28 inductees for Cape Horn Hall of Fame

The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH) has selected its first 28 inductees for the Cape Horn Hall of Fame. The individuals, all historic and pioneering names with strong sailing links to the world’s most infamous Cape, now have their names recorded for posterity in France on IACH’s board displayed in Les Sables d’Olonne, home of the Vendee Globe, Golden Globe, and Mini-Transat Ocean races.

The names range from Capt. Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire who first discovered Cape Horn and a route westward through the Pacific to the Dutch East Indies in 1616, the Finnish Captain Vern Verner Bjorkflelt who commanded the last commercial windjammer PAMIR to round the Cape before steam took over from sail in 1949, and pioneering small boat circumnavigators like Argentine sailor Vito Dumas, Frenchman Marcel Bardiaux, and England’s Sir Francis Chichester.

The inductees were selected by the IACH Committee, but going forward Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo non-stop around the Globe, and French Cape Horn veteran Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, with 12 visits to Cape Horn, will head a list of distinguished experts who will short-list future inductees to be voted on each year by members of the IACH. Both Knox-Johnston and Van Den Heede are listed on the Hall of Fame board.

Panelists include:
• Sir Robin Knox-Johnston – Chairman
• Jean-Luc van den Heede – Vice Chairman
• Stan Honey – America’s most celebrated ocean navigator and IACH Cape Horn Hall of Fame inductee.
• Dee Caffari MBE – who has made 6 circumnavigations and first women to sail solo non-stop around the Globe both west-east and east-west. She too is an inductee into IACH Cape Horn Hall of Fame.
• Dilip Donde – the first Indian to complete a solo circumnavigation, now mentoring other Indian sailors to follow in his wake – also inducted into the IACH Cape Horn Hall of Fame.
• Ash Manton – Chairman of the Int. Assoc. of Cape Horners who rounded Cape Horn during the 1977/8 Whitbread Round the World Race.

Each year, Les Sables d’Olonne, now the Home of the Cape Horn Hall of Fame, and the IACH will hold a ceremony to induct new names to the Honors board, to keep alive the French port’s enduring connection to Cape Horn. This initial ceremony was held August 31, 2022.

To read or download the citations for the first 28 inductees to the IACH Cape Horn Hall of Fame, click here.

First 28 inductees:
• Willem Schouten (1567-1625), Netherlands
• Jacob Le Maire (1585-1616), Belgium
• Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy (1805-1865), England
• Capt. Vern Verner Björkfelt (1900-1982), Finland
• Capt. Thomas Carter (T.C) Fearon (1813 – 1869), USA
• Capt. Adolph Hauth, Germany
• Capt. Louis Allaire (1880-1949), France
• Alan Villiers (1903-1982), Australia
• Vito Dumas (1900-1965), Argentina
• Marcel Bardiaux (1910-1958), France
• Sir Francis Chichester (1901-1972), England
• Sir Alec Rose (1908-1991), England
• Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (1939-), England
• Bernard Moitessier (1925-1994), France
• Sir Chay Blyth (1940-), Scotland
• Ramon Carlin (1923-2016), Mexico
• Éric Tabarly (1931-1998), France
• Cornelis van Rietschoten (1926-2013), Netherlands
• Dame Naomi James (1949-), New Zealand
• Kay Cottee (1954-), Australia
• Jon Sanders (1939-), Australia
• Philippe Jeantot (1952-), France
• Titouan Lamazou (1955-), France
• Sir Peter Blake (1948-2001), New Zealand
• Dilip Donde (1967-), India
• Stan Honey (1955-), America
• Dee Caffari (1973-), England
• Jean-Luc Van Den Heede (1945-), France

Source: IACH