Through the gate

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede passes through Hobart film gate with 1,600 mile lead over 2nd placed Mark Slats.

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede reached the BoatShed.com Hobart film gate at 07:30 local time on Saturday (21:30 UTC Friday) to drop film and letters before heading out of Storm Bay to resume his lead in the Golden Globe Race.

The 73-year old Matmut skipper was in good spirits and sighted the lengthy preparation work for his 1,600 mile lead. “The boat is good, the self steering works well and I have only minor problems like a leaking window to deal with.”

Jean-Luc remained at anchor for 3 1/2 hours completing media interviews before making most of the the calm conditions to check his mast and rigging. He also tried to catch some sleep, but after 15 minutes returned on deck complaining that the conditions were “too calm to sleep!”