Good news from the Spirit of Canada camp. Here’s the release, via BYM news.:

Vendee Globe: Derek Hatfield Spirit of Canada qualifies for round the world race
Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Canadian single-handed sailor Derek Hatfield is officially qualified to enter the Vendee Globe 2008 - a singlehanded non-stop race around the world.

Just before Christmas, Hatfield completed the Transat Ecover B2B, the single-handed transatlantic race from Brazil to France that is a qualifier for the Vendee Globe. It was also a great chance to shake down his racing machine, the Canadian-built Open 60, Spirit of Canada. Then just last week, all the documentation and official medical training was completed and filed with the Vendee Globe organizers and the official race number; #15 was issued by the organizers.

“I am very proud to finally finish the qualifications for the Vendee Globe 2008. It has been a lot of hard work getting this far but with the support that we receive from so many Canadians, we will be on the start line this November.” said Hatfield. On November 8, 2008, Hatfield, 56, will be the only Canadian in the race competing. He and the Spirit of Canada will be the first Canadian team to attempt the race.

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So this week at the Boys and Girls Club Session I announced that the group are going to be following the Artemis Transat, and I promised the kids that I would post all of the information and links that we looked at last night.

For those of you who are not lucky enough to be part of the LIT group, tonnes of good video an d links here.

The Artemis Transat

The Artemis Transat main website is here. The video that we watched is here. For those of you who don’t know about the race, it is sailed in Open 60s and Class 40s, singlehanded, from Plymouth England to Boston USA.

Follow a Skipper:

Here are the links to the videos of some of the skippers that we looked at. When you are trying to decide which team you are going to be rooting for, think about the different experiences and hardships that they have had to overcome and also look at their race record. Who do you think is going to be at the top of the fleet? If you want to follow a skipper that is not in this list below, go right ahead! Here is a list of all of the teams.

Dee Cafari Aviva Ocean Racing. Here is the video we watched.

Vincint Riou Here is the PRB website. (This one is in French). Here is the helicopter video that we watched.

Johnny Malbon Here is the Artemis Ocean Racing website. Here is the video that we watched.

Samantha Davies Here is the Roxy Sailing Website. Here is the video we watched.

Mike Golding Here is Mike Golding’s website.. Here is that crazy time lapse video that we watched.

Following the race:

When we get closer to the race, we will be able to go the Artemis Transat website and watch the skippers as the race across the Atlantic towards Boston. As soon as the race tracker is up, I will let you guys know.

After the start you should try to visit the tracker once a day to see how your boat is doing.You can also try “googling” them to see what news you can find on news websites. ONce we are into the race, I will show you how to check the weather that the boats are sailing in.

Have fun with it guys, and I will see you on Tuesday at the club before we go to Kingston Sail Loft.