Zezo forum:

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-06-28 | 01:47:43

It's finally listed in the "Incoming Races". I guess whatever negotiations were required were finally settled.

8 Comments

Post by BooBill | 2020-06-28 | 03:45:25

Who do you think is paying whom for the partnerships between VR and actual races? I would think they both benefit from the tie in.

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-06-28 | 13:12:19

I've often wondered the same and don't know.

Post by BooBill | 2020-06-28 | 14:12:44

The race is owned by Conseil D�partemental de la Vend�e. Since that's a governmental body, maybe one of our French friends here can make a public records request? Cause, we need to know.

Post by YourMomSA | 2020-06-28 | 15:50:10

I'm not sure that would be good... I mean... as long as they're happy and we're enjoying the race, all we could achieve by digging that information out would be to aggravate the balance of happiness. I admit to being curious about it, but would rather not rock the boat, so to speak.

Consider for example that the arrangement might vary greatly from one race to the next. If so, then digging out information about one race might upset the organizers of another race that has historically been offered on VR, and could cause them to decline to offer future iterations.

Post by BooBill | 2020-06-28 | 18:21:34

Good point.

I would like to know why they don't seem to have support for American races though. Haven't seen Transpac (with an official tie in), Newport-Bermuda, Chicago-Mac for instance.

Is that backwardness/reluctance on the part of American organizers, the French centric nature of offshore sailing in general, the language barrier? It's pretty clear that VR doesn't have a fluent English speaker on staff.

Post by LinusVanpelt | 2020-06-28 | 20:05:42

Hi,
Why apparently VR does not develop more the offshore and does not care more to satisfy its customers ???
You have already given some answers.
And who are its customer for Offshore, who gets up at any time of the night? can interrupt a task depending on the maneuvers? are on the same part of a game for weeks ?

When on the other side :
VR develops in-shore competitions which certainly reach a larger and more "promising" audience, and at European level for a small French company. And obviously they have a lot of work on this point to get closer to online games already well established on other themes.
Of course, I do not approve of what seems to me to be their choice but it must be noted that it looks very similar
Fortunately there is the historical aspect with the Vend�e Globe and the boss's relation with the french, (european ?) offshore circles.

It would be useful if French "historical" players could give us their opinion on this point especially since some "seem to be close to VR".

Post by zezo | 2020-06-29 | 15:05:19

In general VR pays money to the trademark owners. At least for big events like the VOR. And the link on the official race page is the best advertisement you can get, so they pay for that too.

Post by UUnet | 2020-06-29 | 15:11:19

Hi,
I am UUnet, french Sailor in Real and virtual mode. I have done with vr both Vend�e 2012 and 2016. It is obvious that inshore races are more dynamic than our less demonstrative offshore races. In addition, there is an inshore e-sailing classification which does not exist in offshore. some national Sailing sports federations bring their credit to this classification (France, Italy, Spain, among others). organizing offshore races requires a commercial agreement between VR and the organizer (you will no longer see the clipper race for example). that's why there are mainly franco-french races.