PRESS RELEASE… PRESS RELEASE… PRESS RELEASE… PRESS RELEASE…

DATELINE: 28 OCTOBER 2020 - PORTSMOUTH UK. 

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CAPE HORNERS LAUNCH REGISTER OF SOLO CIRCUMNAVIGATORS

As 33 potential Cape Horners prepare for the start of the 9^th Vendée Globe solo non-stop round the world race from Les Sables d’Olonne on November 8, The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) has taken on the mantle of maintaining an official register of those who have completed solo circumnavigations via the Three Great Capes – Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn.

The listing, which records 156 solo non-stop circumnavigators and a further 141 who have completed true circumnavigations around the three Great Capes with stops enroute, has been compiled from listings maintained previously by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation back in 1969, historian DH ‘Nobby’ Clarke, The World Sailing Speed Record Council and other information culled from books and the public domain.

 Click here to review the IACH Register of Solo Circumnavigators

Commenting on the new Register, Sir Robin said today: "It seems totally appropriate that the IACH now becomes the holder of the list of solo circumnavigators passing south of the Three Great Capes. This is a valuable resource.”

 Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, the father figure of French solo sailing and a serial Cape Horner who has rounded the infamous Cape 10 times, the last time when leading the 2018 Golden Globe Race, agrees:  “To list all the sailors who have turned around the world alone with or without stopovers has been a huge task. It is a very important part of the history of navigation and I hope a lot more names will be added over time.”

The current record for the fastest solo non-stop circumnavigation is held by Frenchman François Gabart with a time of 42 days 16h 40' 3" set in 2017 aboard the 30m trimaran Ultim MACIF. The time to beat for the current Vendée Globe monohull entrants is 74d 03h 36' set by fellow Frenchman Armel Le Cléac’h in his IMOCA 60 Banque Populaire during the last race in 2017.

The oldest solo circumnavigator is Australian yachtsman Bill Hatfield who, at 79, competed a west-about route in his 11.58m monohull L'Eau Commotion in 2018 with a time of 414 days. That record could soon be eclipsed by 81-year-old Jon Sanders currently resting in the Queensland port of Bundaberg where he is currently recuperating and repairing his yacht Perie Banou II after surviving a severe storm in the Pacific. This is his 11^th solo circumnavigation (another record this time focused on raising awareness to the massive problems of plastic pollution in the oceans). Sanders expects to return to his point of departure, Perth, sometime in January.

History and membership criteria

All who complete a solo circumnavigation via Cape Horn are welcome to join the exclusive International Association of Cape Horners and claim an official certificate to commemorate their achievement.

The Association of Cape Horners (AICH) was founded in1936 by a group of French Master Mariners based in St Malo to form an exclusive, albeit dying bond, between those who had sailed round Cape Horn in square rigged sailing ships. Those are now history. The last commercial sailing ship voyage was in 1949 when the Pamir and Passat sailed from South Australia bound for Falmouth. In 1969, the British Chapter of the Association was renamed the International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) with the amended membership criteria reading: ‘To promote and strengthen the ties of comradeship which bind together the unique body of men and women who enjoy the distinction of having voyaged round Cape Horn under sail.’

Specifically, full membership, currently £20 per annum, is open to those who have rounded Cape Horn under sail as part of a non-stop passage of at least 3,000 nautical miles which passes above the latitude of 52° South in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and is completed without the use of engines for propulsion.

Associates are those with an interest in Cape Horn but whose experiences do not meet the full membership criteria. One of the latest Associates is Susie Goodall whose yacht was pitch-poled and dismasted 2,000 miles west of Cape Horn during the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race.

This modernising approach has opened membership to all those who have raced around Cape Horn in events like the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean races, Sir Chay Blyth’s Global Challenge events, the Jules Verne Challenge and solo events such as the BOC Challenge, Vendée Globe, Five Oceans and Golden Globe races. Membership is also open to the many who have cruised around the infamous Cape under sail.

 “Sailing around Cape Horn, the Everest of ocean sailing, has always been a badge of honour. I commend anyone who has achieved this great feat to join the IACH”, says the Earl of Portsmouth, the Association’s President.

Apply today by visiting: www.capehorners.org 

Click here to download membership flyer pdf

Cliquez ici pour lire la version française de ce communiqué de presse

For further information contact: 
Archie Fairley    [email protected] 

To view the press release please click on this link: Launch of Solo Register Press Release