It has now been announced that the British sailor, who has led the race since the start in Les Sables-d'Olonne in September, intends to call at a harbour for repairs. He will therefore drop out of the Golden Globe Race classification. However, he can still continue his circumnavigation in the Chichester class. Skippers who do not make it around the globe non-stop are classified in this class.
The mishap happened a good 1,200 nautical miles northwest of Cape Horn: According to the race committee of the Golden Globe Race, Simon Curwen called in at 18:15 UTC on 27 January to report the total failure of his hydrovane wind steering system. A low-pressure system with 40 knots of wind and six metre high waves had capsized his yacht. A part on the shaft of his wind steering system apparently broke, for which there is no replacement on board. Curwen therefore had no choice but to make a temporary repair and steer the remaining 8,000 nautical miles by hand - or give up.
The decision to call at a South American harbour and give up the lead in the field will not have been easy for him. His pursuers Kirsten Neuschäfer and Abhilash Tomy had come very close to him at the obligatory media stop in Hobart on Tasmania. But on the following long beat across the southern Pacific, Curwen had again sailed out a comfortable lead of around a thousand nautical miles over Kirsten Neuschäfer.
The South African and her "Minnehaha" would thus take the lead in the field, but would still be in an exciting race with her Indian opponent Tomy, who is sailing less than a hundred nautical miles behind her. Both are currently still above the exclusion zone of 47 degrees south latitude in the South Pacific, but will soon be able to dive deeper towards Cape Horn.
So far, the sailors in the Golden Globe Race have had to contend with other problems rather than heavy weather in the Southern Ocean. They report water shortages on board the boats, for example. And as in the non-stop regatta four years ago, the heavy growth of barnacles on the hulls is slowing many of them down. Jeremy Bagshaw therefore used the stopover in Hobart to clean the hull. He is now also sailing in the Chichester class towards Cape Horn.
Guy Waites, bringing up the rear of the field, had already taken his boat out of the water in Cape Town to clear the hull of fouling. When he set off again shortly before Christmas, it was clear that it would be extremely difficult or even impossible for the British skipper on his Tradewind 35 to reach Hobart on time: Because if a Chichester sailor does not manage to reach Hobart by 31 January 2023, he or she will be taken out of the race completely. He or she can make their way home on their own - or drop out.
Waites is currently sailing south of Australia and would still need a good week to reach Hobart. According to the Golden Globe race organisers, he will be removed from the race and the race tracker as soon as he passes the latitude of Hobart. The rule is intended to prevent sailors from getting caught in the autumn storms of the southern latitudes at the wrong time of year. But as the knockdown of Simon Curwen's "Clara" shows, even this is no guarantee of escaping the inhospitable conditions on the way to Cape Horn.
Golden Globe Race: more on the topic
GGR 2022: What has happened so far
- Golden Globe Update 12: Chasers pass the Hobart stopover
- Golden Globe Update 11: Simon Curwen reaches Hobart first
- Golden Globe Update 10: Bowsprit breakage and vegetation slow down sailors
- Golden Globe Update 9: Why it sank " Asteria " ?
- Golden Globe Update 8: Neuschäfer rescues Lehtinen from distress at sea
- Golden Globe Update 7: Emotional moments off Cape Town
- Golden Globe Update 6: Cape Town in the wake, Neuschäfer in second place
- Golden Globe Update 5: New breach on board the "PRB"
- Golden Globe Update 4: Three new videos from the high seas
- Golden Globe Update 3: Sailors reach first media stop
- Golden Globe Update 2: Shipwreck at Guy de Boer in the Canary Islands
- Golden Globe Update 1: Break, comeback and the first task
