Published: November 2024
By Jean-Luc Van Den Heede
The Last Sea Dog : 6 Solo Circumnavigations Resulting in 5 Podiums & 1 World Record
The Last Sea Dog tells the story of Jean-Luc Van Den Heede’s life and his many sailing adventures, focussing on his triumph in the 2018/19 Golden Globe Race. Jean-Luc has rounded Cape Horn 12 times and completed six solo circumnavigations. These have resulted in five race podiums and one world record, which he still currently holds: He has been on the podium twice in the Vendée Globe single-handed race around the world, coming third in 1990 and second in 1993.
More recently he won the Golden Globe Race in 2018/19 at the age of 73. This race was run as a fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 race of the same name won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. While the restriction of no assistance and no stopovers were not particularly unusual, more challenging were the requirements to sail the race ‘as in 1968’ with yachts similar to those available in that year and, except for safety equipment, no modern technology allowed.
No satellite-based navigation aids were available to the sailors and they had to use a sextant to navigate around the world as Robin had done fifty years previously. Jean-Luc was born in Amiens, far from the sea, and he became a maths teacher. Nevertheless, he developed a passion for competitive sailing.
He is friendly and easy to approach, but he is also a formidable competitor with an abundance of courage and perseverance. This personal account of his life and the Golden Globe Race is an amazing story of a man who has faced the toughest times and sea and won through.
