Cape Horn: 28 sailing heroes inducted into the "Cape Horn Hall of Fame"

The personalities, all historic and pioneering names with strong sailing links to the world's most notorious cape, will now be immortalised for posterity in France on the IACH plaque in Les Sables-d'Olonne, the venue of the Vendée Globe, the Golden Globe Race and the Mini-Transat Ocean Race.

The names range from Captain Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire, who were the first to discover Cape Horn in 1616 and thus a route westwards through the Pacific to the Dutch East Indies, to the Finnish Captain Verner Björkfelt, who commanded the last commercial windjammer "Pamir", which circumnavigated the Cape before steamships replaced sails in 1949, to pioneers of circumnavigation in small boats such as the Argentinian sailor Vito Dumas, the Frenchman Marcel Bardiaux and the Englishman Sir Francis Chichester.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo around the world without stopping, and French Cape Horn veteran Jean-Luc Van den Heede, who sailed around the Cape Horn twelve times, lead a number of distinguished experts who shortlist future inductees to be voted on by IACH members each year. Both Knox-Johnston and Van den Heede are on the board of the Cape Horn Hall of Fame.

The first 28 personalities to be immortalised in the Cape Horn Hall of Fame

• Willem Schouten (1567-1625), Netherlands:Discoverer of Cape Horn and the Tonga Islands. Both his hometown and one of his two expedition ships were named Hoorn, thus giving the cape its name.
• Jacob Le Maire (1585-1616), Belgium:Discovered Cape Horn together with Willem Schouten. The strait that separates the island and Tierra del Fuego was named after him.
• Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy (1805-1865), England:Captain of the research ship "HMS Beagle", on which he sailed around the world for five years together with the evolutionary researcher Charles Darwin.
• Captain Verner Björkfelt (1900-1982), Finland:Commanded the last commercial windjammer "Pamir", which circumnavigated the Cape before steamships replaced sails in 1949.
• Captain TC Fearon (1813-1869), England:Circumnavigated Cape Horn 36 times, more than any other person since.
• Captain Adolph Hauth (1899-1975), Germany:Circumnavigated Cape Horn 14 times, including four times as captain of the sail training ship "Priwall".
• Captain Louis Allaire (1880-1949), France:Founding father of the "L'Amicale Internationale des Captaines au Long Curs Cap Horniers", the predecessor organisation of today's "International Association of Cape Horners".
• Alan Villiers (1903-1982), Australia:Australian sailor, historian and founder of the modern sailing school, who wrote 47 books about life on board sailing ships.
• Vito Dumas (1900-1965), Argentina:A solo skipper who, in the middle of the Second World War, circumnavigated the globe with only the bare essentials and just three shore leaves.
• Marcel Bardiaux (1910-2000), France:The first single-handed sailor to circumnavigate the world in a westerly direction, against the prevailing wind direction, in the 1950s. His book "Aux 4 Vents del L'Aventure" is a classic of sailing literature.
• Sir Francis Chichester (1901-1972), England:Knighted by the Queen after becoming the first single-handed sailor to circumnavigate the world via the three great capes in 1966/67 with only one stop in Sydney.
• Sir Alec Rose (1908-1991), England:He was also knighted after he circumnavigated the globe in 1967/68 with two stops in 354 days. His yacht "Lively Lady" is still used today as a training boat for sailing students.
• Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (1939-), England:The first sailor to have sailed single-handed non-stop around the world and won the first Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968/9. He has been honoured many times since then. In 1994 he won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the world.
• Bernard Moitessier (1925-1994), France:The French solo sailing legend had the best chance of winning the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968/69, but broke off in the South Atlantic to "save his soul" and instead sailed around the Cape of Good Hope a second time before finally dropping his anchor in Tahiti. His book "La longue route" has also become a classic of sailing literature.
• Sir Chay Blyth (1940-), Scotland:The first single-handed sailor to sail non-stop in a westerly direction, against the prevailing wind direction. In 1973, he won the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race with an amateur crew of parachutists.
• Ramon Carlin (1923-2016), Mexico:Turned the sailing world upside down in the 1973/74 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race when he competed as a Mexican nobody against the international sailing greats and won sensationally.
• Eric Tabarly (1931-1998), France:He suddenly became world-famous in 1964 when he won the Observer Singlehanded Trans Atlantic Race with his yacht "Pen Duick II" in the fabulous time of just 27 days. Numerous regatta victories and honours were to follow until the French national hero drowned overboard in the Irish Sea in 1998.
• Cornelis van Rietschoten (1926-2013), Netherlands:The only skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race twice. In 1977/78 as a then unknown skipper, and in 1981/82 outside the competition, when his "Flyer" was not only the fastest boat, but also came out on top in the calculated handicap and set further records along the way.
• Dame Naomi James (1949-), New Zealand:The first woman to sail solo around the world via Cape Horn in 1978, beating Sir Francis Chichester's record by two days. Was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 for her achievement.
• Kay Cottee (1954-), Australia:In 1988, she was the first woman to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation. After capsizing several times and being washed off board once, she made it back to Sydney after 189 days.
• Jon Sanders (1939-), Australia:The first person to circumnavigate Antarctica solo in 1981/82, twice in a row, including a detour to Plymouth, Great Britain. This solo circumnavigation was entered in the "Guinness Book of Records". In 1986, he went one better and circumnavigated the globe non-stop three times in a row.
• Philippe Jeantot (1952-), France:The former deep sea diver won the first two "BOC Challenge solo round the world yacht races" in 1982 and 1986. In 1989, he created the Vendée Globe before founding the Privilège catamaran brand in 1990.
• Titouan Lamazou (1955-), France:Sailor, artist and author who, after finishing second in the "BOC Challenge solo round the world yacht race" in 1986, won the first Vendée Globe in 1991.
• Sir Peter Blake (1948-2001), New Zealand:New Zealand sailing legend who won the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, the Jules Verne Trophy and twice the America's Cup. Was murdered by pirates on the Amazon in 2001.
• Dilip Donde (1967-), India:The first Indian to sail around the world single-handedly and is now guiding other Indian sailors to emulate him. His most famous foster son is Abhilash Tomy, who is currently sailing his second Golden Globe Race.
• Dee Caffari (1973-), England:Has sailed around the world six times and was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe solo in both west-east and east-west directions. Successfully participated in the Global Challenge Round the World Race 2004, the Vendée Globe 2009/10 and the Volvo Ocean Races 2014/15 and 2017/18.
• Stan Honey (1955-), USA:America's most famous ocean navigator, who was on board the victorious "ABN Amro I" in the 2005/06 Volvo Ocean Race and set several sailing world records.
• Jean-Luc Van den Heede (1945-), France:Deputy Chairman of the "Cape Horn Wall of Fame", has sailed around Cape Horn twelve times - ten of them solo - and won the Golden Globe Race 2018/19. He has also achieved top positions in various offshore regattas such as the Vendée Globe and the Transat Jacques Vabre.

More exciting articles about the world's most notorious cape:

• Spectacular storm trips around Cape Horn
• Cape Horn: created in anger
• Shortly before Cape Horn: The teams fight and mourn
• "Applause for the growing interest in circumnavigations"