Honor roll for circumnavigation feats

The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) has published its multi-crew circumnavigation register to compliment a similar register for solo circumnavigations published in 2020.

This latest roll of honor currently lists 1,848 individual circumnavigations during past Whitbread/ Volvo Round the World races, 1975-76 Financial Times Clipper Race, British Steel/BT Global Challenge races, Trophee Jules Verne, The Race, Oryx Quest, Barcelona, and Portimão events.

Both circumnavigation registers have multi-search facilities that allow users to interrogate by name, yacht, nationality, event, and time.

Britain tops the multi-crew list with 715 circumnavigations followed by France (232), New Zealand (200) Netherlands and USA (75), land-locked Switzerland (71), Australia and Spain (51), Finland (47), Italy (41), and Sweden (40).

There are 15 yacht crews in which the compilers have not been able to identify (listed in red within the Register) who have competed in the Trophee Jules Verne, 1997-78 Whitbread, 2000-01 and 2004 BT/Global Challenge, and Volvo Ocean Races (2011-12, 2014-15, and 2017-18). These crews are encouraged to come forward and register their achievements to make this historic record complete.

Within the Solo lists, 180 have sailed solo non-stop around the globe via the three Great Capes and 150 more have done the same with stops. France leads the nationality list with 90 non-stop circumnavigations and 27 with stops. This compares with Britain (28 non-stop and 24 with stops) and USA (6 non-stop and 27 with stops).

To view the IACH Registers of Solo and Multi-crew Circumnavigators, click here.

To be included in the IACH multi-crewed circumnavigation register, crewmembers must have completed all legs or distance of their race, though for those who sailed only on the leg around Cape Horn, the likelihood is that they are eligible to join the Association as a bonafide Cape Horner (see list).

The current record for the fastest multi-crewed circumnavigation is held by Francis Joyon and his French crew with a time of 40 days 23h 30′ 30″ set in 2017 aboard their 30.5m trimaran IDEC Sport.

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.

To register a circumnavigation, click here.

Source: Archie Fairley, secretary@capehorners.org