Slats eats into Van Den Heede’s lead

Australian born Dutch GGR skipper Mark Slats. Can’t ham it now

Dutchman Mark Slats has closed the lead of Jean-Luc Van Den Heede to just 34 nautical miles as the Golden Globe race reaches the eve of the 200th day at sea.

And it has become a race of the two Rustler 36s as Slats’ Ohpen Maverick and Heede’s Matmut are pressed to get to the finish line first. Slats took 393 miles out of Van Den Heede’s lead in the last eight days; the Frenchman at one point had a 2,000nM lead but has been becalmed recently and although he has a weather advantage – which should give him reaching winds as he gets towards the Bay of Biscay, it’s hard to see how he can hold off the younger Dutchman.

On the tracker we can see Matmut heading north to pass the Azores to starboard, making the most of the Azores high pressure system. It looked like Ohpen Maverick was trying a more direct course but Slats is also now heading a point west of north to catch the better westerly winds of the cyclone, though he’s currently in north easterlies. In reality Slats’ position (updated Thursday 17th Jan at 1200hrs GMT) is 447nM away from Van Den Heede, on a bearing of 141º.

Matmut reached Cape Horn first and rounded it with damage to her mast from an earlier knockdown… But Slats has also had his own problems – damaged ribs in a knockdown and now he reports he is running out of fresh water which gives him 750ml after an hour of pumping on his emergency desalinator. To stay hydrated it means he needs to spend three hours of the day pumping for his water. He also reports the return of the barnacles he had cleaned off by diving over the side three weeks ago. “The biggest are 3.5cm long, but most are about 1.5cms. They are growing all over the hull,” he told race control. His first efforts to clean the bottom again were thwarted by the sudden appearance of a 3.5m shark, but as soon as he is in calm waters again he will try again. He says the extra drag from a foul bottom has probably cost him 50nM.

Another problem for Slats is that he has lost his ham radio call sign, and so apparently cannot receive weather updates from shoreside. Several skippers have used Ham radio for information – though this is not supposed to include positions of their or other boats as they are under orders to use astro nav. See race control comments below.

Slats and Heede may have sighted the boats of the Transat Classique, which left Lanzarote in the Canary Islands last Tuesday (8th) heading for St Kitts in the Caribbean (see race track: HERE ). The two races represent the biggest challenges being run for classic sailors who want to test themselves and their craft in offshore conditions, but they could hardly be more different.

While the GGR has whittled its competitors down to five with Susie Goodall’s famous pitchpoling incident before Christmas (see HERE ), the Transat is convivial in comparison with crews sharing watch systems and estimating just three to four weeks at sea. And a Caribbean cruise at the end of it…

Jean Luc Van Den Heede – in the lead, just…

Other News from Race Control

Back in 3rd place Estonian skipper Uku Randmaa whose Rustler 36 One and All, has also been beset by barnacle growth since crossing the Indian Ocean, has been becalmed in the South Atlantic, some 3,000 miles behind the leaders. He dived yesterday, and reported: “I’m swimming with dophins.”

800 miles to the South, American/Hungarian Istvan Kopar is making great progress northwards in his Tradewind 35 Puffin, seemingly having overcome his self-steering problems.

As is Finland’s Tapio Lehtinen aboard his Gaia 36 Asteria who avoided the worst of one storm last week and is attempting to outrun another today. Now within 1,700 miles of Cape Horn but still beset with barnacle growth, he was making 4.3 knots.

Igor Zaretskiy postpones restart from Albany

Back in December barnacle growth and rigging issues forced 6th placed Russian skipper Igor Zaretskiy to stop in Albany, Western Australia where a medical examination found a continuation of a heart condition, and he flew home to Moscow for further tests. Would this be the end of his challenge?

The good news is that his doctors and team believe it is not, but time to re-start within the Summer window in the Southern Ocean has run out. Igor’s plan now is to restart in the Chichester Class sometime in October, to coincide with the Southern hemisphere Summer and complete what he started. In a statement, he says: “There is a natural and always reasoned rule: fight to the end. Until you see the buoy at Les Sables d’Olonne, the race cannot be stopped”. There is no time limit for competitors in the Chichester Class

Robin Davie safe and well after extended voyage from Les Sables d’Olonne back to Falmouth

2022 GGR entrant Robin Davie returned to Falmouth on Saturday four days after he was posted overdue, and largely unaware of concerns for his safety. UK Coastguard had issued an All Ships Alert for his Rustler 36 C’EST La VIE after his brother reported him overdue, which he answered late Friday night. Explaining his delay, Robin said: “Faced with calms and very light head winds, I decided to take a long tack out into the Atlantic and back to test the boat in these conditions. We know that this race is won and lost, not in gale force winds, but when they are light so I used the time to test myself and the boat. Because these boats don’t have autopilots and rely on wind-vanes to steer by, we followed the wind on a circuitous route that extended the distance from a 300 mile direct course to nearer 700 miles. I was well out of radio range, and it was not until I was 25 miles SW of the Scilly Isles that I first heard the alert.”

Ham radio Net 

Sailors have been making use of the amateur Ham radio net for decades. Competitors in the Nedlloyd Spice Race from Jakarta to Rotterdam back in 1979 were surprised to find that King Hussain of Jordan was an avid amateur operator and regular participant on their net. National telecommunication authorities have often turned a deaf ear to unlicensed operators using made-up call signs while at sea. But this may be coming to an end following a warning from one National regulator to a GGR skipper. They warn: “You use an amateur callsign and are making connections with amateur radio operators. The call sign letters are not registered, and thus illegal. I ask you to stop. If you have a legal amateur callsign then I urge you to present it”.

Fair warning both to unregistered GGR skippers and to legitimate Ham radio operators communicating with them. In Britain, the Ham Radio net is controlled by OFCOM, which recently revoked more than 500 licences for non-compliance. This includes communicating with unregistered Ham radio operators. The maximum penalty is 6 months in prison, a £5,000 fine and loss of their licence.

GGR skippers have been using this free communication system to gain weather forecasts and maintain contact with their teams, which is allowed under the Race Rules, It is the responsibility of each skipper to ensure that they abide by National and International regulations. Such transgressions may not affect the outcome of the Race unless broadcasts have included position reports of GGR yachts which are not allowed. Should that be proved, then skippers face an immediate 48 hour penalty for the first offence, followed by disqualification.

RUBICON 3 and GGR partner up for two special adventure sailing transatlantic voyages.
Are you up for a Celestial Adventure with the 2018 Golden Globe Rce? GGR has partnered with RUBICON3 to send two ex-Clipper 60 yachts across the Atlantic on an adventure sail training and Celestial Navigation training exercise. You can join them and  return home as a qualified Celestial Navigator. The first boat is full and only a few spots remain on the second for an end of March crossing. GGR will follow the voyage and profile the crew on Facebook. Susie Goodall was an instructor with RUBICON3 when she first heard about the GGR and they sponsored her sextant. Can you do it? YES YOU CAN! and why not.