Sam Goodchild finishes first Brit in Vendée Globe with impressive 9th

Sam Goodchild is the first British skipper home in the Vendée Globe, finishing an impressive 9th in his first attempt at the solo round the world race

British solo skipper Sam Goodchild today finished the Vendée Globe in an impressive 9th place, and first Brit home in the solo around the world race.

It was a hugely respectable performance for the ‘rookie’ skipper, who only joined the IMOCA class two years ago, with Goodchild and his previous generation IMOCA Vulnerable duelling with experienced French contender Jérémie Beyou on Charal for 4th place until the very last days of the race.

Sadly for Sam and British fans, the mainsail on Vulnerable split in a 54-knot storm just days from the finish, which ended his battle with Beyou and allowed four more boats to overtake while he made substantial repairs.

He finished after 76 days, 02 hours, 01 minutes and 45 seconds of racing, which put him 11 days, six hours and 38 minutes behind race winner Charlie Dalin of France.

Impressive rookie performance

Goodchild’s first Vendée Globe got off to an incredible start, leading for much of the early stages in the North Atlantic despite being on a boat which was four years older than most of the front-runners.

Ever sanguine, he told Yachting World in the first of a series of exclusive weekly video blogs, that he knew he ‘wasn’t going to lead all they way’. Nevertheless, he managed to hold on to an impressive top five position as the fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope, despite losing an autopilot at an early stage.

Once the fleet entered the Southern Ocean his previous generation boat – which team mate Thomas Ruyant had sailed in the 2000 Vendée Globe as LinkedOut – was outpaced by some of the newer foiling designs, but he rounded Cape Horn in a top 10 position.

He chipped his way back through the fleet on the return South Atlantic leg, maintaining a high work rate and taking some smart inshore routes.

By the time he passed Fernando de Noronha, he was locked in a duel with Beyou off the coast of Brazil duel – at its most intense the pair were just 3 miles apart as they passed the latitude of the Canary Islands, while a major front brought 7m-plus waves and 50-knot winds that the leaders had to pass through in the final week.

“A squall came through, I was sailing with 2 reefs and a J3, and in a big wave the stern got picked up and thrown to one side into a gybe. The pilot did its best to catch it, but unfortunately wasn’t quick enough. Because I was dead downwind the main did a quick gybe – broke all he battens around the backstay – and then when it gybed back again it just split it two.”

Goodchild diverted east, sailing goose winged under twin headsails, and began a mammoth 48-hour repair, using over a dozen tubes of glue and sikaflex to patch the split sail together with a rigid panel in the luff. Despite having to contend with waves washing down the deck while trying to glue the panels, he was able to rehoist his sail and continue sailing to finish within the top 10.

Sam Goodchild’s Vendée Globe

Speaking after today’s finish he said: “Today again, I knew that even if [the sail] broke again, I could finish. So, I gave it everything I had, and it held up.

“It’s true that [the damage] happened when I was competing for the Top 5, but in hindsight, I’m satisfied.

“My goal of doing this Vendée Globe has very much been achieved. I’ve been dreaming of this race for 20 years, it’s shaped my life. It’s why I live in France, why I have a French family… Everything revolves around the Vendée Globe, it’s the common thread of my journey.

“So losing a place isn’t so bad compared to what this adventure represents for me.”

Several times throughout the race he commented on how he was pleasantly surprised by how much he was enjoying the race – his longest period of sailing solo by many multiples.

“Of course, there were difficult moments, but ‘cracking up’ is not my style. And I just would not complain.

“Doing the Vendée Globe is a privilege. Complaining about sailing around the world on these incredible boats is just unimaginable for me. My goal was not only to complete the race, but also to have fun, to enjoy every moment. When it was tough, I remembered all the work I had done to get there, and it gave me energy.”

“I was lucky to have excellent preparation, especially with The Ocean Race on Holcim-PRB and on Thomas Coville’s Ultime Sodebo. So a lot of things were not completely unknown to me.

“On the other hand, I didn’t expect to enjoy it so much. I thought it would be harder, longer, more monotonous. In the end, it went very well, except for the last three days, when I found the time a bit interminable.

“What I found the hardest were the technical issues. These boats are so complex that there are always problems, big or small.

“You have to constantly arbitrate: how far can you push the boat? When should you stop to repair? This constant technical aspect, look after the boat was the real headache. Sometimes, I climbed the mast just to check that everything was okay. That’s clearly what I found the most trying in this Vendée Globe.”

Best British performance

Goodchild, who turned 35 during the race, is British born, though for much of his childhood his family lived aboard his parents’ cruising yacht, including spending time in the Caribbean island of Grenada.

He was one of the star graduates of the Artemis Offshore Academy, which was created with the aim of finding young British talent who could excel in the French offshore racing world. Having proven himself in the Figaro class and Classe 40 fleets, he skippered a very competitive Multi 50 campaign and also crewed for Ultim trimarans such as Sodebo.

As part of his IMOCA preparations Sam Goodchild sailed with Holcim-PRB in The Ocean Race, finishing fourth, and also scored a consistent clutch of 3rd places in short-handed IMOCA events with his own Vulnerable.  The Vulnerable program was unique as a two-boat campaign with Goodchild and Thomas Ruyant, sailing a newer Antoine Koch-Finot Conq design, who finished 7th.

He will surely be a strong British candidate for the 2028 Vendée Globe on the back of his impressive performance an experience gained in this race.

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