Goodchild takes his first win in the IMOCA Class after a dominant performance in the Course des Caps
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 6 Jul 07:47 BST
6 July 2025
Course des Caps © Jean-Louis Carli / Course des Caps
The British skipper Sam Goodchild celebrated his first victory in the IMOCA Class yesterday after crossing the finish line of the Course des Caps - Boulogne-sur-Mer - Banque Populaire du Nord, a 1,800-nautical mile sprint around Britain and Ireland.
Racing alongside French sailors Loïs Berrehar, Guillaume Combescure and Charlotte Yven on the Guillaume Verdier-designed MACIF Santé Prévoyance, Goodchild completed the course in six days, one hour and 10 minutes.
"It went pretty much as expected," said Goodchild at the finish. "It was intense, non-stop. We started with no wind and finished with too much wind. It was kind of what we anticipated - a proper ride. But I'm incredibly proud to have finished first on MACIF Santé Prévoyance, on this amazing boat, with an incredible team."
Goodchild, who replaced Charlie Dalin as MACIF skipper for this race because Dalin is taking a break from the sport due to ill-health, took the lead for the second time as the 11-strong fleet (there would be two retirements) was heading towards the Fastnet Rock off the southwest tip of Ireland. From there he was never headed.
The MACIF Santé Prévoyance crew reached the finish two-and-a-half hours ahead of Élodie Bonafous and her team on Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner. It was an impressive debut in the Class in this race for Bonafous, on board the brand new sistership of MACIF Santé Prévoyance, who arrived 46 minutes ahead of third-placed Holcim-PRB skippered by Nicolas Lunven.
Goodchild, 35, who finished ninth in the Vendée Globe and was the IMOCA Globe Series Champion in 2023, said it had been an intense race with constantly changing conditions as he led the fleet up the west coast of Ireland and then around the Orkney Islands before heading down the North Sea.
"We really had it all," he said. "On the first day, we hoisted every sail we had. And even over the past three days, we haven't stopped changing sails, changing conditions - changing everything. We truly got a full range on this race. It's amazing to be discovering both the team and the boat at the same time and to finish with a win - just awesome."
At the end of his first taste of skippering a full crew at this level, Goodchild was impressed with his boat and his crew. "We're super-happy with the boat," he said. "It's going well and the team knows it inside out. So with Charlotte, Guillaume and Loïs, we gradually learned how to work together and yes, we managed to pull away after the Scilly Isles and we didn't let go until the end." He added that in the closing stages they were doing 15-minute watches, emphasising just how intense this team effort had been.
For Elodie Bonafous, the Course des Caps has proved a big statement of intent, underlying her credentials as a serious contender for the top echelon of the IMOCA fleet in the coming years. Sailing alongside French veterans Yann Eliès and Pascal Bidégorry, plus fellow countryman Gaston Morvan, the 29-year-old former Figaro sailor pushed Goodchild and his team all the way on what was a demanding and technical racetrack.
At the finish she was delighted with the performance. "During the race, I got it into my head that a podium finish was possible," Bonafous said. "Even mid-race, I felt like crying. I told myself 'this is so cool, we're having such a great race.' So I stayed really calm because the race was still long and anything could happen."
The final stages saw an intense battle with Lunven's team on Holcim-PRB as the two crews headed to windward along the English coast west of Dover. "This morning, we were so exhausted from the battle we had with Holcim-PRB last night that our brains weren't really working anymore, and it's kind of now - arriving here - seeing the crowd and everyone around that I'm realising: this is just wild. It's so great for this brand-new project, for the team and the crew...I'm just really happy."
Bonafous said she and her crew used every stage of the race to test settings to see where the optimum set-up would be for any set of conditions. "On every leg we sailed we kept questioning things...we were constantly trying out new settings and new stuff. We tried to communicate well on board...and so yeah, we learned a ton. I feel like I've made a lot of progress with the boat - performance-wise, technically, even in terms of maintenance," she said.
Behind her, Lunven had to contend with damage to Holcim-PRB's bowsprit in the closing stages, but this race has proved another useful learning experience for him as he prepares for The Ocean Race Europe later this season.
"The race was a great battle with the other boats. Hats off to all the other teams," he said. "We had a lot of fun and I think we sailed well - we're pretty happy with what we did. It was a great race, a beautiful event, a fantastic course, amazing scenery and varied conditions: we ticked all the boxes."
Lunven said the reaching leg up the west coast of Ireland had been "wild," when the boat flew on flat water at record pace, and he enjoyed leading his team which consisted of the Dutch sailor Annemieke Bes, the French star Franck Cammas and the British yachtsman Alan Roberts.
"These race formats are fantastic sailing as a crew," said Lunven. "When you set out on this kind of course, you know it's not going to be a walk in the park, and this time we got the full range of conditions. We had a lot of manoeuvres and boats around us, so we learned a lot about tuning and speed."
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