PAST RACES

Lying third on the race’s displayed leaderboard on 3 Nov 2026, after running west before a low and tacking back east, Andrea Lodolo was sailing BiBi in heavy but not extreme weather in the South Atlantic when a serious fall from the cockpit, down through the companionway into the cabin, broke a knee. After a consultation with the race’s doctors the situation was stabilised, and the race announced the retirement in its 04:00 UTC update of 7 Nov 2026, with BiBi heading for Cape Town.

A port lower-shroud chainplate, seen lifting with hairline cracks at the Les Sables inspection, worsened at sea and took Spirit into Marina Rubicón on 18 Sep 2026 for repairs, which moved her into Chichester class; loading the rig there showed the hull deforming near the mast, and with the repairs done and approval from the surveyor and race management, Guy deBoer sailed again on 5 Oct, outside the main rankings, with a brief anchored stop in the Cape Verde Islands in mid-October to fix the tiller head. On 2 Nov, past Trindade, the skipper was thrown across the cabin while working at the galley, struck the head and lost consciousness, with injuries that restricted arm movement. The race’s doctor advised against continuing and recommended sailing downwind to Punta del Este, and on 4 Nov, on that advice, race management ruled that Guy deBoer could no longer take part, even in Chichester class. Balance problems returned and Spirit turned for Rio de Janeiro; shortly after 16:00 UTC on 7 Nov the skipper called the race to ask for immediate evacuation, unable to use the left arm, stand, keep balance or eat. The Brazilian Navy corvette Barroso steamed through the night, and at 11:38 UTC on 8 Nov its helicopter had the skipper aboard, about 870 nm east of Rio de Janeiro; Spirit was left drifting with all sails down.

Louis Kerdelhué, at twenty-one the youngest starter, spent weeks fighting the Doldrums, with a contaminated main water tank, a broken furler fitting and a damaged spinnaker pole along the way, and turned for Recife, where the race first allowed a mooring or an anchorage without leaving the GGR class. IE Charge reached Recife overnight into 24 Oct 2026 and picked up a mooring without assistance, and on 26 Oct the skipper announced the retirement: the limits of the body had been reached, and there was no longer the condition to continue. The race later wrote of a skipper physically depleted by the Doldrums and more than 10 kg lighter.

After 5,644 nm, lying second and just over 100 nm behind the leader, the Solent stay broke in an east-north-east wind of 20 to 25 knots gusting 30, in a sea of three to four metres. Pat Lawless got the sail down and lashed the broken stay and its furling gear to the bow; the mast stayed up on the main forestay, and the skipper was not hurt and asked for no help. At 23:51 UTC on 17 Oct the message to Race Control read: “Pat here, Solent rig broken. Rig ok now sailing north out of the game”, and the race declared the boat out the next morning. Calling the race’s broadcast that day, the skipper said the boat was sailing north with the weather, Cape Verde perhaps later; the race wrote that the call suggested no continuing in Chichester class.

The high-frequency radio failed overnight on 18–19 Sep 2026 (the race director said on air that the antenna tuner unit, not the set, appeared to be at fault) and Selim Yalcin, judging it unsafe to continue without it, turned for Cádiz, reaching port on 22 Sep with the intention of repairing it and continuing in Chichester class. A replacement Icom 801 was located, but transporting, installing and testing it, including modifying the radio’s waterproof compartment, would take at least four more days, and with the gap to the fleet growing the skipper withdrew on 25 Sep rather than continue in Chichester class.

In days of 60-knot gusts on the approach to Cape Horn, 20–22 Mar 2023, the drogue warp wrapped around the Hydrovane rudder and it snapped in half; the electric autopilot steered through that rudder and it was too rough to fit the spare, so Ian Herbert-Jones was moved to Chichester class and anchored at Picton Island, Tierra del Fuego, to repair the vane. On 10 Apr, about 900 miles from the Falklands in 50–55 knots gusting 70–75 with confused seas of 7.7–8 m and no drogue out (it could not be deployed in the conditions), Puffin was rolled and dismasted; the skipper, with a back injury and a head gash, could not cut the rig away, set off the emergency position-indicating radio beacon and the YB distress alert, and was taken off by the fishing vessel Zi Da Wang on 11 Apr, Puffin scuttled.

Barnacle fouling reported from October 2022 slowed Sagarmatha until Guy Waites hauled out at Cape Town, sailing again on 22 Dec in Chichester class with the gate closing on 31 Jan 2023, which the boat could not reach in time. A knockdown in strong winds and big seas south of Australia on 3 Feb took the liferaft, so the skipper put into Hobart on 10 Feb for a replacement, after the gate had closed, and was out of the race; the circumnavigation continued outside it, 287 days in all.

About 1,200 miles north-west of Cape Horn on 27 Jan 2023, after a deep depression with 40 knots and 6–7 m confused seas, a knockdown broke the solid alloy casting at the head of the Hydrovane, tore the sprayhood and ripped off a handrail; Simon Curwen carried component spares but not that casting, so the vane could not be repaired at sea. Leading the race, Clara went on under storm jib and lashed tiller to Puerto Montt, Chile (arrived 8 Feb, left about 13 Feb), which moved her to Chichester class; she was still first home at Les Sables-d’Olonne on 27 Apr 2023.

The bowsprit broke in half off South Africa on 22 Nov 2022 (bent bobstay and starboard tubing, cracked port tubing), was repaired over three days at anchor in Simon’s Town, and bent up again on 18 Dec; more than ten mast climbs in a 3 m swell to shorten the forestay and bypass the bowsprit ended with the spare stay and tools lost overboard, leaving the boat under staysail and double-reefed main with the rig held by the inner forestay and backstay. Elliott Smith sailed 5,000 miles under that jury rig to Fremantle, arriving 19 Jan 2023, and retired there because there was no time to repair and pass the Hobart gate before it closed on 31 Jan.

Gooseneck barnacles picked up near the Cape Verdes covered 70% of the hull in the Atlantic; they were scraped off at a mooring in False Bay, grew back in the Indian Ocean and slowed Olleanna until she did not carry enough food or water to continue at that pace. Jeremy Bagshaw passed the Hobart gate on 16 Jan 2023 and stopped there to clean the hull and take on water and food, moving to Chichester class; the race was resumed on 20 Jan 2023 and Olleanna finished at Les Sables-d’Olonne on 9 Jun 2023 as the last finisher.

From 24 Nov 2022 Arnaud Gaist reported a mast and rigging problem (the mast bending, its base moving, a lower shroud needing tightening, the bobstay fitting under stress) that made sailing to windward unsafe, on a hull slowed by heavy barnacle growth. On 1 Dec, reckoning that at that pace Cape Horn would come in April and that Cape Town could not be reached in time to repair and still make the Hobart gate, the skipper diverted towards St Helena and retired; the race’s 9 Dec article, written 200 miles from St Helena, adds that about 150 days of provisions remained aboard.

At about 07:00 UTC on 18 Nov 2022, in moderate conditions, Tapio Lehtinen woke to a loud bang from the stern and found water flooding in from under the engine and companionway ladder; it rose from knee to waist height within about two minutes, Asteria flooded to deck level in five minutes and went down stern first, and the skipper took to the liferaft within six minutes, to be recovered about 24 hours later by Kirsten Neuschäfer on Minnehaha after a 105 nm diversion. The GGR technical review found no proven cause (“NO PROVEN ANSWER”); the skipper’s own hypotheses were a through-hull fitting failing between the two stern watertight bulkheads, or new sideways loads from the Hydrovane’s steering blade on the 57-year-old stern laminate after some 40,000 miles.

After some ten weeks at sea in which the isolation of the Atlantic weighed heavily (a small electrical fire in the first week had been dealt with, with charging from wind and solar until repaired), Ertan Beskardes passed the Cape Town gate and then announced on 16 Nov that three more months alone to Cape Horn was not something to enjoy, stopping in Cape Town and retiring: 'I was looking for the unknown, and I found it.'

The Hydrovane failed three times: a transom-mount axle broke on the night of 6 Sep in the Bay of Biscay (PRB returned to Les Sables-d’Olonne, the mount was repaired and strengthened, and she restarted on 10 Sep, six days behind), the rudder shaft broke near Trindade on 20 Oct and was replaced at sea by 23 Oct, and on 12 Nov, two days past the Cape Town gate, the screws holding the spare rudder blade worked loose, the blade slipped off and its safety line was not secured, so it was lost. With no spares left Damien Guillou put into Cape Town on 14 Nov and, rather than continue in the Chichester class outside the rankings, retired: 'I’ve had problems three times, and when these things happen, you can’t force fate.'

About 1,200 nm west of Cape Town the bush on the Aries wind vane’s spindle came out of its socket and disengaged the gears, a repair the skipper could not make at sea. Pat Lawless sailed the boat in on sheet-to-tiller steering and at Cape Town retired rather than continue in Chichester class, saying the boat would not be competitive without self-steering.

A slow start against southwesterly headwinds in the Bay of Biscay put Coconut about a week behind the pace needed to reach Cape Town for a family rendezvous, the son’s wedding, and the skipper had been away from home for the best part of a year with health follow-up pending. Mark Sinclair retired at the Lanzarote film drop on 23 Sep 2022 rather than sail on in Chichester class, planning to sail Coconut back to Australia.

After more than 30 hours awake reaching the Lanzarote film gate, Guy deBoer sat down in the cockpit and fell asleep; the wind eased, the boat turned to port and struck rocks about 50 m off the north coast of Fuerteventura before dawn on 18 Sep 2022. Spirit lay listing 45 degrees and pounded by surf for 40 to 45 minutes before the skipper got ashore with the coastguard’s help, and the race ended there; the port side was holed, and the boat was later taken off the rocks and re-laminated.

Four days into the race, in the Bay of Biscay, Edward Walentynowicz called home and then told race control of a decision to retire for personal reasons; Noah’s Jest and her skipper were reported in good shape, and she sailed back to Les Sables-d’Olonne.

Short of fresh water and slowed by heavy barnacle fouling on the hull, with the season for Cape Horn running out, Mark Sinclair put in to the home port of Adelaide on 5 Dec 2018 and was listed as retired a week later. Under the Notice of Race the skipper could carry on in Chichester class, and did: Coconut left Adelaide on 5 Dec 2021 and finished at Les Sables-d’Olonne on 27 May 2022.

Esmeralda grew a thick coat of barnacles that could not be removed at sea and slowed her badly (Igor Zaretskiy blamed the antifouling: a bottom wash two days before the start without a fresh coat, and later a hard paint that did not erode at the boat’s speed), a forestay broke on 22 Oct 2018, and on 12 Dec 2018 the skipper put into Albany, hauled out to clean the hull and replace the forestay, and moved to Chichester class with a restart planned for 17 Dec. A medical check in Australia (an enlarged lymph node near a kidney, by the skipper’s later account) sent Zaretskiy home to Moscow for treatment, the boat never sailed on, and the race published the withdrawal from the Chichester class on 3 Oct 2019.

The safety tube of the Monitor windvane broke, so Susie Goodall lowered the mainsail and streamed a drogue to ride out a storm of about 60 knots and 7 m seas some 2,000 nm west of Cape Horn. While the skipper was below, DHL Starlight pitchpoled end over end; the mast and rigging were lost, the interior wrecked, the drogue line was found parted, no jury rig was possible, and Goodall was lifted off by the cargo ship Tian Fu on 7 Dec.

Laaland was already in the Chichester class after a stop at Cape Town (8–12 Sep 2018) for fresh water and a single-sideband radio repair. On 20 Oct 2018, about 600 nm south-west of Perth in 25–30 knots, an aft lower shroud fractured, the running backstay followed and the mast broke about 50 cm above the deck; the broken spar holed the hull below the waterline near the keel, the leak settled at about 30–40 litres every twenty minutes behind a water tank Loïc Lepage could not reach, so the skipper set off the emergency position-indicating radio beacon, was taken off by the bulk carrier Shiosai on 23 Oct and opened the seacocks so the boat would sink.

On 21 Sep 2018, lying under bare poles beam-on to a 12 to 15 m cross sea in wind estimated at 75 knots, Thuriya was knocked down repeatedly, rolled through 360° and dismasted, and Abhilash Tomy suffered a severe back injury and could not get up (the 12:09 UTC message, sent from 39°38′S 77°23′E: “ROLLED. DISMASTED. SEVERE BACK INJURY. CANNOT GET UP.”). The skipper was taken off by the French fisheries patrol vessel Osiris on 24 Sep and the yacht was left at sea; spinal surgery followed in India.

In a Southern Ocean storm near Île Amsterdam, with gusts to 70 knots and 12 m seas, an early knockdown broke the mizzen; Gregor McGuckin then ran downwind under bare poles towing warps, and a huge cross sea rolled the boat through 360°, which took the main mast and the windvane. McGuckin built a jury rig from a spinnaker pole and hand-steered for three days toward the injured Abhilash Tomy, the engine unusable on contaminated fuel; once the French patrol vessel Osiris had Tomy aboard, McGuckin asked for a controlled evacuation and left the boat on 24 Sep.

The break coupling on the servo blade of the Monitor windvane failed in a Southern Ocean storm; after hours of hand-steering Are Wiig hove-to under a triple-reefed mainsail to repair it, and in 35–45 knots and 7–8 m seas about 400 nm south-west of Cape Town Olleanna was rolled through 360° and dismasted, with the hull and deck cracked on the starboard side, a bulkhead torn, the coachroof cracked and a porthole smashed. The skipper streamed the forestay and its sail as a sea anchor, built a jury rig from the two spinnaker poles, sailed the 400 nm to Cape Town in six days without assistance, and the race was over.

The Beaufort windvane’s stainless tubes had been bending since the Canaries and were sleeved three times with tubing cut from the spare tiller; on 10–11 Aug, running for 40°S in a 45–50 knot gale about 1,500 nm west of Cape Town, a wave wiped PRB out, broke the vane repair again and snapped the tiller 20 cm from the rudder head, leaving no spares for either. Philippe Péché lashed a piece of wood into the tiller stub and sailed for Cape Town, but a satellite call to a partner after the breakage had already moved the skipper to the Chichester class (as if one stop had been made), so the race ruled on 24 Aug that the stop at Cape Town would end the race; the Carozzo-class option was declined.

Windvane trouble from the start forced a stop at Marina Rubicón, Lanzarote, on Sunday 15 Jul to fix the self-steering, which put the boat in Chichester class; the race director called it partly mechanical but more a decision to stop, regroup and think, and Antoine Cousot set out again at 17:00 on 17 Jul. The self-steering problems continued and, with shoulder and ankle injuries added, the skipper announced on Wednesday 22 Aug a diversion to Trindade island to rest and repair the vane before going on to Rio de Janeiro; with the boat already in Chichester class, the race ruled on 24 Aug that this second stop would end the race on arrival in port.

A weld on the Beaufort windvane self-steering broke after the Lanzarote gate; Nabil Amra chose to beat back upwind in 35-knot winds to Tenerife rather than run for an African port, violently ill and without sleep for four days, and on reaching Tenerife overnight announced the retirement.

Trouble with the windvane self-steering in the first fortnight left Kevin Farebrother hand steering, with very little sleep, unwilling to sleep below decks (“like getting into the back seat of a moving car to sleep when no-one is at the wheel”) and reporting hallucinations to race control. Sagarmatha put into Marina Rubicón, Lanzarote, and the skipper retired on 15 Jul 2018, telling the organisers “I’m not cut out for solo sailing”.

Five days out, with the ham radio (and the engine) not working and so no way to talk to family after six months away preparing the boat, Ertan Beskardes decided the enjoyment had gone and put into A Coruña; the race’s own timeline records that being unable to talk to family took the enjoyment from the race, and its skipper profile that the boat was ready but the skipper felt not.