© Alejandro Cubillos

AHEAD OF THE BOW: THE HORN CHALLENGE

A stopover in Chile that will be remembered

The Horn Totem and the steep climb back to Brazil

An ever-increasing competitive tension

Today at 2:20 PM local time (5:20 PM UTC), the competitors in the 2nd edition of the GLOBE40 set off from Valparaiso Bay in 25 knots of wind and bright sunshine for the 5th leg of the race. A 4,860-mile direct route, this course is first marked by rounding the legendary Cape Horn, the 3rd major cape of the adventure, and by a 3,000-mile climb back up to Recife in Brazil through a complex weather zone. The coeficient 2 leg will undoubtedly see another showdown between the two leaders who finished ex-aequo in Chile; BELGIUM OCEAN RACING – CURIUM leads the overall standing by 2 points; 2 points that CREDIT MUTUEL will need to gain to have any hope of tying the race before the final coeficient 2 leg to Lorient, a stage that could prove to be the decisive factor. In the Classic Class40s, the return of FREE DOM, after the heroic solo crossing of the Pacific, will reignite the competition for the top spot, while the other competitors will all be looking to gain points before the final leg. Barring any further incidents, the return of the German team NEXT GENERATION to Recife should allow the fleet to be at full number for the final push to Lorient.

Valparaiso and Chile: A stopover That Will Remain Memorable

“Valparaiso was the best stopover – We absolutely fell in love with this country and will definitely come back to discover more… It was fantastic!” This is what we can read in the latest newsletter from Lisa Berger of the WILSON project following the Chilean leg of the journey. While her enthusiasm may be tempered compared to the other beautiful stopovers of the route, this testimony nonetheless sums up the wonderful discovery that Chile and its people represented for the GLOBE40 competitors. The legendary Valparaiso, with its colorful hills and rich artistic heritage, and just a few kilometers away, Viña del Mar and Cocón with their vast beaches, all bathed in a pleasant midsummer sun, tempered by the Pacific winds. The length of the stopover allowed the crews and their families to explore the vast 4,500 km stretch of sea and mountains that is Chile, whether through the Atacama Desert in the north or in Patagonia in the south. Chile is a superb country, also known for the cordiality, warmth, and constant empathy of its people, who at all levels gave the race a fantastic welcome. Thanks to our pilot Thomas Elton, head of sailing activities at Puerto Deportivo in Valparaiso, the Higuarillas Yacht Club north of Valparaiso, which superbly hosted the Class40s and their crews, and the Armada, the Chilean Navy, which provided a vessel to escort all the competitors for their safety and allowed the awards ceremony to be held at its magnificent National Maritime Museum.

Cape Horn: A Target for Competitors

It doesn’t take much to describe what rounding Cape Horn means to all offshore racers. It’s a boundary, the end of the Pacific Ocean, a narrow zone with Antarctica that attracts and intensifies all depressions, a landmark in the history of 19th-century sailing ships whose dozens of wrecks populate its depths, and even today, a huge initiation for all those attempting records and round-the-world races.For the skippers of the GLOBE40, about 1,500 miles from Valparaiso, it will be the first leg of this nearly 5,000-mile journey to Brazil. The fastest, latest-generation Class40s, the “scows,” should reach this cape (which is actually an island) in Chilean territory within a week, followed a day or two later by the classic Class40s. With the exception of Melodie Schaeffer and Paul Stratford of WHISKEY JACK, who participated in the first GLOBE40, this will be a first for everyone. Having cleared this mountain, other challenges await the skippers, with 3,000 miles to cover to reach the South Atlantic, an Atlantic they left last November. Off the coasts of Argentina and Brazil, complex weather patterns, depressions from the Andes, and large areas of calm are on the agenda, making predictions difficult. Before reaching the southeast trade winds from South Africa, it’s quite possible that our sailors will face many difficulties. According to current weather models, the first 24 hours upwind should be challenging, before heading further south to find the westerly winds, to round Cape Horn, which promises to be exhilarating but not insurmountable.

The competition is becoming increasingly intense.

The two teams leading the overall standings in this second edition, BELGIUM OCEAN RACING-CURIUM and CREDIT MUTUEL, have laid down their weapons a few weeks after their epic, joint finish in Valparaiso – a first in the annals of offshore racing after 22 days of racing and 7,000 miles of transpacific crossing. The battle lines will undoubtedly be drawn again from the very first miles of this fifth leg. The challenge for the revamped Belgian team (Jonas Gerckens and Corentin Douguet) is to consolidate their two-point lead with a victory and two more points. For CREDIT MUTUEL, with the return of the highly competitive duo from the start of the race, Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier, the aim will be to reclaim those two crucial points and then target victory at the end of the final leg. The final leg features some familiar faces: the German team NEXT GENERATION, who have no intention of simply making up the numbers in this duel and could well shake things up. In the “pointers” category, FREE DOM is back after just a four-day stopover in Valparaiso (but Thibaut Lefevere has a new crew member on board: Maxime Bourcier, already the winner of the pointer leg to Sydney). The duel with BARCO BRASIL, featuring the ever-present José Caldas and Luiz Bolina, is set to resume (12 and 28.50 points respectively in the sharp standing), even though the Brazilians hold a comfortable lead. WILSON, still with Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leany at the helm with 22.50 points in the same standings, also intends to defend its position. And just 3.5 points separate JANGADA RACING (38 points), with Richard Palmer and Rupert Holmes at the start, from WHISKEY JACK at 41.50 points (Melodie Schaeffer this time partnered with Paul Stratford). A battle is therefore expected at all levels.