Route du Rhum // Goodchild misses IMOCA podium by 11 minutes

Having started as favourite to win the IMOCA class, Goodchild is disappointed to have lost touch with race winner Corentin Horeau so early in the race when he took a better tactical option to the south of Ireland. But the French skipper ran away from the whole fleet. It is the technical problems which – he says – ran one after another last Sunday which cost him a place on the podium.

And even then, racing with no J2, a port foil which stopped working last Sunday and having had to sail for a couple of days with a reefed main before he could repair a detatched tack cringle, he still pulled back more than 50 miles to finish only 11 minutes behind Elodie Bonafous (Association Petits Princes – Quéguiner) who he shared the pontoon this morning.

Besides, Sam is thankful to have finished considering that two of his main rivals Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Mapei) had to withdraw because of injuries. And Goodchild’s 2022 and 2018 races both ended prematurely, sustaining a facial injury at the start of the last edition in Ocean Fifty and suffering a dismasting eight years ago

More Information