They might have been upwards of 60 miles off the actual lighthouse, but for the skipper who passed Cape Horn today the moment of release is the same nonetheless. The realisation that the Pacific is done, the Southern Oceans are safely completed, might only be fleeting but it is a key moment.
A message from the skipper’s team shoreside usually confirms the actual passage time and stats. But for the six skippers who passed Cape Horn today within 10 hours of each other in brisk winds of 25 to 35, gusting 40 knots – depending on timing – there was really precious little time to celebrate but all shared their emotions in due course.
He may be at the back of this main group and, in 11th deeper in the fleet than when he led round in January 2022, but Cape Horn on his 52nd birthday today should have been a dream timing for the defending title holder Yannick Bestaven. But, after suffering a breakage to his steering system, damage to the main central axle to which the link arms connecting the twin rudder are joined, Bestaven is really now struggling. Close to tears on the Vendée LIVE! French show today, the popular skipper who won the last edition of the race, admitted he and his La Rochelle team are fighting to find a solution to keep him in the race.
Still with 250 miles to make to the Horn, Bestaven has set up a temporary system with a spare gennaker sheet to drive the rudders and is making 11kts under mainsail only.
“Yesterday the link bar connecting the rudders and the shaft have separated. And that is a big problem because my boat is unsteerable in 30 knots of wind and 5 meters of waves. I have tried everything possible to repair. Under the water at the back of the boat to remove the shaft to see what I can do to fix it but unfortunately I don’t have a spare part.” Explained Bestaven on the show which had a full capacity audience in Les Sables d’Olonne as well as a big global reach on account of having Loïck Peyron as a guest and French actor Daniel Auteuil on what should have been a show making his birthday.
“So at the moment I have set up this temporary system to try to reach Cape Horn with what I have. I have attached my gennaker sheet and I have done this to connect the rudders that will allow me to get towards Cape Horn under mainsail only, at a slow speed.”
He grimaced, “I’m working with my team to see what we can do. For sure I can’t get back up the whole Atlantic like this Cape Horn is not the finish line, it’s just the end of the Southern Ocean. I need my boat in a good enough state to get back to Les Sables d’Olonne.”
“My idea would be to find shelter in the islands at Cape Horn and then see what’s possible whether I can repair it myself or to stop at Ushuaïa. I really don’t know. For sure I’m not able to chase the leaders anymore.”
@VendeeGlobe
#VG2024
Interested in seeing more Offshore News?
