Vendee Globe yacht race sets off from France

The start was sounded in a port in western France on Saturday to the 2012-2013 Vendee Globe, the solo non-stop round-the-world race. Competitors taking part in the 24,000 mile (44,450km) odyssey were waved off by the tens of thousands of spectators watching from the port at Les Sables D'Olonne, western France. One of the 20 skippers, Frenchman Bertrand de Broc, missed the start as he had to return to base to carry out repairs on his boat after damaging it enroute to the start line. Eleven of the boats are from France, which has supplied every one of the seven winners since the first Vendee in 1990. Trying to break France's Vendee monopoly are three British competitors - Samantha Davies, fourth last time, Mike Golding, who took third in 2005, and Alex Thomson, who has failed to finish in his previous two attempts at scaling the race known as the Everest of the Seas. The last edition in 2008-2009 was won by Michel Desjoyeaux in 84 days, three hours and nine minutes.