Jean-Luc Van Den Heede Awarded the IACH/Pindar Lifetime Achievement Award
by Barry Pickthall for IACH 28 Nov 05:34 PST
Andrew Pindar OBE DL presenting Jean-Luc with his Lifetime Achievement Award © Barry Pickthall / PPL
Sailors gathered from every part of the world – Australia, China, France, Italy, New Zealand, South America, Sweden, the UK, and the USA – to share their tales of rounding Cape Horn and to honor one individual, veteran French sailor Jean-Luc van den Heede, who has circumnavigated the treacherous Cape 12 times, setting a record among living circumnavigators.
The annual Cape Horners lunch held in Portsmouth in November was their largest gathering yet, with 162 participants seated at the Royal Marine Hotel. Among them were Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the globe in 1968, and recent IACH Cape Horn Hall of Fame inductees Andrew Cape (10 roundings), Dr. Roger Nilson (7 roundings), American Skip Novak (4), and Sir Chay Blyth, who pioneered the solo route against prevailing winds and currents in 1972, also rounding the Horn 4 times, along with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
The most enthusiastic applause was reserved for Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, the first recipient of the IACH/Pindar Cape Horners Lifetime Achievement Award. The 78-year-old French sailor has circumnavigated the Horn six times solo eastabout, four times solo westabout, once as part of a two-man crew, and once while cruising in 2014. He still holds the world record for the fastest solo westabout circumnavigation, achieved in 122 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes, and 49 seconds in 2004, as well as the record for the Golden Globe Race set in 2029.
Receiving the award from long-time yacht racing sponsor Andrew Pindar OBE, Jean-Luc remarked, “I am quite surprised and very honored. In France, some people think that I am not normal, but I assure you I am perfectly normal and very content with my life. I wouldn’t trade anything.”
He began sailing at 17 and quickly became passionate about the sport, starting in dinghies before moving on to cruising yachts, including a Corsaire and eventually a Cape Horn. Like many aspiring to compete in events like the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race, he honed his ocean racing skills in the Mini Transat, finishing second in both 1977 and 1979.
In 1987, he took second place in Class Two of the 1986/7 BOC Challenge sailing his 45-foot yacht, Let’s Go, marking his first solo circumnavigation. He returned to this event in 1994/5, finishing 3rd in Class One despite an incident where he grounded his yacht, Vendée Enterprises, after dozing off in the cockpit.
Van Den Heede also participated in the inaugural Vendée Globe non-stop round-the-world yacht race, where he finished 3rd in his 60-foot yacht, 36.15 MET.
This podium finish encouraged him to leave teaching and pursue sailing full-time.
He competed in the second Vendée Globe in 1992, securing a 2nd place finish in Sofap-Helvim, a narrow-beamed yawl known as “le Cigare Rouge.”
His quest to break the solo westabout circumnavigation record spanned seven years and four attempts, culminating in a successful crossing of the Ushant start-finish line after 122 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes, and 49 seconds, breaking the previous record by 29 hours and 50 minutes.
One of Jean-Luc’s most remarkable accomplishments was winning the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race at the age of 73, aboard the Rustler 36 cruising yacht, Matmut. Despite being pitchpoled in 65-knot winds and turbulent seas while leading the race by about 2,000 miles, he managed to continue after jury-rigging his lower shrouds following damage to his mast. His competitors closed in on him, leading to a tense final stretch back to Les Sables d’Olonne, which he won in a record time of 211 days, 23 hours, and 12 minutes.
Another memorable moment was when American Cape Horn veteran Skip Novak shared stories about a granite ‘Memory Stone’ he brought back from the Cape, suggesting that touching it would bring back vivid memories of one’s first rounding of the Horn. Many attendees took the opportunity to connect with their pasts.
The Cape Horners also enjoyed the UK premiere of a short documentary narrated by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston detailing the history of Cape Horn and the Cape Horners Association’s work—available to watch below:
Membership in the International Association of Cape Horners is open to anyone who has rounded Cape Horn under sail as part of a non-stop voyage of at least 3,000 nautical miles that passes above the latitude of 52 degrees south in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, without engine propulsion.
The association maintains records of all modern-day solo non-stop, solo with stops, and multi-crewed circumnavigations of the globe – visit here.
The Association manages the Cape Horn Hall of Fame, which currently honors 40 sailors. Inductees are announced annually in a special ceremony at the association’s yacht club in Les Sables d’Olonne, where the Hall of Fame honors board is located. Public nominations for the 2025 Hall of Fame awards will open in May next year and are voted on by the IACH membership. Learn more here.
For additional information visit capehorners.org.
