They came from all corners of the Globe – Australia, China, France, Italy, New Zealand, South America, Sweden. UK and the USA to share experiences of rounding Cape Horn and to honour one man, veteran French Cape Horner Jean-Luc van den Heede who has rounded the infamous Cape 12 times – A record among living circumnavigators.
The annual Cape Horners lunch, held in Portsmouth in November was their largest gathering to date with 162 taking their seats at the Royal Marine Hotel. They included Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the Globe back in 1968, and recent IACH Cape Horn Hall of Fame inductees Andrew Cape (10 roundings) Dr Roger Nilson (7 roundings) together with American Skip Novak (4), Sir Chay Blyth who pioneered the West/East solo circumnavigation route against the previaling winds and currents in 1972 (4) and of course Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who has also rounded the Horn 4 times.
164 Cape horners listening to Jean-Luc after lunch
The greatest applause however, was reserved for Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, the inaugural recipient of the IACH/Pindar Cape Horners Lifetime Achievement Award. The 78-year-old French seadog has rounded The Horn six times solo eastabout, four times solo westabout, once as part of a two-man delivery crew and once while cruising in 2014. The former Maths teacher still holds the world record for the fastest solo westabout circumnavigation of the world, which he completed in 122 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes and 49 seconds set in 2004, together with the record for the Golden Globe Race set in 2029.
Receiving the award from long-time yacht racing sponsor Andrew Pindar OBE, Jean-Luc said “I am quite surprised and very honoured. In France, some people think that I am not normal, but I can tell you I am completely normal and very happy with my life. I would not exchange anything.”
He began sailing at the age of 17 and was soon bitten by the bug, starting out in dinghies before graduating to cruising yachts, a Corsaire and later a Cape Horn. Like many who now looking for a pathway to events like Vendée Globe solo round the world race, he cut his ocean racing teeth in the Mini Transat, coming second both in 1977 and 1979.
In 1987, he finished second in Class Two in the1986/7 BOC Challenge sailing his 45 footer Let’s Go – his first solo circumnavigation. He returned to this event in 1994/5, and finished 3rd in class One despite running aground spectacularly south of the Sydney stopover after falling asleep in the cockpit of his yacht Vendée Enterprises
Van Den Heede also competed in the inaugural Vendée Globe non-stop round-the-world yacht race, finishing 3rd in his 60ft yacht, 36.15 MET.
That podium place prompted him to leave teaching and became a full-time sailor.
He raced in the second Vendée Globe in 1992 and finished 2nd in Sofap-Helvim – the yawl rigged narrow beamed yacht nick-named ‘le Cigare Rouge’ – the red cigar
His 7-year campaign to break the solo westabout circumnavigation record took 7 years and 4 attempts before finally re-crossing the Ushant start-finish line after 122 days 14 hours, 3 minutes and 49 seconds at sea, beating the previous record by 29 hours 50 minutes!
Perhaps, Jean-Luc’s most significant achievement was winning the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race at the age of 73, aboard the Rustler 36 cruising yacht, Matmut, despite being pitchpoled in 65knot winds and huge rolling seas deep in the Southern Ocean which led to the connecting bolt attaching all four lower shrouds tearing a 9inch split in his aluminium mast while leading the race by some 2,000 miles. His initial thought was to head to Chile to make repairs, but that would have relegated him to the Chichester Class for entrants making one stop.
That prompted him work out a way to jury rig the lower shrouds to the spreader root and rejoin the race. By then, he had lost a 1,000 miles to 2nd placed Dutch rival Mark Slats who continued to eat into Jean-Luc’s lead back up the Atlantic. By the Azores, the two were almost level. It led to a nail-biting final few days on the race back to Les Sables d’Olonne to keep the Dutchman at bay - which The French veteran did – just, winning the race in what remains a record time of 211days 23hours 12 minutes!
