The major new feature of this year's race is that the course is no longer mapped out. Leaving Les Sables d'Olonne, the skippers will have to cross the Arctic Circle at the longitude of their choice, before returning to Les Sables d'Olonne. This freedom will give the sailors plenty of strategic options, making for an extremely open game. A committed race that redefines the rules!
In a Vendée Globe, in the Deep South, the skippers sail from West to East, following the route of the lows. This enables them to anticipate the trajectories by positioning themselves more or less close to the low-pressure centres. The latest generation of IMOCA boats are now able to sail as fast as the lows around the world. On the other hand, in the Vendée Arctique, the sailors pass through the weather systems, which makes the task much harder: anticipation is more complex, the phenomena change, and there are few escape routes... Not to mention the cold and the solitude!

To manage this high-latitude sailing, the skippers will have to deal with an ice exclusion zone along Greenland and respect the biodiversity protection zones.

The rules of the game are simple, but the adventure promises to be demanding.