The post Van Den Heede receives huge welcome back in Les Sables d’Olonne appeared first on All At Sea.

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede celebrating with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Photo: Tim Bishop/GGR/PPL

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede wrote his name into the record books by not only winning the 2018 Golden Globe solo non-stop round the world race today, but becoming the oldest in history to complete such a race. The 73-year old French veteran of six solo circumnavigations takes over both titles from Britain’s Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the sole finisher of the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race 50 years before. Until the finish gun fired at 09:12 UTC, Sir Robin had held the title as the oldest solo circumnavigator in a race, after completing the Velux 5 Oceans Race in 2007 at the age of 68.

Age is clearly no barrier, for Van Den Heede has led this race ever since rounding the Cape of Good Hope. At one point he and his Rustler 36 yacht Matmut had built up a 2,000 mile lead over second placed Dutchman Mark Slats, until pitch-poled during a ferocious southern ocean storm some 2,000 miles west of Cape Horn. He and his yacht survived the ordeal but when she righted herself, Jean-Luc was devastated to find that the pressure on the bolt holding the lower shrouds had torn a 10cm long hole down the mast section.

His first reaction was to head north to the Chilean port of Valparaiso to replace the mast, which would have put him out of the running for the main prize, but two days later, he had worked out a way to repair the damage and headed back towards Cape Horn once more under reduced sail.
Mark Slats – back on course with a 36 hour penalty

The Golden Globe Race is unique in the fact that all the yachts are traditional long keel cruising boats between 32-36ft long. Skippers must rely on sextant, chronometer and paper charts to navigate by and can receive no outside assistance. Second placed Mark Slats, who has been penalised for receiving information directly from his shore manager yesterday, called Race HQ at 15:00 UTC seeking an update on the approaching storm predicted to blow into the Bay of Biscay on Thursday. This Low pressure system has changed direction over night and is not now expected to impinge on the course, so Slats has altered course away from refuge in La Coruna and is once more on course for Les Sables d’Olonne

Race Chairman Don McIntyre issued for following statement: “Mark Slats is currently 350 miles from the finish line and we now expect him to finish late Friday. The GGR Committee has assessed the evidence surrounding the breach of GGR Notice of Race Rule 3.1.4 – Telephone contact – and applied a 36 hour time penalty. which would normally be served in a penalty box at sea. However, because of a previous decision not to serve penalties in the Bay of Biscay at this time of the year, the penalty will be added to his finish time.