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Sam Goodchild finishes ninth in the Vendée Globe: "There were so many great moments"

by Agence TB Press 25 Jan 17:58 GMT 25 January 2025
Vendée Globe © Agence TB Press

The British sailor Sam Goodchild today finished his first Vendée Globe non-stop solo round-the-world race inside the top-10, after a testing final run into the finish off Les Sables d'Olonne on board his IMOCA 60, VULNERABLE.

Goodchild, aged, from Falmouth in Cornwall, finished ninth in a starting field of 40 boats - the race's biggest ever edition - and reached the finish in one of only two boats in the top-10 that were not of the very latest generation.

The skipper who won the IMOCA Globe Series in 2023, sailed a total distance of 28,557.07 nautical miles at an average speed of 15.64 knots. His race time was 76 days, 02 hours, 01 minutes and 45 seconds, which put him 11 days, six hours and 38 minutes behind race winner Charlie Dalin of France.

Goodchild got in just under 25 minutes behind eighth-placed Justine Mettraux of Switzerland and two places behind Thomas Ruyant of France, his teammate in Lorient-based TR Racing, who finished in seventh place also on a boat named VULNERABLE.

Asked what the best moment of his race was, Goodchild, who clearly enjoyed his first go at this marathon, found it hard to choose. "It's quite hard," he said, as he waited for his first fish and chips after getting ashore at Les Sables d'Olonne where he was given a huge reception by the locals."There are so many great moments.

"There's obviously the start and finish in Les Sables, where they have this amazing and crazy departure and then welcome," he added, "Then going down the Atlantic, when I was really in phase with the weather and the boat was on good form. Then the Southern Ocean, where it was a unique opportunity to be down there, because not everyone gets to sail in the Southern Ocean, and we've done it. So it's hard to pick a moment - I guess the Vendée Globe is a moment in itself!"

Goodchild sailed a highly competitive race. He led for much of the way down the north Atlantic in the early stages and was in fifth place when the leaders reached the Southern Ocean. After that, his slightly older boat struggled to match the pace of the newest foilers in the big seas of the South, but he was still inside the top-10 at Cape Horn after which he went on the attack.

Heading north in the Atlantic often upwind, the 35-year-old Briton who was brought up living on board boats in the Caribbean, climbed as high as fourth place, as he battled against Frenchman Jérémie Beyou on Charal. However two uncontrolled gybes caused by auto-pilot failure led to his mainsail ripping in half and Goodchild then lost places in the closing stages as he mended the sail before re-hoisting it and completing his circumnavigation.

"What's annoying is losing out on fourth which puts a little bit of frustration on it when there shouldn't be any at all because, in terms of all my objectives when I set sail, I have ticked all those boxes," Goodchild said. "We have done what we came to do and finished the race and enjoyed it. The fact that I got up to the top-5 and then it slipped away is a little bit painful, but I'm happy to step back and to appreciate it for what it is."

He said the worst moment of his race was when he saw his mainsail in two pieces - a setback that required a laborious and tricky repair on a deck that, at times, was awash with breaking waves. "My Vendée Globe which had gone as close to perfect as I could ever have imagined just took a downhill turn there," said Goodchild, "but it was just another issue to sort out and then keep going from there."

His biggest surprise was how much he enjoyed the race, but he said the constant stress of dealing with the technical side of the boat wore him down as the race went on. "You've always got issues, big ones, small ones. There's always something going on and it's just the stress of that," he explained. "When do I slow down and try to fix it? When do I throttle back and try not to break anything? When do I need to stop the boat and fix it - should I go up the mast or is that too dangerous? All that side of things wore me down on a permanent basis, just going through all the potential technical issues in your head as you go along."

The Briton is clear about one thing. He definitely has a taste for this race and is already looking forward to coming back in four years time. "Yes definitely, the desire to do it again is strong," he said. "I spent the whole race taking notes, just writing down how I'd do things differently next time. So it's very much in the forefront of my mind that I would like to be back in four years."

He paid tribute to his team who he said had given him an excellently-prepared boat and helped him get ready for this race in every department. Summing up the performance of TR Racing as whole he said: "I guess the thing with the Vendée Globe, is it is unlikely to go exactly as you want, but it's hard to be negative when you have got two boats to the finish in the top-10, even though it might not be exactly what we dreamt of."

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