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They might have been upwards of 60 miles off the actual lighthouse, but for the skipper who passed Cape Horn today the moment of release is the same nonetheless. The realisation that the Pacific is done, the Southern Oceans are safely completed, might only be fleeting but it is a key moment.
A message from the skipper’s team shoreside usually confirms the actual passage time and stats. But for the six skippers who passed Cape Horn today within 10 hours of each other in brisk winds of 25 to 35, gusting 40 knots, – depending on timing, – there was really precious little time to celebrate but all shared their emotions in due course.
He may be at the back of this main group and, in 11th deeper in the fleet than when he led round in January 2022, but Cape Horn on his 52nd birthday today, should have been a dream timing for the defending title holder Yannick Bestaven. But, after suffering a breakage to his steering system, damage to the main central axle, to which the link arms connecting the twin rudder are joined, Bestaven is really now struggling. Close to tears the popular skipper who won the last edition of the race, admitted he and his La Rochelle team, are fighting to find a solution to keep him in the race.
Still with 250 miles to make to the Horn, Bestaven has set up a temporary system with a spare gennaker sheet to drive the rudders, and is making 11 knots under mainsail only.
