Yannick Bestaven, the 48-year-old skipper of Maître Coq IV, has been crowned the overall winner of the 2020 Vendée Globe around-the-world yacht race following a tense finish.
2020 Vendée Globe Around the World Yacht Race
The race, which is held every four years, set off from Les Sables d’Olonne in the Vendée region of France on 8 November. It takes sailors around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia and South America’s Cape Horn, a distance of over 24,000 nautical miles.
Spectra Geospatial SP90m GNSS
We wrote recently that Bestaven was using the Spectra Geospatial SP90m, a powerful, highly versatile, ultra-rugged and reliable Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning solution. Incidentally, these are available to rent or buy from the SEP Shop.
Obviously, we’re not saying that this is the sole reason Yannick won, but we like to think that any yacht with one of the most technically advanced survey receivers on board has a fair advantage. It can be used in a wide variety of applications, but its ultra-rugged design, minimal size and low power consumption mean that it’s ideal for tough, marine environments.
Yannick was able to use it to ensure he had a precise position and boat heading information. This was relayed to the autopilot system in real time. This allowed Yannick to respond to the changing sea and wind condition, strategically adjusting the autopilot to keep the boat moving at top speed to the desired destination.
2020 Vendée Globe around-the-world yacht race – a tense finish
This is the ninth time this epic sailing race has taken place and it attracted 33 skippers, a record entry, eight of whom were forced to withdraw. It also saw the closest, most complex race finish in its 32-year history, with a time of less than eight hours separating the first three skippers to cross the line. Pretty tight considering the total time at sea is over eighty days!
Yannick actually crossed the finish line in third place in a time of 80 days, 13 hours, 59 minutes and 46 seconds. However, he was awarded a time bonus of 10 hours and 15 minutes for helping in the rescue of fellow competitor, Kevin Escoffier. Yannick was one of four sailors to assist in the rescue, after Escoffier’s boat had been snapped in two by a giant wave off the Cape of Good Hope.
Huge congratulations to Yannick and the whole team. A fabulous achievement.
For more information about Yannick, please visit the Vendée Globe website. The site is packed with information about the race, the route and all the skippers. In fact, just about everything you would ever need to know about the 2020 Vendée Globe around-the-world yacht race.
If you would like more information on the range of a Spectra Geospatial products we offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.