will also be of note.

Apivia skipper, Charlie Dalin at the finish of the 2021 Vendee Globe. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot/Alea.

The Vendée Globe Finish

The final approach to the finish line at Les Sables D’Olonne will be bringing skippers back to the extra complexities of navigating to a destination port. Up to now we’ve focussed almost solely on the weather, sailing in areas where there is little to no traffic and thousands of miles from the land.

Approaching the Vendée shores, AIS and radar alarms will light up with collision warnings and in prevailing conditions the finish line will be ahead of a lee shore. There’ll be no moment to sit back and think, ‘This is in the bag’. There can be no relaxing until our feet are on the dock.

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