Globe40: The second half is underway - "Wilson" with a lightning start in stage four
Tatjana Pokorny
· 01.01.2026
With the start of the new year, the second half of the Class40 race around the world has begun at Globe40. Here is a clip of the start. While Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink were only able to follow the start from their distant home port of Hamburg after their provisional retirement on leg three, the fleet of seven remaining two-handed teams set off on the approximately 6400 nautical mile Pacific leg to Valparaiso in Chile. The starting signal was given at 3 p.m. local time in Sydney (5 a.m. German time).
Globe40 stage four: It's off to the "Roaring Forties"
On its course, the fleet will venture deep into the Southern Ocean and into the Roaring Forties. The course limit is 50 degrees south for long stretches of the leg. The two-handed teams have to master the entire Pacific - from the Australian Olympic metropolis of the Millennium Games to the Chilean coast. Like stage two, this fourth of the six stages will also be scored three times. The results will have a strong influence on the overall standings and will also have a correspondingly intense impact on the battle for the Globe40 victory.
The course takes the two in the intermediate ranking The leading scow-bow boats from the Belgium Ocean Racing - Curium team (10.50 points after the prologue and three legs) and Crédit Mutuel (12.50 points) and the five pointed-bow boats that followed passed New Zealand into the vastness of the Pacific. A few hours after the start of the race, "Wilson" skipper Lisa Berger and her co-skipper Jade Edwards-Leaney were initially in the lead. The Austrian and the Welshman also benefited from their south-easterly position, while their competitors were heading south-west.
Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney were in sixth place in the intermediate classification after the prologue from Lorient to Cádiz and the three stages via Mindelo and La Réunion to Sydney at the end of the first half of the Globe40. On the "Free Dom" ahead of them Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney were only three points behind before the most recent stage start. In the current stage, they would "only" have to be one place better to catch up with the Frenchmen Thibaut Lefevre and Maxime Bourcier on "Free Dom".
Burke and Fink: forced to watch for the time being
Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink initially dropped back from second to fourth place after their unfortunate breakage on stage three. The youngest crew in the race will After a good month at home in Germany and a visit to boot Düsseldorf (17 to 25 January) will only return to La Réunion towards the end of the month and prepare their boat for the transfer to Recife. Burke and Fink will then head for the Brazilian port of call after a short repair pit stop in Cape Town.
On this challenging route, Burke and Fink want to ensure that they can at least take on the sixth and final leg of the race around the world from Recife to Lorient. They want to bring the Globe40 to a worthy conclusion. "There is no giving up for us. Keep going," said Lennart Burke on the team's attitude after the shattered dream of the first joint circumnavigation with Melwin Fink.
Behind the other seven teams was a remarkable stopover in Sydney on New Year's Day, where they also experienced the hustle and bustle surrounding the 80th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. The JPK 10.30 racer "Min River" was honoured shortly before the Globe40 start. The Globe40 circumnavigators felt "at home" in the two host clubs: the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS) in the north of the bay and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA), which welcomed the Globe40 fleet after the Hobart sailors had set sail in the south.
Globe40: First New Year's Eve in Sydney, then the start of the New Year
The circumnavigators enjoyed an extraordinary New Year's Eve celebration in Sydney. The backdrop was the famous Harbour Bridge over Sydney Bay, the characteristic Opera House and the New Year's fireworks. The Globe40 fleet also commemorated the victims of the attack on Bondi Beach.
The sailors' own New Year's wishes will have included a happy and successful leg. Leg four of the Globe40 offers its challengers three options from Sydney via New Zealand to Valpariso: the northern route, the Cook Strait between the two main islands and the southern route, which was considered the most likely before the start. The route then leads down to the set ice limit, which is largely set at 50 degrees south.
With a distance of around 6400 nautical miles, leg four is the second longest in Globe40, around 2000 nautical miles shorter than the second leg from Mindelo to La Réunion and around 400 nautical miles longer than the previous leg from La Réunion to Sydney. The route passes Point Nemo, the furthest point on earth from any civilisation, also known as the "Pacific Pole of Inaccessibility". Foe or friend: the large low-pressure areas of the south will accompany the Class40 circumnavigators in low temperatures.
Favourites in the race with fresh forces
The Globe40 teams will be sailing in the Pacific for around three weeks. For the teams fighting for overall victory, Crédit Mutuel and Belgium Ocean Racing - Curium, there is a lot at stake with regard to the once again high rating factor of 3. Both teams have sent fresh players into the current section: On the Belgian side, Djemila Tassin is contesting the fourth leg with Benoit Hantzperg, who has been on board since Cape Verde and remains on board.
The French rivals on "Crédit Mutuel" have even replaced their entire crew. Frontman Ian Lipinski is cancelling a stage for the first and only time according to plan. Amélie Grassi, who was active on the previous stages, also left the team. Instead, her British husband Alan Roberts joins the team and contests stage four alongside Antoine Carpentier, who already has Globe40 experience. On paper, the French-British "Crédit Mutuel" duo Roberts/Carpentier looks very strong, but the Belgians were already able to shine with their victory on the long second stage.
