The Vendée Arctique race came to a thrilling conclusion last night as Ambrogio Beccaria (ITA) on Allagrande Mapei snatched victory from the clutches of the longtime leader Sam Goodchild (GBR) on MACIF Santé Prévoyance in the very final stages of the race from France to the Arctic Circle and back.
Offshore racing can be a cruel sport – and surely nobody knows that better this morning than Goodchild. After leading from the very first night of the nine-day race from Les Sables d’Olonne to the southern limit of the Arctic Circle, the British skipper found himself trapped in a band of light winds blocking his path to the finish line.
In competitive sailing’s brave new world, where ultra-fast foiling boats grab the majority of the headlines, the evergreen TP52 fleet and its 52 Super Series regattas stand out as a bastion of the gold standard of ‘conventional’ yacht racing. The '26 worlds in Porto Cervo look set to be a thriller.
