Jean Luc van den Heede, sailing his custom-built monohull Adrien, in an attempt to break the westabout solo circumnavigation, crossed the Equator earlier in the week and is now heading for Cape Horn and the Southern Ocean.

Van den Heede’s bid to crack Philip Monnet’s record – a record previously held by Mike Golding on Group 4 – is looking good so far, but it will be interesting to see how the boat performs in the Southern Ocean, the opposite direction to the VOR yachts.