#offshore sailing

In the space of one week, three skippers have passed Cape Horn, first, on 6th February, was Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild), second was Armel Le Cléac’h (Maxi Banque Populaire XI) on Saturday and third very early yesterday morning was Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3). They are now continuing their climb up the Atlantic, moving inexorably closer to the finish, looking forwards to being home. At the same time, Anthony Marchand (Actual Ultim 3) and Éric Péron (ULTIM ADAGIO) experience mixed fortunes. 

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Sailing upwind in the middle of the world’s oceans gave Chris Brooks plenty of experience handling big weather conditions. He shares his knowledge here with Andy Rice.

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Spring has made its way to Lorient. The first flowers are blooming and the IMOCA racing boats are, just like the blossoms, gradually appearing, emerging one by one from their sheds after three months of winter refit. Yesterday, Team Malizia launched their Malizia - Seaexplorer and now she is back in her usual spot at La Base harbour. With a few adjustments and a new pair of foils, both the boat and team are ready to start the first training sessions and solo races of the year.

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Tales from Sailing Folk Lore with British Adventurer Pete GossThis month, Shirley Robertson's Sailing Podcast talks to British offshore adventurer Pete Goss, an accomplished offshore sailor famed for executing one of the bravest solo ocean rescues of all time.Talking at his home in the south west corner of the UK, Robertson and Goss kick their discussion off with chat about his formative years, his time in the British Marines, and how, in the nineteen nineties,

he found a love of offshore sailing through Chay Blyth's British Steel Challenge, a round the world yacht race that was the forbearer to today's amateur offshore circumnavigation events.

Goss was an instructor and skipper on the first event, and it was during that time, he hatched a plan to enter the Vendee Globe, the legendary non stop solo offshore race also, in the mid nineties, in it's infancy.As one of the first British entrants in the then famously French race, Goss' tales of pre-internet sponsorship gathering are inspiring, and with a new boat, he managed to make the start line, for the third running of the race.

What followed was one of the most brutal editions the Vendee Globe has ever seen.

Of the sixteen boats that crossed the start line, just six finished.

Tragically, one competitor, Canadian Gerry Roufs was lost at sea,

but it was the rescue of French sailor Raphael Dinelli that for several days between Christmas and New Year 1996, was headline news around the world.Pete's telling of the rescue, his memories of the vicious Southern Ocean storm, and his fight to find Dinelli's rapidly sinking boat are compelling.

At times emotional, Goss describes how he first heard the mayday while himself fighting for survival in the relentless storm, and how his radio comms with the Royal Australian Airforce eventually led him to the boat...:"The plane that had dropped him a raft came down to me, and they came up on the VHF so I remember chatting to them, and I said 'How many people are involved', because I was still

seventy miles away or whatever, 'how many people are involved in the rescue', and he just said 'It's you!'"With guidance from the Royal Australian Airforce plane, Goss found Dinelli's life raft and in a heaving Southern Ocean swell, somehow effected the rescue of a near death Raphael Dinelli.

Quality interview for one of the Favourites for the Sydney-Hobert Yacht Race 2022.

Finding My Free Spirit – and a UFO?