Race leader will continue after knock-down and mast damage but gets 18 hour time penalty for calling wife on satphone

Matmut in unrealistically calm waters… she faces the Horn with damaged mast

Poor old Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, who suffered a knockdown and mast damage (see our post below). He decided he would head for Chile to make repairs (which effectively would remove him from the race by putting him in the Chichester (landed somewhere) class… and then made the mistake of using his satphone to call his wife… the knockdown was to 150º! That is against the rules.

So when JLVDH decided yesterday that actually he would carry on, and see how he fared trying to climb the mast to effect better repairs himself, he ran foul of the satphone rule. Normally this would instantly remove him to Chichester status – a lower order than the first water of the Knox-Johnston ideal.

Race officers proposed this but JLVDH argued for a TIME PENALTY instead of being relegated since no support was provided by the phone use and his HAM radio comms were good and providing all advice and assistance.

“In the spirit of the GOLDEN GLOBE RACE and noting the fact that JLVDH received NO MATERIAL ASSISTANCE through the use of his GGR Satphone, we have applied an 18-hour time penalty to JLVDH to be served in the GGR PENALTY BOX,” said GGR Organisers, this afternoon.

It remains to be seen if the 74 year old French global veteran sailor will get his mast strong enough to round Cape Horn, and he will no doubt want to slow down. The long lead that he established over the other sailors remaining afloat just got a little shorter…

Our post on November 5:

At 1500hrs GMT/UTC 5th NOV Jean-Luc Van Den Heede called GGR Founder Don McIntyre to advise that his Rustler 36 Matmut had been severely knocked down – to about 150°.

Jean-Luc’s Rustler 36 Matmut ©Jacques Taglang

This had damaged the connecting bolt attachment to the mast that holds all four lower shrouds, which means he needs to find a port to make repairs. The mast is not in danger of falling, he reports, but it is not securely tensioned. The bolt has slipped 5cm down in the mast section and consequently slackened off the rigging. He is still in the storm with 11 metre seas and 65knot winds. Conditions are expected to moderate in the next few hours.

The 73-year old race Frenchman from Les Sables d’Olonne is now running downwind with no sails until conditions improve. He will then effect a repair that will allow him to hoist sail again and make for Valparaiso, Chile where he will make a permanent repair.

Jean Luc was not injured during the knock-down, has requested NO ASSISTANCE at this time and is confident he can make Valparaiso safely. This will mean that he will move to the Chichester Class once he makes that port to effect repairs.

This is NOT a CODE ORANGE situation for GGR and Jean-Luc is well in control of the situation. GGR will monitor his progress to port.

This puts Mark Slats in second position, Uku Randmaa second and Susie Goodall in third.

Meanwhile Istvan Kopar, the American/Hungarian sailing his Tradewind 35 Puffin made the Hobart film drop in Storm Bay Tasmania.

Arriving at the Hobart stop without a radio, direction finder or an accurate idea of time he described recent sailing as: “Brutal – The last four days have taken me to the bottom. I would have been much happier to have been offshore. You really don’t know where you are and it was blowing a minimum of 50 knots. Right now, I’m more attracted to gardening than offshore sailing.”

 

From a post on November 1:

Don McIntyre, race organiser explains the forthcoming storm and how Susie Goodall (Rustler 36 DHL Starlight) has anchored to be sheltered from it, and Istvan Kopar in his Tradewind 35 Puffin will outrun it, while Tapio Lehtinen in his 36.00ft / 10.97m S&S sloop Asteria will be caught out in it.

 

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The storm is due to hit eastern Tasmania around 9.00am Friday November 2.

Meanwhile Mark Sinclair in Coconut has gone to have a look at Gregor McGuckin’s abandoned and dismasted Hanley Energy Endurance which is still emitting her signal and drifting at about a third of a knot eastwards, currently at 36° 28 S, 086° 37 E.

The leader Jean-Luc van den Heede in his Rustler 36 Matmut is way ahead of the rest of the fleet, making around 6.5 to 7kn, and expecting to reach Cape Horn within three weeks. See story above.