While China is well known to the race, this is the first time Zhuhai will be represented.

Two men in their 30’s will finally live a childhood dream when they take part in the 2020 Vendee Globe with revitalised IMOCA’s.

Should you have to be physically present to claim the title? Or is the name enough?

After almost 252 days at sea, all he had left in his larder was three packets of powdered soup, and he grabbed the pizza offered to him with both hands.

This is an opportunity for two-crew teams to qualify for the Transat Jacques Vabre, and to evaluate conditions as they near the arrival point 1200 miles away.

Still looking for sponsors, the Frenchman is progressing with the boat build and is very confident that everything is going to plan.

For this 56-year-old solo circumnavigator, his homecoming could not come soon enough. He is out of food, and has not seen his wife and very young children for more than 8 months.

It was a race where the poor got richer as the late race winds strengthened from the south west.

The French skipper, who has never raced solo, is learning to sail an IMOCA while he waits for his new Vendee Globe boat to be built.

The 65-year old solo circumnavigator told race organisers this week that he has lost more than 20kg during the voyage so far, and if he can’t catch fish, there is little left onboard to sustain him over the next two weeks.

More than just a race, Cape Horn Race 19/20 provides four legendary sailing challenges; up to four months of mythic discovery; and social activity in four countries: Argentina, Chile, Gibraltar, and Uruguay.

Soldini, at Argo's request, agreed to delay the start by a two hour delay after which an epic match race ensued over 600 miles and 11 Caribbean islands.

With just over two and a half years to go to the start, the organisers and sailors are already busy preparing behind the scenes for this new event on the IMOCA calendar.

Catherine Pourre's French Class40 Eärendil won Line Honours for the Class40 Division for the second year in a row, this time defeating two of the rising stars of offshore racing.

In previous editions of the race, the boats had to be slipped in Sydney halfway round. The Coppercoat applied before the 2017/18 race is expected to last at least until the 2021/22 events, giving it three circumnavigations totalling 120,000nm.