Derek Hatfield's blog

Hello from Algimouss Spirit of Canada - What can I say about the first few days, wow what a beginning to a round the world race. Start day was fantastic with the big crowds and great send off. It is the most emotional thing I have experiencced in a sailing event, thousands of people cheering you on from the shoreline. I must admit to being nervous on the start line with 30 IMOCA 60’s racing around chomping at the bit to be off. We knew the conditions would be lively the first few days and they lived up to the expections and then some.

Hello from Spirit of Canada

As the countdown to the start of the 6th edition of the Vendee Globe clicks away, the Spirit of Canada team continues to carry out final modifications and preparations to make sure that the boat is ready. As you can imagine, one missed detail will result in a performance issue and in a worse case scenario, create a disastrous situation where I might have to stop, leading to disqualification. So, check… check…. check each small component and then check it again and then have someone else check it.