WebreaderShopNewsletter

Golden Globe RaceStorms, breakages and capsizes in the South Pacific

Kristina Müller

 · 09.02.2023

Golden Globe Race: Storms, breakages and capsizes in the South PacificPhoto: GGR2022
Everything still intact on board: Kirsten Neuschäfer's Cape George 36 off Tasmania
Tough times for the few remaining skippers in the non-stop race around the world: Kirsten Neuschäfer and Abhilash Tomy recently battled with a violent storm on their way to Cape Horn, which forced them to sail further north than planned. One of the two spinnaker poles on Neuschäfer's "Minnehaha", which she uses to rig her trade wind sails in this Golden Globe Race, broke. Abhilash Tomy's Rustler 36 capsized in the heavy seas.

After Simon Curwen had to give up his leading position after a momentous knockdown almost a fortnight ago, the new leader of the field, which has shrunk to just four sailors, has now been hit. In 2018/19, only a handful of skippers were still in the race at this point. Back then, however, it also started two months earlier and the fleet had already been severely decimated by storms in the Indian Ocean - one piece of bad news followed another. The later start was intended to prevent this from happening in this edition. But for the 2022/23 Golden Globe Race, too, the inhospitable southern latitudes are now inexorably showing the solo skippers their limits.

While Neuschäfer and Tomy grit their teeth and repair what can be repaired on board, Simon Curwen has reached the Chilean coast. Here he wants to repair his wind steering system, which was damaged when he capsized, with support from land. "I have to do an awful lot of steering myself. You really learn to appreciate your wind steering system," commented the Brit on his trip to the coast. "Maybe I shouldn't have given it funny names..."

For Curwen, the race is over and victory is a thing of the past, despite a long lead. As he had no detailed nautical charts of the coastal region around Puerto Montt on board, the Golden Globe race organisers provided him with navigation information and coordinates. He was also allowed to use his GPS in an emergency.

Most read articles

1

2

3

Curwen is obviously hoping for a delivery of spare parts to Chile so that he can continue the round-the-world race in the Chichester class after the repair stop. He would prefer to continue the match with his previous competitors outside of the classification up to Les Sables d'Olonne.

Sailing alongside him in the Chichester class for all sailors with one stop is Jeremy Bagshaw, who still has almost the entire South Pacific ahead of him on his Olle Enderlein 32.

Guy Waites, on the other hand, is heading for Tasmania. After his stopover in Cape Town as a Chichester sailor, the Briton had not managed to pass Hobart within the specified time window by 31 January and would have had to continue the non-stop trip on his own, without further support from the GGR race management. In the end, he also had to contend with extremely difficult conditions, in which his Tradewind 35 capsized several times despite having the hawsers and chains deployed, while he had lashed himself to the bunk. His life raft was washed away from its place on the aft deck.

Michael Guggenberger from Austria is sailing in third position and will soon have the safety zone on the way to Cape Horn behind him. However, according to the organisers, he crossed the no-go line for one and a half hours last weekend and received a time penalty of four and a half hours for doing so. At least he was spared the severe depression further east.

That leaves Ian Herbert-Jones in fourth place. Like Bagshaw, he still has the Pacific ahead of him and is therefore sailing almost an ocean's length away from the fastest in this race. But that - it is becoming increasingly clear - is of secondary importance in the Golden Globe Race. What counts is perseverance, not giving up, bringing the ship and himself home safely.

Golden Globe Race: more on the topic

GGR 2022: What has happened so far


Home

Most read in category Special