Cape Horners recognise six more names into the Cape Horn Hall of Fame - September 2026
by Barry Pickthall for IACH 4 Sep 11:22 PDT
2025 skippers who rounded Cape Horn © IACH
Six new names are being added to the Cape Horn Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, today (Friday 4th September) making a total of 51 famous Cape Horners now recognised since the awards were first introduced in 2021.
Follow the awards ceremony live from Les Sables d'Olonne on the Golden Globe Race Facebook page.
The awards are being presented by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, President of the Int. Assoc. of Cape Horners and Nicolas Chénéchaud, the Mayor of Les Sables d'Olonne.
The famous Cape Horners range from British Commodore George Anson who led an eight-strong squadron of ships round Cape Horn in 1737 to rob Spanish galleons of their treasure, to Alexia Barrier and Thomas Coville from France who set new circumnavigation records in the Jules Verne trophy challenge last January.
Another is Guirec Soudée, better known until now for his 5-year cruise around the world via the Northwest Passage with his pet hen Monique. Earlier this year he broke fellow Frenchman Jean-Luc van den Heede's 22-year record for sailing East-West around the world via Cape Horn. Sailing the multihull MACSF, he completed the 37,000-mile circumnavigation in January this year in 94 days, 21 hours, and 58 minutes - almost a month ahead of the previous record - setting an average 16.5 knots in his trimaran MACSF
This year's roll-call is completed with two more famous Cape Horners - Britain's Brian Thompson and American Paul Cayard, who have both experienced hard won victories: Thompson with Doha 2006 in the Oryx Quest round the world race, and more recently aboard the Loïck Peyron skippered maxi-multihull Banque Populaire5 to win the Jules Verne Trophy, and Cayard leading EF Language to victory in the 1997/8 Whitbread race.
Read their full profiles here
If you can't join us for the awards in Les Sables d'Olonne, the ceremony will air live from 16:00 UTC Friday 4thSeptember on the Golden Globe race Facebook page.