Vendée Globe: Heading for innovation

The Vendée Globe race is not only an incredible human challenge, it is also an extraordinary technological adventure. And the 2020–2021 edition, won by Yannick Bestaven at the end of January 2021, was no exception. Several innovative ideas were tested, particularly when it came to spectator experience — a key issue for a race with a great deal of media attention. The technologies developed for the monohull yachts used in the Vendée Globe are starting to provide more benefits to maritime transport and, more generally, industry as a whole. This kind of technology transfer demonstrates the role of the laboratory in a state-of-the-art ecosystem.