2016 Vendée Globe - American skipper Rich Wilson relaunching his boat

by Vendée Globe on 15 May 2015 2016 Vendée Globe - After six months in the yard after the instruments and and electronic systems were struck by lightning, Rich Wilson’s monohull Great American IV is due to be relaunched this week. The Americain skipper wants to get back out there training as soon as possible, in order to find out more about his new boat, Dominique Wavre’s former Mirabaud. For Rich Wilson, who wants to compete in the 2016 Vendée Globe, the race has begun.

Rich Wilson : 'The Vendee Globe is the greatest personal challenge in sailing I believe, so the sailor in me wishes to try it one more time in 2016. Our Vendee Globe 2016 goals are simple: to sail well, finish well, honor the race, and to deliver all the content that we promise for our Schools, Asthma, and Seniors programs ashore. The Vendee Globe is also the world's greatest teaching tool, and since education has been my career for the last 25 years, I wish to use that teaching tool for the benefit of those ashore.”

Great America IV soon to return to Europe
'My solo voyage aboard Great American IV in 2013, Azores-USA, serves as our qualifier. Our plan is to train this summer, sailing solo or double-handed, to learn the new systems, get more comfortable with the boat. Our current plan is to bring the boat to the UK in October, then to France in May 2016. My experience in France with GA3 before Vendee Globe 2008-9 was simply terrific. We made so many friends and received so much encouragement from people where the race is known and revered that I want to be back in that environment leading up to the start. A real difficulty here in the US is that, even though Vendee Globe is clearly one of the great sporting challenges in the world, the race is still essentially unknown here. Hopefully, with our efforts for VG2016, we can make it a little bit better known, and perhaps that will help future American entries.'

Looking for partners
'While the boat was being refit the past 6 months, we have spent considerable time and effort focusing there, to gain distribution and content partners for that effort ashore that is so important to me. We are making good progress. We have Letters of Intent in process from education partners here in the US, in Taiwan, and in China which will reach about 600,000 students, and we believe that we can expand that reach further, adding distribution in other countries. For the Asthma and Seniors constituencies, we are having the right discussions with the right people in the health and pharmaceutical industries. Asthma is very personal to me, having had it since I was a one year old boy. And now, I'm a senior!'