After 48 days, 4 hours, 20 minutes and 23 seconds at sea since the start of the Vendée Globe was given on November 10 in Les Sables d’Olonne, Justine Mettraux (38 years old, TeamWork – Team Snef) has rounded Cape Horn, SATURDAY.
10th in this solo round-the-world trip, without stopovers or assistance, the Geneva sailor passed this legendary point on the globe 4 and a half days after the French leader Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa), less than two hours after the 9th, the British Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable). She was also the first woman in the 2024-2025 edition to tame the southernmost eastern point of South America, in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
The next sailor expected in this part of the globe is the Frenchman Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq V), who is 220 miles behind the Swiss. The winner of the previous edition, however, found himself faced with difficult conditions: he warned his team of damage to his helm and the loss of his rudder which made his boat unsteerable.
“I’m going to try to get to Cape Horn as best I can,” the navigator said in a video link, indicating that he did not have the parts to repair but could stay on autopilot “even if it doesn’t. ‘isn’t great’. He added: “I’m going to take shelter because I don’t want to stay in this area for too long and think about what is feasible or not. I have to have a boat to go up the Atlantic.
19th, some 2500 miles behind Mettraux, the Genevan Alan Roura (Hublot) will have to wait a few days before passing Cape Horn. Just like Zurich’s Oliver Heer (Tut Gut), who is sailing 1,600 miles behind Roura.
