A True Legend
The Golden Globe Race pitted 18 adventurers against the sea and themselves in craft questionably suited for a non- stop race around the world. It would, and did, require a consummate seaman to return victorious.
Frenchman Jean- Luc Van Den Heede had wine onboard. He also stowed a dozen books or so, in case he was ever got bored with only a VHF for company and a satellite phone for emergency communications. As it turns out, he hardly had time to read as he completed his solo circumnavigation without a GPS to win the 2018 Golden Globe Race in 211 days. And he did not have time to sip wine in the cockpit of his Rustler 36 Matmut.
Instead, every waking moment was spent repairing breakages, taking sextant readings and mustering the mental and physical stamina on minuteslong sleep cycles to find ways to squeeze every fraction of a knot of speed to maintain his lead in the race.
Van Den Heede’s margin for error was even further reduced in the closing stages of the race as he tried to nurse his crippled mast and maintain his lead over Dutchman Mark Slats on his Rustler 36, Ohpen Maverick, who would take second place.
“These boats were certainly slow and not made to race — you can say the Golden Globe is an offshore race for slow boats,” Van Den Heede says. “But when I sign up to take part in a race, I sail to win.”
Among all of the sailors, Van Den Heede was the mostexperienced of the 18 starters. His “almost- won” campaigns included second and third in the 1993 and 1990 Vendee Globe races, respectively, after second- place finishes in the 1977 and 1979 Mini Transat.
What drew him to the Golden Globe, with its restrictive rules and the obligation to navigate by sextant, was that the financial bar was set low enough for him to sail competitively.
To say the Golden Globe is a race of dinosaurs — that is, the kind of dinosaur that moves very slowly — isn’t far from the truth. Van Den Heede’s average speed was 5.53 knots, from start to finish.
Golden Globe rules dictated that the boats had to use the same design and equipment of the original race more than half a century ago, so competitors couldn’t use modern-day electronic devices or GPS signals. This meant relying on a weather vane for steering and weather reports by VHF, HF or ham radio, as if they were taking part in the original race in 1968.
Van Den Heede spent more than three years sailing and familiarizing himself with every inch of Matmut and said he never really liked the design.
The boat’s heavy, unwieldy rudder, among other things, were not what he would have opted for if he had his choice, he says.
“These boats are what the Brits say are for bluewater sailing in light breezes and nice weather,” he says. “But even for cruising, I would never buy a boat like that.”
Wind- vane failures forced many competitors to abandon the race before making their way to the Indian Ocean — but it was in the Indian Ocean where real trouble began for the fleet, with five competitors retired or rescued after being pummeled in successive storms.
While widely underreported, Van Den Heede said he too would have lost his mast had he not replaced it with one that was 1.5 meters shorter than the original.
After one knockdown about 1,900 nautical miles from Cape Horn, he pushed on, acknowledging that the lower part of the mast looked like a “tangle of spaghetti.” Don Mcintyre, founder and race chairman, wrote in an email: “The Port side of the through bolt holding the four lower shrouds underneath the lower spreaders pulled down about 5 centimeters on the port side only cutting the mast section and weakening it. This bolt was then secured with rope and lashing to stop it pulling farther down. Also, extra ropes were set up to assist the lower rigging on the port side.”
The repair, of course, required more than five trips up the mast in nasty seas. “A fix like that is hard enough to do at port,” Van Den Heede said.
Three days before he was scheduled to finish, he encountered two storm fronts in the Bay of Biscay, where he suffered another knockdown that sent him hurling across the cockpit against his stove, breaking a metal bar that was also used as a brace. The mast repair held.
Upon his arrival at Les Sables d’olonne in late January, thousands braved a pelting rain to greet the Frenchman with cheers and bullhorns.
Onlooker Pascale Ferrandier, said she had no regrets about standing in the rain to listen to Van Den Heede’s arrival speech at the outdoor podium.
“This race is mind- blowing in so many ways: in its duration, the size of the boat, the distance, of course, the conditions the adventure,” she said. “It is more intriguing than the Vendee Globe.”
Van Den Heede says this Golden Globe is his last aroundthe- world campaign beyond serving as a coach; then again, it is difficult to pin him down on exactly what his true plans are. In his cabin, surrounded by photos of family and friends and a large drawing of Joshua Slocum — one of Van Den Heede’s favorite seafaring writers — he says “this is the only high-profile offshore race in the world that you can sail in for a budget of less than 300,000 euros ($342,000) for over three years.”
The original Golden Globe winner, Sir Robin Knox-johnston, says Van Den Heede’s win served the spirt of the race well.
“He showed you can run a real adventure race around the world on a low budget. I think this is going to open up opportunities for many people, which is the ultimate in navigation,” he added. “Van Den Heede is also very professional about everything — he is the best sort of French.” Q