Golden Globe Race 2026, week 9 (1 to 7 November): the whole fleet on the map, with the skippers’ own voices.
A week of injuries. On 2 November Guy deBoer fell inside his boat Spirit and hurt his head and both arms. The race’s doctor advised him not to continue, and on 4 November the race ruled that he could no longer continue as an entrant, including in the Chichester Class. On 5 November his plan changed from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, and on 7 November he asked for medical evacuation. Early on 8 November the race could not reach him for several hours; around 07:00 UTC he called and let Spirit drift, and at 11:38 UTC he was aboard a Brazilian Navy helicopter, about 870 miles east of Rio. In the early hours of 7 November Andrea Lodolo fell from his cockpit and broke his knee. His race is over, and he is sailing for Cape Town.
The weather took turns: a low inside the fleet, then the calms of the South Atlantic high, then the next front. Damien Guillou passed south of the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean and ended the week 870 miles ahead of Ertan Beskardes. Damien and Etienne Messikommer cooked on camera. Our 3D globe shows why the way round the world gets shorter further south, and why no land stops the Southern Ocean’s wind and seas.
Made by Mainsail Cuts
https://www.youtube.com/@MainsailCuts
CHAPTERS
00:00 Golden Globe Race Week 9
00:44 The Fleet on 1 November
01:22 A Low Pressure System Inside the Fleet
03:56 Damien Guillou Passes the Cape of Good Hope
04:46 Why Sailing Further South Is Shorter
05:45 Guy deBoer Injured and Ruled Out
07:42 Calm Under the South Atlantic High
09:03 No Land to Stop the Southern Ocean
10:00 Southern Ocean Fronts Reach the Back of the Fleet
11:01 Andrea Lodolo Breaks His Knee
11:50 Guy deBoer Asks for Evacuation
13:57 Leaderboard and the Week Ahead
SOURCES BY CHAPTER
Golden Globe Race Week 9
Damien’s live Window, 3 November: youtu.be/JtvobuEm5dA?t=9600
The Fleet on 1 November
Don’s Sunday morning show: youtu.be/I3WGOYG6Dq0?t=194
A Low Pressure System Inside the Fleet
Don’s forecast for the low: youtu.be/iWuwvBc9dIA?t=903
Damien Guillou Passes the Cape of Good Hope
Don on Damien’s 2022 race: youtu.be/iWuwvBc9dIA?t=706
Why Sailing Further South Is Shorter
Don on Matt’s route south: youtu.be/cvGcBKGkVJ4?t=1077
Guy deBoer Injured and Ruled Out
Guy’s call with Georgie: youtu.be/kf6U7oj0DN0?t=8
Calm Under the South Atlantic High
Don on the high forming: youtu.be/VsBKnZIGARY?t=503
No Land to Stop the Southern Ocean
Don on the open Southern Ocean: youtu.be/TPg-Mi1sh2U?t=678
Southern Ocean Fronts Reach the Back of the Fleet
Don on Southern Ocean fronts: youtu.be/9rI8yhEp-Ns?t=1135
Andrea Lodolo Breaks His Knee
Don on Andrea’s fall: youtu.be/BMFz51Vmc1s?t=252
Guy deBoer Asks for Evacuation
The race’s news on the rescue: https://goldengloberace.com/successful-rescue-of-guy-deboer-mcintyre-ggr/
Leaderboard and the Week Ahead
Don’s Saturday leaderboard: youtu.be/BMFz51Vmc1s?t=1274
The footage and the voices are the Golden Globe Race’s own: its live Window, its calls with the skippers and its daily shows. Mainsail Cuts chose the sections and added the narration, maps, weather, 3D drawings and a score.
The race’s videos in this film:
youtu.be/-cHIWR0eq_s
youtu.be/JtvobuEm5dA
youtu.be/b6u-BKuQwt8
youtu.be/2CGU5OUdBGw
youtu.be/-6SL05LGDMw
youtu.be/ym2hKPvcqo4
youtu.be/f5wzMmNMfNk
youtu.be/2V5jcZXKQAY
youtu.be/OdW0u12tvhM
youtu.be/iWuwvBc9dIA
youtu.be/kf6U7oj0DN0
youtu.be/LEWXj_f2_jQ
youtu.be/CaurtB2fef4
youtu.be/wu24L0Gi2_M
youtu.be/WkLAXf-oMoE
youtu.be/TPg-Mi1sh2U
youtu.be/tRFeSq17MNc
youtu.be/BMFz51Vmc1s
youtu.be/dSJhyqE5sz8
youtu.be/SsHfJn5-Zuw
Fleet maps: positions from the race tracker, times in UTC; land from Natural Earth (public domain); small islands checked against OpenStreetMap contributors’ data (ODbL, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright).
Weather on the maps: wind, wave and pressure data from the weather model at https://open-meteo.com (CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), drawn by Mainsail Cuts as wind streaks, a wave tint and H and L marks: model weather, not what a skipper reported. The data’s makers have not endorsed this video.
3D drawings: our own models of a Tashiba 36 and a Rustler 36, from the builders’ plans and photos, and a globe with land from Natural Earth; simplified in parts. Lap lengths on the globe: 21,600 nautical miles at the equator times the cosine of the latitude, rounded to the nearest 100.
Facts: the race’s daily shows, reports, news posts and updates, its skipper pages and the skippers’ calls; how the wind turns round highs and lows: the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (https://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/Interpreting_MSLP.shtml).
Closing shot: Gunnar Christensen’s Window, evening of 4 November.
Thumbnail: Damien Guillou at his stove on the race’s Window, 3 November, with text added by Mainsail Cuts.
Narration: AI voice (ElevenLabs). Music: an original score by Mainsail Cuts.
#goldengloberace #ggr2026
