The Golden Globe Race 2026 started from Les Sables-d'Olonne on 6 September with 16 boats. Inside two weeks two of them had stopped, one for a chainplate and one for an HF radio. We were not there and we don't race. We are on a cruising catamaran in Fiji getting ready to go south. Both problems are ones a cruising boat can have, so this is what happened and what we take from it.
What happened to Spirit
Guy deBoer is American, 70, and sails a Tashiba 36 called Spirit. According to the Go Boating NZ report, hairline cracking around a chainplate fitting was picked up at the pre-race safety inspection in Les Sables-d'Olonne. It was assessed as low risk and the boat was cleared to start.
On the way to the Canaries he heard noises and saw signs of stress under load, and he made the call to stop. The race timeline has him into Marina Rubicón in Lanzarote on 18 September, with the problem around a lower shroud chainplate. Stopping put him in the Chichester Class, which is where a skipper goes after an unscheduled stop or outside help. He can keep sailing but he is out of the main race.
Then it got worse. The timeline entry for 23 September says testing under rig load showed significant hull deformation near the mast. Before he can leave, a surveyor has to approve the repair and he has to complete a 100 mile sea trial. The race's report for 28 September still had him in port, and the organiser did not expect the boat to be ready by 5 October.
He stopped on his own decision, 12 days in, with the whole race in front of him. That was the right call. A lower shroud letting go in the Southern Ocean is a dismasting a long way from anyone.
What happened to the HF radio
Selim Yalçın is from Turkey, 65, sailing an Endurance 35 named Help Disabled Children. The race announced the loss of his HF radio on 19 September. The race rules require working communications, and the reports say he judged it unsafe to carry on without it. He turned for Cádiz to replace either the radio or the antenna tuning unit. The timeline confirms his retirement in Cádiz on 26 September, with a possible return in 2030.
Some context on the race. The boats are 32 to 36 ft production designs from before 1988. GPS, satellite navigation, autopilots and electronic instruments are banned. It is sextant, paper charts and a wind vane. The Boating NZ write-up covers the rules and the rest of the fleet.
We don't know what failed inside his radio installation. The reports say radio or tuner and nothing more.
A crack found at the dock is a job to do before you leave
The part to read twice is that the crack was seen before the start. The inspection did its job. We are not going to criticise the people who cleared it, because we were not there and we have not seen the fitting.
Every cruiser knows how this goes though. You find something small the week before departure, the weather window is coming, somebody says it will be fine, and it goes on the list for the other end.
A hairline crack around a chainplate matters because of what is behind it. The chainplate passes the rig load into the hull or a bulkhead. A crack in the gelcoat or laminate around it can be cosmetic, or it can be the structure moving, and you cannot tell which from the outside. On Spirit the answer turned up 12 days later as a hull deforming near the mast.
On a catamaran the shrouds do even more of the work. Most cruising cats have no backstay, so the cap shrouds are swept aft and hold the mast up and back, and they land on chainplates on the outside of each hull. A cat does not heel and spill a gust the way a mono does, so the load goes into the rig.
What we would check on the rig before an offshore passage
Mā Tori's 2022 refit included rig checks, and a New Zealand Cat 1 inspector goes through the boat before each departure from New Zealand. The list below is what we would look at on any boat before a passage. A rigger aloft will see more than we do.
- Every chainplate, on deck and where it lands inside the hull. Rust streaks, cracked sealant, crazing in the gelcoat around it, any gap that was not there last season.
- Swage terminals and toggles. Cracks in the swage, a broken strand where the wire enters it, bent clevis pins, missing split pins.
- The mast step and the beam under it.
- The age of the standing rigging, with an invoice or a rigger's report to back it up. Insurers ask for this early.
- The boat under load. Go out in a proper breeze, sail hard on the wind on each tack, and have someone watch the leeward shrouds and listen. deBoer heard his problem before he could see it.
Anything that shows up gets opened up or fixed before you go. If a rigger or surveyor tells you it is low risk, ask what they would need to see to change their mind, and then go and look for that on the first hard sail.
If you are buying a boat, the same list belongs on survey day. There is more on what Cat 1 covers in our guide to buying a catamaran in New Zealand, and the Yachting New Zealand safety regulations are the official source for what an inspector wants to see.
One way to talk to shore is not enough
Mā Tori carries Starlink and Iridium. To be honest we do not have an HF radio aboard, so we are not going to tell you how to run one.
What Yalçın's stop shows is that any single comms system has several parts and each one can stop it. An HF installation is a transceiver, a tuner, an antenna, a ground and a power supply. Starlink is a dish, a router, a power supply and a plan, and the plan can change under you. We have written about that twice, in the Starlink changes for cruising sailors and in the 30 day rule workarounds.
So the second system should share nothing with the first. Different hardware, different power feed if you can manage it, different account. For us that is the Iridium. The EPIRB sits apart from both and is for distress only.
The test is simple. At anchor, turn the Starlink off for a day and do everything on the backup. Pull a weather file, send a position, get a message to whoever is watching you ashore. If it does not work at anchor it will not work at sea. How we get weather over the main system is in connecting PredictWind to Starlink.
Redundancy that costs nothing
- Go and look. A walk around the chainplates with a torch is free.
- Test the backup while the primary still works.
- Write the comms plan down. Who expects to hear from you, how often, and what they do if you go quiet.
- Be willing to stop. deBoer gave up his place in the race to do it. A cruiser has no race to lose, so turning back or diverting should be the easy option. On the run south that can mean Minerva Reef, which is in our Fiji to New Zealand passage guide.
What we don't know
- What the surveyor found in Spirit's hull, and whether deBoer gets back out.
- What component failed in Yalçın's radio.
- Anything first hand. This all comes from the race's own reports and the two New Zealand articles linked above.
On 28 September Damien Guillou was leading with Pat Lawless second, and 14 boats were still in the main race. That will have moved by the time you read this.
Safety equipment rules and inspection requirements change. Check the current Yachting New Zealand safety regulations, or your own flag's equivalent, and talk to your rigger and your insurer before you rely on any of this.
Questions people ask about the Golden Globe Race 2026
When did the Golden Globe Race 2026 start?
6 September 2026, from Les Sables-d'Olonne in France, with 16 starters.
Why did Guy deBoer stop in Lanzarote?
Signs of stress around a lower shroud chainplate on his Tashiba 36. Later testing showed hull deformation near the mast.
Why did Selim Yalçın retire?
His HF radio failed. He diverted to Cádiz and his retirement was confirmed on 26 September 2026.
What is the Chichester Class?
The division for skippers who make an unscheduled stop or take outside help. They can carry on but are out of the main race.
Does a cruising boat still need an HF radio?
That depends on your flag's rules and where you are going. We carry Starlink and Iridium and no HF. Carry two systems that share nothing.
Keep reading: the survey and sea trial checklists are in the Catamaran Buyer's Pack, the Cat 1 side of taking a boat offshore is in the New Zealand buying guide, the other thing that can end a passage early is in our post on a whale strike on a catamaran, and our bluewater catamaran for sale is the boat this was written from.