Golden Globe favourite keeps racing
Golden Globe Race skipper Jean-luc Van Den Heede is continuing to Cape Horn after making repairs to his damaged mast at sea. The 73-yearold’s Rustler 36, Matmut pitchpoled during a Southern Ocean storm, resulting in damage to the connecting bolt attachment to the mast that holds all four lower shrouds.
Originally he decided to divert 2,000 miles to the Chilean port of Valparaiso. If he had stopped he would have moved into the Chichester Class for entrants who make one stop. Like all of the race competitors, the French skipper has a jury rig if he loses his mast. His version is bipole, made out of two spinnaker poles, with sails cut to fit it.
‘I’m no longer in race mode but in safe transport mode. This is not the first time I have tried to bring a wounded boat to a good port,’ said Van Den Heede, who at the time of going to press was 1,500 miles ahead of second placed Mark Slats.
Meanwhile, fourth placed Susie Goodall, who has experienced several knockdowns, has passed through the race’s compulsory Hobart Gate, anchoring while she repaired her wind vane self-steering and cleaned barnacles from her boat. The British skipper is chasing Uku Randmaa’s barnacle-encrusted yacht One and All. Both Istvan Kopar and Tapio Lehtinen have now cleared Hobart, while tailenders Igor Zaretskiy and Mark Sinclair are not expected to reach Hobart until 8 December 2018.