Honours for Golden Globe skippers
The winner of the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race (GGR), Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, has been awarded the Cruising Club of America’s most prestigious award – the Blue Water Medal.
The 74-year-old French skipper finished the race in just under 212 days aboard his Rustler 36 Matmut despite a damaged mast, caused after the yacht pitchpoled in 11m seas in the Southern Ocean. The Blue Water Medal rewards ‘meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea’. Previous winners include Eric Tabarly and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
Fellow GGR skipper Gregor McGuckin was named the recipient of the Rod Stephens Seamanship Trophy. His Biscay 36 Hanley Energy Endurance was dismasted in a hurricane force Southern Ocean storm. Despite this, the Irish skipper built a jury rig and sailed to assist another GGR entrant Abhilash Tomy, who needed rescue after breaking his back when his yacht Thuriya was dismasted in the same storm. Both were eventually rescued by the French fisheries vessel, FPV Osiris.