Dutch team wins inaugural Globe40

The 2022-23 Globe40 is an eight-leg doublehanded round the world race in Class40s. Seven teams were at the beginning on June 26, with four teams having started the final Leg 8 on February 24 from St Georges, Grenada to Lorient, France.

The Dutch crew on SEC HAYAI of Frans Budel and Ysbrand Endt crossed the finish line of the eighth and final leg of the GLOBE40 at 19:41 UTC on March 15, 2023. While the Anglo-American crew on AMHAS, Craig Horsfield and Oliver Bond, preceded them at 15:05 UTC after 19 days at sea, SEC HAYAI’s second place in this leg gives the crew the outright win in this first edition of the GLOBE40, whilst AMHAS posted her third line honors.

Ultimately, just two points (33 and 35 points) separated the two competitors after 8 legs and 9 months of racing. This victory for the Dutch was secured after 161 days at sea, having covered 33,311 nautical miles at an average speed of 8.62 knots.

The GLOBE40 competitors had to cover 3,600 nautical miles in this transatlantic sprint back to the European winter. After climbing northwards along the Caribbean arc, the fleet ended up becoming ensnared in a zone of calm conditions close to the Bahamas for nearly a week.

Finally shaking themselves free of its clutches, the crews set a course for the Azores gate and had to contend with a succession of meaty depressions generating winds of more than 60 knots and seas with 6 to 8-metre waves.

Making their approach on the Azores archipelago, conditions were no more favorable with the crews having to face up to yet another string of low-pressure systems, making this leg the toughest they’ve had to contend with weather-wise, worse even than the legs negotiating the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

One final massive gale on the eve of their finish even forced the first two boats, AMHAS and SEC HAYAI, to take their foot off the gas to avoid the ten metre waves being served up in the Bay of Biscay. Taking line honors in this leg, AMHAS has managed to rack up three leg wins in all, following on from that in the 2nd 7,700-mile leg from Cape Verde to Mauritius and that of the 6th leg from Ushuaia to Recife.

The Dutch victory is the result of rigorous work built upon with great intelligence. Given that their Class40 was the oldest boat in the fleet and hence theoretically the slowest, the crew had to work on all the aspects, which might enable them to make up for this initial handicap.

Their victory stems from a complete refit of the boat prior to the start, very comprehensive technical preparation in the run-up to the event, a competitive approach focused on consistency (a single yet very important win was the long 3rd leg spanning 7,000 miles from Mauritius to Auckland) rather than a blistering pace.

Combine that with a good quality of life aboard to ensure they would stay the course, with a very strong bond between the two skippers who completed the entire course together, and finally highly complementary personalities. Budel brought all his enthusiasm and his rigor as a business manager to bear, and professional sailor Endt provided the competitive know-how throughout the campaign.

The top two teams made no secret of the fact that they want to come back and participate in the second edition with a new or more modern Class40, the search for which is already underway.

Securing a number of second places at the start of the event, Budel and Endt saw their ambition grow throughout the event, until they could finally believe that the top spot was within their grasp. Their victory also demonstrates that performance in a round the world race involves a different way of thinking to other offshore races and transatlantic races in particular.

The importance to stay the course as there’s never a shortage of damage to deal with. Finding the psychological strength to overcome the inevitable downturns, plus being able to get the crew and boat back in shape during what can be very short stopovers at times due to random factors.

SEC HAYAI managed to handle all of these aspects to perfection and always with good humor both at sea and on land. The result is this truly exemplary victory, which really does this first edition of the GLOBE40 justice.

Race details – Entries – Tracker

Note: The scoring format gives extra value to the longer legs. The coefficient for Leg 8 across the Atlantic to Lorient is coefficient 2.

Standings (after seven of eight legs):

The inaugural Globe40 is an eight leg round the world race for doublehanded Class40 teams. As all legs count toward the cumulative score, the longer distances more heavily weighted. The first leg, which took seven to eight days to complete, had a coefficient 1 while the second leg is ranked as a coefficient 3 leg. The race is expected to finish March 2023. Seven teams were ready to compete, but a Leg 1 start line collision eliminated The Globe En Solidaire with Eric and Léo Grosclaude (FRA) while the Moroccan team of Simon and Omar Bensenddik on IBN BATTOUTA retired before the Leg 2 start.

Start:
Tangier, Morocco – June 26

Stopovers:
Leg 2 start: Sao Vincente, Cape Verde Islands – July 17
Leg 3 start: Port Louis, Mauritius – September 11
Leg 4 start: Auckland, New Zealand – October 29
Leg 5 start: Papeete, French Polynesia – November 26
Leg 6 start: Ushuaia, Argentina – January 8
Leg 7 start: Recife, Brazil – February 5
Leg 8 start: St Georges, Grenada – February 24

Finish:
Lorient, France

Source: Globe40