Vendée Globe 2024 Skippers and Scientists to Advance Global Climate and Ocean Research

The partnership, part of UNESCO’s Odyssey project under the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, highlights a growing synergy between offshore racing and environmental science.

In an unprecedented collaboration between world-class sailors and leading scientific organizations, 25 skippers in the upcoming Vendée Globe 2024 race will help collect vital oceanic and atmospheric data for climate science. As the race sets off from Les Sables d’Olonne on November 10, these skippers will deploy advanced scientific instruments to measure ocean temperature, atmospheric pressure, and dissolved CO₂ in some of the world's most remote waters.

The partnership, part of UNESCO’s Odyssey project under the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, highlights a growing synergy between offshore racing and environmental science. Initiated in 2021, the Odyssey project seeks to engage civil society, private sector players, and offshore racing crews in gathering data from under-sampled ocean regions, helping scientists monitor climate and improve forecasting in areas where traditional research vessels rarely travel.

A Race to Protect the Planet

Vendée Globe skippers will carry specialized equipment, such as drifting surface buoys, autonomous profiling floats, and mini oceanographic labs, supplied by key scientific agencies like Météo-France, the UK Met Office, Ifremer, CNES, GEOMAR, and ETH Zürich. These instruments will transmit real-time met-ocean data that will be integrated into the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), coordinated by OceanOPS. The project’s reach will help improve long-term weather predictions, disaster response systems, and assessments of ocean health.

The skippers underwent extensive scientific training at a workshop in late October, where they met with OceanOPS experts and received their equipment. For these sailors, scientific involvement also offers a practical advantage; by deploying weather buoys and collecting atmospheric pressure measurements, they gain valuable insights that will enhance their own onboard weather forecasts.

Emanuela Rusciano, Science and Communication Coordinator at OceanOPS/UNESCO, underscores the importance of this collaboration: “As UNESCO states: ‘we cannot protect what we do not know.’ These sailors are helping us reach that goal by gathering crucial data from regions rarely visited by research vessels.”

Raising Public Awareness for Future Generations

Beyond data collection, the initiative aims to raise awareness about the importance of ocean observation for climate preservation. Educational programs developed by Ifremer and CNES are set to bring the science behind ocean monitoring into classrooms, engaging students in the sporting adventure of the Vendée Globe while highlighting its environmental impact.

“With over half of this year’s Vendée Globe fleet committed to ocean science, the contributions from skippers will enhance our early warning systems and strengthen community preparedness for extreme weather events,” said Mathieu Belbéoch, OceanOPS/WMO Manager.

Toward a Sustainable Ocean Future

The Vendée Globe organizers and scientific agencies hope to expand these partnerships further. By 2028, they envision every race participant contributing to this large-scale scientific effort, helping to build a more resilient planet through precise and abundant oceanic data.

As they race across the oceans, the Vendée Globe skippers will not only chase victory but also champion a global mission to better understand and protect the world's waters, showcasing how individual athletic feats can contribute to collective environmental progress.