Jean-Luc Van Den Heede had been promising Golden Globe Race organizers that he would cross the equator on Christmas Day UTC, and, like Santa Claus, he delivered. The French solo-sailor leads the 30,000 nautical mile, retro-race for 32-to-36-foot sailboats that started on July 1, 2018. His nearest competitor, the Australian-born, Dutch sailor Mark Slats has been losing ground in recent days and trails by nearly 1,000 nm.
Both sailors skipper Rustler 36 sailboats, but Van Den Heede suffered a pitchpole that weakened his mast prior to Cape Horn. Van Den Heede says the mast is most vulnerable on a port tack with wind forward of the beam coming from the left side of the boat. In recent days, the Frenchman has been on a starboard tack. Second-place Slats has been fighting headwinds while Van Den Heede has had more favorable winds. Van Den Heede had 3,200 nautical miles to at 0:00 UTC on December 26, 2018.
2018 Golden Globe Race – Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (FR) arrival in Hobart, Tasmania at the Boatshed.com Hobart film drop on October 6, 2018. The 73-year old French Veteran and his Rustler 36 yacht MATMUT has a 1,600 mile lead over 2nd place Dutchman Mark Slats. Credit: Christophe Favreau/PPL/GGR
If Van Den Heede does not suffer a major mishap, he could finish the race in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, his hometown, in three-to-four weeks after 200 days at sea. At 73 years old, the five-time circumnavigator, Van Den Heede, is the oldest competitor of the 18-person race, which has shrunk to five boats after five dismastings and eight drop-outs for other reasons.
The Golden Globe Race has put his equator crossing at 05:30 UTC December 26, 2018, but their Apple iOS YB tracker app put him north of the equator at 0:00 UTC on December 26, 2018, implying that he crossed on Christmas Day, December 25, 2018. Regardless when he crossed into the Northern Hemisphere, Van Den Heede is the closest racer to home. He remarked in a tweet that his summer (in the Southern Hemisphere) was being cut short and replaced by winter. The French sailor will eagerly take that trade.
Australian-born, Dutch solo-sailor, Mark Slats was hours away on Christmas Eve 2018 from being the first Golden Globe Race 2018 participant to complete a sailing circumnavigation. Instead, he made a 90 degree turn to avoid being the first racer in the 2018 contest to do so. If he does not tack back in the next day or so, he may never complete the circumnavigation until he reaches the northern hemisphere.
Of all the competitors still in the race for 32-to-36-foot heavy displacement sailboats, Slats sailed the most western course down the South Atlantic early on in the race. He has been on a long northeast tack well offshore of Brazil that brought him within 100 nautical miles of his outbound track, but then early on December 24, 2018, UTC he turned to the northwest sailing away from his outbound track. He is close to his farthest west portion of his track. Slats is the only competitor thus far to have sailed all 360 degrees of longitude. Unfortunately, one of the requirements of circumnavigation, according to the commonly accepted definition adopted by the Guiness Book of World Records and others, is that you start and end at the same place, which Slats and no other competitor has yet done in the 2018 Golden Globe Race.
In the 1968 Golden Globe Race, three competitors completed circumnavigations. Bernard Moitessier, Sir Robin Knox Johnston, and Nigel Tetley. Nevertheless, Moitessier and Tetley never finished the race. Moitessier crossed his outbound track for the circumnavigation near Cape Town on March 18, 1969. Moitessier decided to sail to Tahiti instead of finishing the Golden Globe Race in England. South African-born, English sailor Nigel Tetley crossed his outbound track in the North Atlantic before his trimaran sunk about 1,200 nautical miles from the start in England. Tetley was rescued in his life raft. Sir Robin Knox Johnston of England would not complete the race until April 1968 after 312 days at sea.
It is unclear if Slats is aware of how close he was to a circumnavigation after 176 days at sea. The participants navigate by sextant and are not allowed to access the race tracker. Thus, his celestial fixes may have been too inaccurate or infrequent to tell him that he could have completed a circumnavigation on Christmas Eve 2018. The 41-year old Slats completed his first circumnavigation under sail in 2005. Slats is in second place and trailing race leader Jean Luc Van Den Heede of France by about 700 nautical miles If you have a ham radio, tell Mark Slats to tack to the northeast for a day.
On the longest day for the five Golden Globe Racers in the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice of December 21, the only racer in the darker Northern Hemisphere has a deadline. Russian sailor Igor Zaretskiy, who is seeking medical treatment in Moskow, Russia, needs to leave Albany, Australia by January 14, 2019, or he will have to wait ten months to depart in the one-stop Chichester Class of the solo around the world race for 32-to-36-foot vintage sailboats.
Explaining this restart announcement made by GGR organisers today, Don McIntyre, Race Chairman says: “It is important for safety and risk minimisation for us to know that Igor will round Cape Horn no later than the end of March when the winter storms in the Southern Ocean start to become prevalent. We have used the sailing progress set by Istvan Kopar from Cape Leeuwin and added an additional 3 days to calculate a total sailing time to the Horn of 78 days. Should Igor have an operation, then he will need to undergo another GGR medical and gain a release from his doctor that he is good to sail. We wish Igor well in the coming days and hope to see him back in the Race very soon.”
2018 Golden Globe Race: Barnacle growth on Igor Zareskiy’s Russian Endurance 35 yacht ESMERALDA after 160 days at sea. The yacht was hauled out in Albany Western Australia for cleaning and replacement of a broken forestay.
The rest of the day 173 GGR 2018 press release is below:
Day 173 – December 21. 2018 – Longest day in the Southern Ocean
Mark Slats reduces Jean-Luc Van Den Heede’s lead by 87 miles in 4 days
Uku Randmaa rounds Cape Horn
Istvan Kopar surrounded by storms
Tapio Lehtinen tackles his barnacle problems
Dateline 16:00 UTC 21.12. 2018 – Les Sables d’Olonne, France
Mark Slats – still smiling but bored with all this upwind sailing!
The storms that are predicted to surround Istvan Kopar tomorrow.
Tapio Lehtinen has plans to abseil around his yacht Asteria on the end of a spinnaker halyard to scrape off barnacles with a boathook to avoid the cold…and sharks!
The barrel of Irish whiskey aboard Gregor McGuckin’s abandoned yacht Hanley Energy Endurance has caught the eye of at least two salvage teams.
Today is the longest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere so the sun has the largest declination to the south for all using a sextant to navigate. It also often marks a period of unsettled weather but all seems fine for the GGR fleet for now. The thoughts of skippers are towards Christmas mixed with their drive to the finish line back at Les Sables d’Olonne.
Third placed Uku Randmaa rounded Cape Horn at 04:00 UTC on Wednesday (19th Dec). The 55-year old Estonian, has been here once before during a previous circumnavigation in 2011/12, but the emotional sighting was just as great: His text messages said it all: IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT I CAN SEE THE HORN. I AM THANKFUL FOR MY GODS followed by: THANKS TO SIR ROBIN FOR THE FOOTSTEPS AND ST MAWES SC FOR THE CAKE!
He is of course referring to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, winner of the first Sunday Times Golden Globe Race 50 years ago and to the ‘Aunt Eileen’ fruit cake that sustained Sir Robin that day, faithfully replicated by a Cornish baker and presented to each GGR skipper by members of the St Mawes Sailing Club in Cornwall for them to open at the Horn .
Uku Randmaa now safely round Cape Horn is making most of more tranquil conditions in the South Atlantic
Uku and his Rustler 36 One and All were then becalmed for a period, but now taking full advantage of westerly reaching winds to pass to the East of the Falkland Islands, hoping perhaps to miss the worst of the headwinds that Mark Slats is experiencing. There is no settled weather pattern for the region at this time of the year so no right or wrong way to head north. One thing is for sure; after months of savage Southern Ocean conditions ,Uku is enjoying the opportunity of lesser wind and lower swells.
His Christmas message is: MANY ASK WHAT I DO AT XMAS? I’M SAILING!…BUT A MERRY XMAS TO ALL GGR FANS FROM ONE AND ALL! I HAVE COQ AU VIN DE BERGERERAC. NO DECORATIONS…JUST HEADWIND
2,163 miles ahead, Mark Slats sailing the second Rustler 36 Ohpen Maverick, continues to surprise everyone with his sustained high speed to windward, regularly making 6 knots. The forecast shows continued headwinds for many days to come and in a text message yesterday, the Dutchman admitted : ALL GOOD. LIFE IS A LITTLE BORING HERE BEATING TO WINDWARD!
When you live at a constant angle of heal everything is hard to do: eating, sleeping and doing anything on a spray-soaked deck. He is also too busy trying to catch Van Den Heede to focus on Christmas, and during the stress of departure, he reported this week that he had forgotten to pack any of his presents!
Jean-Luc, sailing yet another Rustler 36 – Matmut – may be seeing Slats whittling away his lead bit by bit at , but knows that his wind angle gets better every day that he moves further north at 5-6 knots. He must be dreaming now about easing sheets and turning the corner around the South American bulge to benefit from the Caribbean trade winds. It has been hard work, especially with a damaged mast, but he is making good progress. His Christmas present will be seeing Matmut regain some of her lead lost to Ohpen Maverick since rounding Cape Horn, but whenever he looks up at his mast, he knows there is still a long way to the finish!
Jean-Luc’s Xmas message to all his followers is: WISHING EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2019
4th placed American/Hungarian Istvan Kopar currently sits between two areas of heavy weather, one to the North, the other South. He survived his biggest storm so far yesterday, and now has his Tradewind 35 Puffin running East as fast as possible. He is very happy onboard now that he has collected rain water to drink and while he will be living the Southern Ocean life for another week or more (Puffin is currently 1,300 miles West of Cape Horn), Istvan is looking forward to Christmas, and hopefully will be celebrating the New Year in the Atlantic.
His Xmas message is: MERRY XMAS TO MY FRIENDS IN US, CANADA, HUNGARY, GERMANY, AUSTRIA, FRANCE AND AUSTRALIA. I HAVE NEVER BEEN WEALTHY, BUT RICH IN NUMBERS AND QUALITY OF FRIENDSHIPS.
In a safety call to Race HQ today, Istvan added: “No decorations, but I will be changing my underwear and having a shave on Christmas Day. I’ve also fixed my cassette player so will have some Xmas songs to drink a special desert wine with that I have onboard. It will be a very lonely Xmas… the hardest ever… I’ll be thinking of family and missing them.”
5th placed Finnish skipper Tapio Lehtinen sailing the Gaia 36 Asteria has pre-Xmas plans to clean barnacles from her hull without swimming. Instead of diving overboard and running a gauntlet between hungry sharks, he intended to try swinging out on the end of the spinnaker halyard, and using the boat hook with scraper attached, to walk along the hull like a rock climber. The weather maps show a near calm so we hope he is successful. Tapio wants to make Les Sables d’Olonne Agglomeration before April 22 – the GGR prize giving final party!
Tapio’s Xmas message: MY RED NOSE IS THE DECORATION. SLICE OF SIR ROBIN’S FRUIT CAKE AND A SLUG OF JALLU,
Russian skipper Igor Zaretskiy returned to Moscow today for a health check. If all proves well, he will be back on his Endurance 35 Esmeralda within a week and restarting the GGR from Albany, Western Australia in the Chichester Class. If not, he has until 14th January to restart, or wait for the winter season in the Southern Ocean to pass and restart after November 14.
Explaining this restart announcement made by GGR organisers today, Don McIntyre, Race Chairman says: “It is important for safety and risk minimisation for us to know that Igor will round Cape Horn no later than the end of March when the winter storms in the Southern Ocean start to become prevalent. We have used the sailing progress set by Istvan Kopar from Cape Leeuwin and added an additional 3 days to calculate a total sailing time to the Horn of 78 days. Should Igor have an operation, then he will need to undergo another GGR medical and gain a release from his doctor that he is good to sail. We wish Igor well in the coming days and hope to see him back in the Race very soon.”
Whiskey Galore
Following our update on Gregor McGuckin’s Biscay 36 Hanley Energy Endurance on Monday, two groups have expressed interest in salvaging the yacht currently drifting some 1,200 miles West of Fremantle. The main attraction it seems is the barrel of Glendalough 7-year-old 777 single malt Irish whiskey onboard. The recovery of his boat would also make a great Christmas present for Gregor too!
Race updates during the Xmas and the New Year.
For the GGR team it is business as usual 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and we will continue to post news as it happens on the GGR Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/goldengloberace
On New Year’s Day it will be exactly 6 months since the start of the Golden Globe Race from Les Sables d’Olonne so we will be saying cheers to our sponsor Champagne Mumm. And so too will our skippers. Two bottles were loaded aboard each yacht before the start, so even Mark Slats will have something to celebrate with!
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Position of skippers at 12:00 UTC 21.12.18
Skipper Distance to finish VMG during last 24 hours Approx. distance behind leader
1 Jean- Luc VDH (FRA)
Rustler 36 Matmut 3900 5.4 knots 0
2 Mark Slats (NED)
Rustler 36 Ohpen Maverick 4607 6.0 knots 707
3 Uku Randmaa (EST) Rustler 36 One and All 6770 5.3 knots 2870
Uku Randmaa became the third Golden Globe Race 2018 skipper to round Cape Horn. As with race leader Jean Luc Van Den Heede and Mark Slats in second place, the third placed Estonian Uku Randmaa became the third Rustler 36 skipper in the Golden Globe Race. Randmaa rounded Cape Horn at UTC 0400 on December 19, 2018. Van Den Heede and Slats are in a battle for first place with the former with a 800 nm lead that is holding steady despite the Frenchman having more favorable winds closer to the equator. Van Den Heede’s Rustler 36 has a crack in its mast from a pitchpole in the Pacific Ocean. Since that time Van Den Heede has been losing his 1,500 nm lead as he tried to repair and nurse his rig around Cape Horn and off the Brazilian coast.
Not all of the Rustler 36 boats, which were the most popular at the starting line, have done great. Susie Goodall was dismasted in the solo-nonstop around the world race in her Rustler 36. Race Chairman Don McIntyre said that Goodall had a much more heavy duty rig than Van Den Heede, but there is no telling why Goodall’s boat lost its rig in a storm, but Van Den Heede’s rig survived. Both sailors put on new rigs with top riggers prior to the Golden Globe Race start in France on July 1, 2018. Only five of the original eighteen sailors remain in the race. The fourth and fifth place competitors do not have Rustler 36 sailboats. Fourth place Hungarian-born American Istavan Kopar is 1,500 nm behind Randmaa. Race participants can use full-keel 32-to-36-foot production boats that satisfy the notice of race rules.
2018 Golden Globe Race: Estonian GGR skipper Uku Randmaa sailing his Rustler 36 yacht ONE AND ALL arrival at the Boatshed.com Hobart Film gate
The 2018 Golden Globe Race rules are based on the success of a sample size of one in 1968. The bigger Southern Ocean sample size of thirteen 32-to-36-foot yachts in the 2018 contest is more disturbing.
With the 2018 GGR for 32-to-36 foot sailboats far from over and five out of eighteen starters left, its statistics since the competitors have entered the Southern Ocean are brutal. By my count thirteen competitors made it to Cape Town or further east in the Southern Ocean. Only five of those competitors are in the race and five have been dismasted. Only three of the Southern Ocean racers retired voluntarily.
I will use Cape Town, South Africa as the start of the Southern Ocean portion of the race. By my definition, boats that make it to Cape Town or beyond are said to have made it in the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is the sea that includes the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans below the continents north of Antartica. This stormy body of water has claimed the masts of five Golden Globe Racers so far.
Caption: Susie Goodall has a “cuppa” what looks like Chilean wine in ambulance that carried her to hospital for a checkup after her arrival in Punta Arenas, Chile on December 16, 2018, following her dismasting the previous week. Gregor McGuckin’s abandoned yacht HANLEY ENERGY ENDURANCE photographed by GGR skipper Mark Sinclair as he sailed passed the yacht a month after the yacht was rolled and dismasted in the South Indian Ocean.
Let’s compare that with the 1968 Golden Globe Race. Only four of the 1968 competitors sailed to Cape town and beyond. Two racers retired, Bill King dropped out in Cape Town and Bernard Moitessier sailed to Tahiti for 1.5 laps of the Southern Ocean. None of the 1968-1969 GGR’s four competitors lost their masts. Two sailed up the Atlantic. Nigel Tetley’s Trimaran sank in the North Atlantic. Only Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in his 32-foot, full-keel mono-hull sailboat finished in 312 days. One sailor, Donald Crowhurst, who did not enter the Southern Ocean died of an apparent suicide during the race, but no man died during the race from a sinking boat or being washed overboard.
Thankfully, we have had no deaths so far by day 170 in the 2018 GGR. French sailor Loic Lepage fell to the sea when trying to climb a cargo ship during his rescue. Englishwoman Susie Goodall had to catch a swinging crane to get aboard her 190 meter rescue ship. Abilash Tomy needed back surgery after being washed overboard on a knock-down, clinging to the top of the mast, and falling to the boom after the boat righted itself soon before his 32-foot sailboat was dismasted. He was taken off his boat in a stretcher. Three more GGR 2018 boats are still in the Southern Ocean west of Cape Horn at the time of writing. We do not know if all those three remaining boats and skippers will make it northeast of Cape Horn and out of the Southern Ocean before exiting the race.
The 1968 race provides a sample size of one for 32-to-36-foot full-keel, monohull sailboats doing well in the Southern Ocean. (Yes, there was only one 32-to-36-foot boat that sailed the Southern Ocean in the 1968 Golden Globe Race.) The larger sample size of the unfinished 2018 Golden Globe Race does not even compare well to the Golden Globe Race Chairman Don McIntyre’s cherry-picked sample of the worst years of the Vendee Globe solo nonstop race which runs almost the same course at the 2018 GGR.
I think my episode 19 Slow Boat Sailing Podcast guest, Don McIntyre, loves re-enactments. On my podcast, he told of his open boat re-enactment of the Captain Bligh voyage in the Mutiny on the Bounty. He told me that he planned to do a re-enactment of the open boat voyage of Shackleton, but cancelled the attempt when some other team did it. What we love about the GGR is not that its a re-enactment. It is a race of monumental proportions. Its a solo-nonstop race in the Southern Ocean for sailboats accessible to most cruising sailors.
Reforms for 2022 running that surely would make the boats safer at little additional costs to the entrants are the following:
unlimited satellite communications
electronic autopilot backups
electronic chart plotters and GPS
unlimited weather routing
The Vendee Globe has all those things and that extremely dangerous race has a much lower rate of rescue and dismasting than the 2018 GGR.
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For a limited time a pledge of at least one dollar at Patreon will get SAILING TO TREASURE ISLAND: The Cruise of the XORA (Annotated) by Capt. J. C. Voss and How to Sail Around the World Part-Time audiobooks.
Below is a description of SAILING TO TREASURE ISLAND: The Cruise of the XORA (Annotated)
Legendary sailor Captain J. C. Voss meets a mysterious man in his hotel in Victoria, British Columbia in 1897. The mystery man says he knows where tons of gold and jewels are buried on the remote Cocos Island. Voss takes a 35-foot sailing sloop seven thousand miles through gales in search of the pirate Treasure of Lima worth seven million pounds sterling in 1897 or over $200 million today. *This is an edited, abridged, and annotated version of the first section of the Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss concerning the voyage of the XORA sloop. This is the only part of that work focused on treasure hunting.*In the 2018 edition, the text is extensively edited as the first edition from 1913 had many run-on sentences and poor subject and verb agreement.*A biography of the great mariner Captain J.C. Voss is written by the editor.*Frequent footnotes and an editor’s note put the text in historic context.*This is an abridged version of the VENTURESOME VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN VOSS. This abridged version focuses exclusively on the cruise of the sailboat XORA and treasure hunting aboard it. Most of the VENTURESOME VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN VOSS is about the voyage of the sailing canoe named TILIKUM.Below are some selections from the book:”My seafaring life commenced in the year 1877, when I was quite a young man. Up to the time that I sailed in the Xora, it was spent in large sailing vessels. During this period, I have filled all sorts of positions from deck boy up to master.Throughout all those years, I would certainly not have believed that a vessel so small as the Xora could live through a heavy gale at sea. Naturally enough, I should not have thought of attempting a long sea voyage in any small craft if it not been for a gentleman, whose name was George Haffner, an American citizen.In the summer of 1897, when I was sitting comfortably in an easy chair in the Queen’s Hotel, Victoria, British Columbia, a gentleman stepped up to me, saying, “Are you Captain Voss?” I replied in the affirmative. He then introduced himself as Mr. Haffner, handing me at the same time a letter, saying that it was from an old friend of mine, whose death had taken place at sea just fourteen days previously, and with whom he had stayed during his last moments.””…The bearer of this note is Mr. George Haffner, who knows the position where the great treasure lies on Cocos Island. Believe in him, and he will make you a rich man. Excuse my short note, because I am very weak. Kindly remember me to all my old friends and believe me.Your dying friend, JIM DEMPSTER”Captain Voss is one of the early pioneers of long-distance sailboat cruising. He is the first major author in the genre of the sailing narrative write about his travels under sail after Captain Joshua Slocum. He is more famous for his 40,000-mile voyage in a sailing canoe named TILIKUM, but this treasure hunting adventure under sail is a book that will delight all readers.Oxriver Publishing produces titles of interest to sailboat cruising enthusiasts. This is an annotated and modernized version of Captain Voss’ classic account in the VENTURESOME VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN VOSS, which includes an editor’s note and biography of John C. Voss by Dr. Linus Wilson. The editor is the creator of the Slow Boat Sailing YouTube Channel and Podcast as well as the author of several sailing books.
In his weekly Satellite phone call with Golden Globe Race Chairman Don McIntyre on December 17, 2018 UTC, the first-place sailor Jean-Luc Van Den Heede gave an important insight into his worsening mast problems. Van Den Heede said the mast crack affecting the shrouds only worsens upwind on a port tack. Van Den Heede has about a 800 nm over Dutch skipper Mark Slats. Will Van Den Heede’s mast fail him in the upwind work to France over 4,000 nm away? We will see.
Five boats are still racing. Two are in the south Atlantic and three are in the Pacific Ocean. Van Den Heede says he plans to be in the Northern Hemisphere by Christmas.
Below is the GGR’s latest press release:
Day 169 – Mark Slats gains another 154 miles on Jean-Luc Van Den Heede
Igor Zaretskiy heads back to Moscow for medical checkup
Istvan Kopar escapes one storm only to risk running into another
Susie Goodall statement
Uku Randmaa’s ETA at Horn – Wednesday 19th Dec
Dateline 13:00 UTC 17.12. 2018 – Les Sables d’Olonne, France
Dutchman Mark Slats has taken a further 154 miles out French Race leader Jean-Luc Van Den Heede over the past 7 days, reducing the gap to 794 miles with 4,300 miles still to run before the winner returns to Les Sables d’Olonne at the end of January.
Both have had their share of problems during the past week. Slats, who was suffering severe stomach problems until tracking the source to rotten milk, was forced to lie hove-st for the first time during this race after running into heavy head winds
On Saturday he texted: BAD WEATHER GUSTING 40 KT AND 5M SEAS ON THE NOSE. NO FUN!
followed 5 hours later with: HOVE TO NOW. FIRST TIME I STOP SAILING BECAUSE BAD WEATHER
Since then, business has returned to normal but Slats has to endure another 500 miles of northerly winds before beginning to experience the Easterly air flow now benefiting Van Den Heede 13 degrees to the north.
These head winds gave Van Den Heede equal concern at the end of last week when the pounding even in moderate conditions, extended the crack in Matmut’s already damaged mast. The 73-year old Frenchman was forced to climb the mast a sixth time to reinforce the temporary binding that is all that holds the lower shroud attachment points to the spreader above. Now that he is back to reaching across the winds, all seems OK for the moment, but he knows that to finish, he must sail very conservatively.
Today, Estonian Uku Randmaa is within 230 miles of Cape Horn, and looking forward to rounding some time on Wednesday. He is experiencing boisterous 40 knot following winds at present, but the forecast suggests that this could die to almost nothing within the next 48 hours.
Fourth placed American/Hungarian Istvan Kopar has repaired the failing bearings within the steering pedestal aboard his Tradewind 35 Puffin, and having successfully dodged the storm that threatened to overtake him last week by heading south into the NO-GO Zone, now faces the prospect of running the gauntlet before another low pressure system in 3 days time. This one threatens to be the biggest storm to-date with 60-70 knot winds and 12-15 metre seas. Race HQ has advised Kopar to thread his way south of the first small storm but not drop below 53S latitude before December 20,
Picture shows Istvan Kopar’s current position but the weather forecast for 19th DEC overlaid showing a big storm scheduled to move across fast from the west.
Finland’s Tapio Lentinen whose Gaia 36 Asteria remains covered in barnacles and trails in 5th place among the Glolden Globe racers some 6,300 miles behind the race leader, has a solid breeze in typical southern Ocean weather for now and will have been buoyed by the fact that he has taken 102 miles out of Jean-Luc’s lead over the past week.
Igor flying home for a medical
Igor Zaretskiy, who dropped down to the Chichester Class after stopping in Albany Western Australia last week to rid his hull of barnacles and make repairs, announced today that he will return to Moscow for a health check before continuing in the race. In 2010, the Russian sailor suffered a heart attack after winning the Jester Challenge solo transatlantic race, and after undergoing a further health check in Australia last week, has been advised to return to Russia and see if further surgery in necessary.
There is no time timit for Igor to restart in the Chichester Class – Francis Chichester stopped for 48 days in Sydney during his one-stop circumnavigation in 1966/7 – but there are practical limitations. After the end of March, the onset of winter storms in the Southern Ocean makes it unadvisable to attempt a Cape Horn. rounding until the following Spring.
Susie Goodall statement
After arriving in Punta Arenas on Friday, Susie Goodall thanked all those involved in her rescue and suggested that she can’t wait to get back to sea. In a statement she says;
“If you asked me if I would do this again, now knowing what it’s really like, I would say yes in a heartbeat! But as I said to the Chilean Navy captain who brought me ashore from MV Tian Fu, ‘I created so much work for everyone involved in the rescue,’ to which he responded ‘Of course you must do it again!’
You may ask why?! Some people just live for adventure – it’s human nature. And for me, the sea is where my adventure lies. Having grown up admiring Tracy Edwards and Ellen MacArthur, I just knew that one day I needed to try to do this too. Every seafarer understands the risks involved but that’s what makes us stronger and able to overcome other challenges in life.
I can’t tell you what is next beyond spending time with family and friends over Christmas and enjoying a glass of grog, but that fire in my belly is far from out, so watch this space…!”
Rescued English solo-sailor Susie Goodall says she “I would do this again…in a heartbeat”. Golden Globe Race sailor Goodall, arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile on the 190 meter cargo ship that rescued her on December 14, 2018. Her 36-foot sailboat was pitchpoled, dismasted and “gutted” the GGR, 2,000 miles west northwest of Cape Horn. She was hoisted on a crane onto the deck of the cargo ship in 3-to-4 meter seas. Her boat lost all its rigging, poles, and mast after it was flipped in a Southern Ocean storm. Its Jordan Series drogue line snapped. Susie Goodall suffered a head injury and activated her EPIRB emergency distress beacon. The yachtswoman was rescued two days later with the clothes on her back and a small backpack with her passport and a few clothes. The MRCC Chile coordinated the rescue after Falmouth, England received the distress call. 18 sailors started the 2018 Golden Globe Race, but only 5 were left after Goodall, the only woman and the youngest entrant at age 29 dropped out. Her boat is believed to have filled with water an sunk due to deck leaks and depleted batteries.
You will hear Susie Goodall’s satellite phone call with Golden Globe Race Chairman and founder Don McIntyre. Barry Picktall, spokesman for the GGR 2018, explains how Goodall’s yacht was wrecked and the timeline of the rescue. We run the full statement by Susie Goodall in Punta Aranas, Chile after making her first landfall after leaving Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, on July 1, 2018. She was in the race for 157 days solo non-stop. The Golden Globe Race is for 32-to-36 foot vintage sailboats. Sailors use technology available after the first race in 1968.
There is footage from Loic Lepage’s rescue in the Indian Ocean from AMSA the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. In addtion, Goodall’s press conference was filmed by
Maria Pastora Sandoval – “Titi” and posted to her Facebook page.
Audio and video from that was reproduced with Ms. Sandoval’s permission.
GGR/PPL photos and videos were used with permission.
We also feature videos from the Armada de Chile on Twitter of Ms. Goodall’s arrival after 166 days at sea.
Goodall, (29) from Falmouth UK, and the youngest competitor in the Golden Globe Race, was lying in 4th place at the time, riding out a ferocious storm with 60 knot winds and massive seas aboard her Rustler 36 yacht DHL Starlight.”
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We hear from Alix Kreder and Stephan Denette who are wooden boat builders and the creators of the YouTube Channel Acorn to Arabella. After almost three years, these college buddies they have built the frame of their 38-foot gaff-rigged ketch made mostly of trees on Stephan’s farm in western Massachusettes. They have almost no sailing experience, but they plan to sail the world whenever their wooden boat is finished in 2-to-10 years.
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In addition, Linus Wilson releases tape of Susie Goodall’s distress call with Slow Boat Sailing Podcast episode 19 guest GGR 2018 founder Don McIntyre. The youngest Golden Globe Race 2018 entrant, and only woman, was pitchpoled 2,000 miles west northwest of Cape Horn in the southern Pacific Ocean. She was ultimately rescued be an 190-meter cargo ship.
Support the videos or podcast at http://www.Patreon.com/slowboatsailing
On the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast Linus Wilson has interviewed the crew of Sailing SV Delos, WhiteSpotPirates (Untie the Lines), Chase the Story Sailing, Gone with the Wynns, MJ Sailing, Sailing Doodles, SV Prism, Sailing Miss Lone Star, and many others.
Photo Credit: Christophe Favreau/PPL/GGR Caption: 2018 Golden Globe Race – GGR skippers congregate in Les Sables d’Olonne. Back row left to right: Uku Randmaa (EST), Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (FRA), Loic Lepage (FRA), Mark Slats (NED), Gregor McGuckin (IRE), Igor Zarertsjiy (RUS), Mark Sinclair (AUS),Tapio Lehtinen (FIN), Ertan Beskardes (GBR), Abhilash Tomy (Ind), Susie Goodall (GBR) Front row: Istvan Kopar (USA), Are Wiig (NOR), Kevin Farebrother (AUS), Antoine Cousot (FRA), Nabil Amra (PAL)
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Slow Boat to the Bahamas
Associate Producers Anders Colbenson, Larry Wilson, Ted Royer, and Rick Moore (SSL).
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Copyright Linus Wilson, Oxriver Publishing, Vermilion Advisory Services, LLC, 2018
We hear from AliX Kreder and Stephan Denette who are wooden boat builders and the creators of the YouTube Channel Acorn to Arabella. After almost three years, these college buddies they have built the frame of their 38-foot gaff-rigged ketch made mostly of trees on Stephan’s farm in western Massachusettes. They have almost no sailing experience, but they plan to sail the world whenever their wooden boat is finished in 2-to-10 years.
In addition, Linus Wilson releases tape of Susie Goodall’s distress call with Slow Boat Sailing Podcast episode 19 guest GGR 2018 founder Don McIntyre. The youngest Golden Globe Race 2018 entrant was pitchpoled 2,000 miles west northwest of Cape Horn in the southern Pacific Ocean. She was ultimately rescued be an 190-meter cargo ship.
Support the videos or podcast at http://www.Patreon.com/slowboatsailing On the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast Linus Wilson has interviewed the crew of Sailing SV Delos, WhiteSpotPirates (Untie the Lines), Chase the Story Sailing, Gone with the Wynns, MJ Sailing, Sailing Doodles, SV Prism, Sailing Miss Lone Star, and many others.
Associate Producers Anders Colbenson, Larry Wilson, Ted Royer, and Rick Moore (SSL). Sign up for our free newsletter for access to free books and other promotions at http://www.slowboatsailing.com Copyright Linus Wilson, Oxriver Publishing, Vermilion Advisory Services, LLC, 2018
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