You know, it's funny...I used to follow the Vendee. ...And the Around Alone, and the Melbourne-Osaka, and the "big boat" OSTAR and beginnings of the Class 40 races across the Atlantic..the Route du Rum and so on.
About 5-6 years ago I stopped doing this. I stopped in large part because all of that stuff has almost no relationship to the kind of sailing that I do. I'm never going to sail an IMOCA 60. I knew one guys, years ago who sailed one. I stepped on his boat three times. It was very cool, but that's never going to be me. I'm never going to sail a Classe 40 across the Atlantic. All the food stuff, the navigation stuff all of that, well, I've learned it's just irrelevant to me. I don't have a 24-7 navigation system running on my boat. I don't get GRIB weather forecasts 2x a day and have fancy software to generate the three most optimal courses for the next 48 hours for me to choose from. I haven't consulted with a sleep specialist and gone to a week-long sleep management and training workshop where my biorhythms are monitored so that a professional sleep coach can tell me what to do.
The mini 6.5 stuff is a bit more interesting, but honestly the stuff I follow now is the Jester Challenge and the "old" OSTAR, the one that still exists for unsponsored "little" boats. That, and I follow the SHTP in years when I don't go.
The truth is that in 2020 or 2022 when I get in a boat, probably my current boat, and head to Hawaii again I'll probably check the weather before I go, and then...go.
I'll get GRIBS and the NOAA 24, 48 and 96 hour reports with isobars for the first couple hundred miles of the race. Then on about day 4 or 5 I'll try to grab another set of NOAA reports with isobars and try to figure out something smart for the next 4-5 days. By then I'll be pretty much committed as to where I cross the bottom of the Pacific High and so at that point it's basically "point the boat at Hawaii and go fast". Others may not do that, but that's what works for me.... not that I'm all that good at making the boat go that fast, mind you!
Food? It's 16 days, maybe 18 or 20 if you're slow. It's not that hard to pack enough water and food for that long. You throw in some treats, and go.
SSB radio? Install it. It's a PITA. Try it out a bunch of times while you're still on the Bay. Learn how to use it. Then go. Ditto for sat phone.
Sleep? Well, I know what works for me, though I admit that I'm older now and things may have changed. I'll find out more on the LongPac.
Hydrofoils, canting keels, VMD compared to polars to predicted wind speed etc. etc. *meh*. It's just not me. For the first week, go where there's wind and don't go above the rhumb line. After that, aim the pointy end at Kauai as much as you can.
In this way it's all kind of like the America's Cup. It's fine, it's a cool spectacle, but I can't stay focused on it any more for weeks or months on end. Also I can't follow:
The Vondee
The Volvo
The OSTAR ... or whatever moniker the big sponsored boats are using now.
The Route du Rum ... aren't there three or four solo or doublehanded TransAtlantic races, now?
The Quebec - St. Malo
The Figaro Circuit
The Mini Circuit
The Classe 40 circuit
and so on. There's just too much. Or maybe I'm just old and not as fanatical any more. That's probably the REAL answer.
