Globe40: "Wild ride" - Burke and Fink set off on a circumnavigation of the globe
Tatjana Pokorny
· 04.09.2025
The top favourites were right at the front: Ian Lipinski and Antpoine Carpentier led the Globe40 two hours after the start. The co-favourites were also not to be outdone at the start of the Class40 circumnavigation: Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink, as Team Next Generation Boating - Around the World with the hull number 189, were directly in the top three. The Belgium Ovean Racing - Curium team with Jonas Gerckens and Renaud Dehareng were also at the front.
Prologue tension: a calm and a storm
Prologue participants Aina Bauza Roig and Axelle Pillain were also among the leading group. The "Cap pour Elles" winners and prospective Transat Café l'Or challengers were invited to take part in the prologue and used the Globe40 opener as top training for their team development.
An interesting sprint to Cádiz is on the programme for the other eight Globe40 duos. On Wednesday morning, Lennart Burke gave YACHT online an overview of the expected conditions for the section from Lorient to Cádiz, which is rated with a factor of 0.5 and on which the double-handed crews could take up to two other sailors on board. Burke and Fink seized the opportunity and brought the owner of their Class40, Joachim Wünning, and Sebastian Dziwisch on board for their first dance in the Globe40. Both "guest sailors" are experienced Atlantic crossers.
Commenting on the prospects for the prologue, Lennart Burke said: "We will have a calm start. But with a lot of waves and also up to 20 knots of wind. Maybe a few shower clouds with a few gusts in them. But then we'll be reaching right into the middle of the Bay of Biscay. After that, we're expecting a lull in the second half of the first night, but we don't know exactly how long it will last and how quickly and well we'll get out. Then there will be an easterly wind that will take us as far as Cape Finisterre."
And then comes a big, fat front, that will be very exciting." Lennart Burke
The Stralsund-born sailor, who lives in Hamburg like his co-skipper Melwin Fink, described the rest of the prologue as challenging: "The front will bring a southerly wind from the west with gusts of up to 35, 38 knots, maybe even more. We have to cross it. But we'll only see exactly how it will be in the front."
Globe40: Preferably confident, self-assured, sovereign
According to Burke, his team wanted to "come through safely, confidently and confidently". Burke was under no illusions shortly before the start of the Globe40, which begins with the prologue, and with a view to the announced front: "Of course, something can happen, so the scenario does involve a risk."
Once the front has been mastered, says Burke, "there's a big twist with a westerly wind". The Class 40 sailor commented enthusiastically on this pleasant prospect: "Then we heat down the Portuguese coast with the wind. Then it turns further and further to the right, so that at some point we have the downwind. I think as far as Cape Vincent. Then we'll reach the finish line in Cádiz. According to current forecasts, that will be another real speed run. It's going to be fun."
The Burke prologue forecast for the finish: "I think that whoever arrives first at Cape Vincent will also win the finish, because then it's all straight ahead: reaching, reaching, reaching - in other words, full throttle. It's all very, very exciting with lots of sail changes, a lull and a storm. A wild ride!" Click here for Globe40 tracking.
The Globe40 course around the world
The "wild ride" is a good motto for the round-the-world trip that Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink set off on this Thursday. It will take them via Cádiz, Mindelo (Cape Verde), La Réunion, Sydney, Valparaiso (Chile) and Recife (Brazil) back to the start and finish harbour of Lorient, where the crews are expected to return in mid-April 2026. Melwin Fink explains the Globe40 course here.
