© Mark Lloyd

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The Vendée Globe, the only non-stop, solo, around-the-world-race, could be sailed in a 60-foot one-design for the 2016 edition. After a long history as a crucible of offshore innovation and refinement, the International Monohull Open Class Association is considering whether to scrap its famously loose box rule for a much tighter rule intended to create boats that are more affordable and safer.

© Courtesy JEAN-MARIE LIOT / CW3

Franck Yves Escoffier was forced to retire from this year's Transat Jacques Vabre; he broke his tailbone when his Multi 50 Crêpes Whaou slammed into a wave.

This year’s Transat Jacques Vabre was often more about survival than it was about racing. Fortunately, there were no tragedies. But the crews and boats certainly took a beating, especially in the Multi 50 class. Only two of the six Multi 50 entries that set out from Le Havre, France, made it to the finishing poles off Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

© Bruce Gain

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On a visit to the Groupama base in Lorient, France, the other day, I was surprised by the transparency of the team's Volvo Ocean Race program. For all respects and purposes, I had the run of the place for an afternoon, with less than three weeks before the 2011-'12 begins in Alicante, Spain.

I didn't have to sign anything, nor did an escort accompany me once I drove past the security gate. Come to think of it, I don’t even think there was a security checkpoint—just a gate that opened automatically as I drove through to the parking late.

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a small community event in Les Sables-d'Olonne, a resort town on France’s West Coast that hosts the start and finish of the Vendee Globe. There, Luc Van Den Heede, who placed third in the first Vendée Globe in 1989 and then second in 1993, and up-and-comer Arnaud Boissières, who placed seventh in the last race, were on hand to speak to a crowd of just a hundred or so at the local community center about their adventures.

Long-distance sailors in France can enjoy a rock star-like status, and setting up just a phone interview often requires convincing PR reps or publicists that it's worth their sponsors’ time to get their yachtsman on the phone. It was thus a refreshing change of pace to attend such a laid-back event where two of France’s great sailors were so accessible.

Valérie Reynaud
Luc Van Den Heede and Arnaud Boissières discuss their  Vendée Globe adventures with local crowds in Les Sables-d'Olonne.

Community members on hand that night were eager to hear about the racers' experiences sailing around the world. During the Q&A session, they asked about what life on board was like, jibing in 20-feet waves in the middle of the Indian Ocean, how much sleep they got, how they ate and washed, and a host of other basic yet hardly naïve questions.