After 76 days alone at sea, the two skippers arrived back in Les Sables D'Olonnes on Sunday January 26, finishing within six miles of each other.
Arriving in eighth place Mettraux (38) was the first female sailor to complete the 2024-25 race (knocking an amazing 11 days off the previous time for a female skipper) and also the first non-French entrant to finish. Goodchild (35) crossed the line 25 minutes later to become the second ‘international’ finisher.
Both were first time competitors in the singlehanded non-stop around-the-world race and neither were sailing one of the latest-generation IMOCA 60 race boats that filled the top seven places in this latest edition of the classic open ocean race.
During their respective laps of the planet the British and Swiss sailors each endured their own breakages and setbacks pretty much in equal measure. Mettraux blew up her J0 headsail early on and had to improvise with other less efficient sail combinations for the rest of the race. For his part, Goodchild had to remedy technical problems with his autopilot and rudder early in the race. Then, three days before Christmas and while deep in the Southern Ocean he woke up to find his J-0 was in the water but was able to successfully retrieve it intact.
Both suffered major mainsail damage in the closing stage of the race. Agonisingly for Goodchild a high speed spin out while surfing down an eight-metre wave in the mid-Atlantic in 50+ knots of wind tore his main from leech to luff. After a lot of time and effort he was able to glue the sail back together (not an easy procedure on the floor of a sail loft and a remarkable feat to carry out on the rolling deck of a boat still surfing in big seas) but the time he lost dropped him from battling for fourth with France’s Jérémie Beyou back to ninth behind Mettraux.
