With less than 6,000 miles to the finish, the Mini Globe Race fleet of homebuilt 19ft plywood yachts is drawing closer to Antigua, and to end of this world-first adventure.

The solo skippers will stop in Saint Helena, in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, and Recife, Brazil before finishing the race in Antigua the second week of March 2026.

Mini Globe Race Leg 4 at a glance:

• After an emotional farewell from Cape Town and absent winds on the starting line, the Mini Globe Race fleet is enjoying its cruise towards Saint Helena
• Renauld Stitelmann (Capucinette) is still in the lead, with only a few days separation from top contenders Dan Turner (Immortal Game) and Keri Harris (Origami)
• While most sailors stayed inshore to tackle the Agulhas Currents, Keri Harris sailed straight into them, breaking Mini Globe Race records by reaching a 217 mile total in 24 hours
• Average speeds across the fleet are around 5.15 kts and 132 miles a day

The Latest: Smooth sailing for the Mini Globe Race on the way to Saint Helena

Christian Sauer on his ARGO, sailing past the Cape of Good Hope, with three oceans in the wake. Credit: Christian Sauer / MGR2025.

After the tough conditions of the Indian Ocean, the skippers are enjoying smoother sailing on the South East trade winds of the South Atlantic, helped by the Bengula current and winds of between 12 and 20 knots.

They will encounter the North East trade winds after crossing the equator as they sail an almost identical course to John Guzzwell‘s 16 day passage on Trekka on their way to the Caribbean.

‘It’s fantastic to race like this,’ says frontrunner Renaud Stitelmann. ‘For the moment, I need to have some rest, so Capucinette is self-steering. But if the others (MGR skippers) come back too close, then I will have to steer.’

Despite some pretty solitary New Years Eve celebrations, spirits across the fleet of Globe 580s are high.

‘Life is wonderful,’ says Ertan Beskardes from onboard Trekka. ‘It’s just been one of the nicest cruises for a long time.’

Setting off on this last leg even has some sailors feeling sentimental.

‘It feels pretty amazing to realise we have sailed almost all the way around the world,’ says mountaineer Josh Kali from Skookum. ‘I look at the chartplotter and zoom it out, ruminating on where I am in the world – where I have been. Rounding the Cape was the thing. Now that we’ve done that, it all feels downhill. I think about what all those passages were like – there’s a lot of ocean out there.’

Mini Globe Race leaderboard as of 7 January, with combined results:

1. Renaud Stitelmann / Capucinette
2. Dan Turner / Immortal Game
3. Keri Harris / Origami
4. Pilar Pasanau / Peter Punk
5. Adam Waugh / Little Wren
6. Christian Sauer / Argo
7. Jakub Ziemkiewicz / Bibi
8. Eric Marsh / Sunbear
9. Jasmine Harrison / Numbatou
10. Ertan Beskardes / Trekka
11. Joshua Kali / Skookum

The sendoff from Cape Town and an emotional start to Leg 4

Adventurous ALMA GLOBE 580 solo sailors and 13 emotional African Zulu Dancers creating memories to last a lifetime! Credit: Don McIntyre / MGR2025.

The departure from Cape Town on 28 December was cause for celebration, and included a traditional sendoff from 13 Zulu dancers from ‘Isibane Se Afrika’.

But with the wind absent from the starting line, the fleet had to crawl along, with many skippers resorting to their electric outboard engines after the 5 minutes required by race regulations had elapsed.

Keri Harris gambled on a Northerly course which left him stranded and sailing in circles for several hours while the rest of the fleet sailed off at 6.5-7.5 knots, helped by a 1.8 kt favourable current and 25-30 knots of South East wind.

Leg 3 Rewind: Durban, a stopover steeped in sailing history

The Mini Globe Race was welcomed by Durban’s Royal Natal Yacht Club. Credit: Christine Turner / MGR2025.

Before arriving in Cape Town to finish their 10,000 mile haul from Fiji, the Mini Globe Race fleet enjoyed a heroes welcome in Durban.

The stopover was a chance to enjoy and participate in the South African port’s proud ocean-sailing history.

Joshua Slocum was the first solo sailor to stop in Durban in 1897, followed by Bernard Moitessier on Marie Therese II in 1955, John Guzzwell on Trekka in 1958, and countless other seafaring legends.

Dan Turner (Immortal Game) called the hospitality ‘fantastic’, reporting that locals treated the skippers ‘like celebrities’.

The Mini Globe Race skippers gave talks, signed flags for the Royal Natal Yacht Club clubhouse, and welcomed its members onboard for a tour of their unique boats.

Tackling the Agulhas Currents

The Mini Globe Race’s fleet of Globe 580s arrives safely in Cape Town. Credit: JJ / MGR 2025.

The Mini Globe Race fleet left Durban for Cape Town on 16 November, with a fresh breeze blowing from the North East.

Keri Harris delayed his departure to honour his late mother’s funeral on 17 November and instead set off on 25 November, 8 days behind the rest of the fleet.

His stay in Durban was also an opportunity to coach a young RNYC member ahead of the National Laser championships.

As per Race Regulations, on the Durban to Cape Town leg race time only counts time on the water, giving skippers the option to stop for bad weather, and an incentive to be extra selective with their weather windows.

Most of the fleet opted to take advantage of the change and keep inshore, ducking into small ports including Port Elizabeth, East London, Cape St. Francis, and the skipper-favourite Mossel Bay, in order to make their way through the Agulhas Current.

The exception was again Keri Harris, who opted instead to sail offshore and straight into the heart of the Agulhas Current, with astounding results.

Keri Harris breaks Mini Globe Race records

Keri Harris on Origami, which was the first boat into the V&A Waterfront Marina in Cape Town after his record breaking sprint from Durban. Credit: Don McIntyre / MGR2025.

Harris’ tactical break with the rest of the Mini Globe Race payed off, allowing him to make a direct, record-breaking sprint to Cape Town.

Helped by the current, Harris reached an impressive 217 miles in 24 hours with the help of the current, breaking Jasmine Harrison’s previous record of 181 miles in a day.

His six-day passage also beat Stitelmann’s time for this stretch by 14 hours, thought Stitelmann remains the leader overall.

In 35-40 knots of wind, ‘I just had a poled-out jib flying at times,’ Harris reported. ‘The Aries windvane was doing a lot of the steering, sailing deep, almost dead running, and she was just surfing every time we were hit by a wave. The waves were hitting her really quickly, and there was no resistance. There was no point trying to slow the boat down.’

He added that there did not seem to be any real risk of broaching, and that the Mini Globe 580’s lack of lateral resistance allowed Origami to slide across wave crests, instead of getting knocked down.

Other boats reached speeds of 8.2 knots (Dan Turner) and 8.6 knots (front runner Renaud Stitelmann).

Katabatic winds coming into Cape Town

The NSRI helped after Trekka’s mainsail was ripped by a katabatic wind from Table Mountain. The incident was the Mini Globe Race’s first rescue. Credit: Don McIntyre / MGR2025.

‘The weather and conditions conspired to make the last few miles into Cape Town amongst the hardest, slowest, impossible, testing, backwards and forwards miles possible,’ reported Jasmine Harrison’s mother, Susan.

The fleet faced a nasty surprise courtesy of Table Mountain, which brought 40-50kt blasts of katabatic wind.

The gusts split Ertan Beskardes’ mainsail onboard Trekka, requiring him to call on the National Sea Rescue Institute for a 3am tow to safety, the race’s first rescue.

While a lot of gear on the Globe 580s has held up to almost 300 days of sailing, across the fleet, sail conditions are a significant concern.

With new sails resulting in a potentially decisive 48 hours penalty, entrants are resorting to patching theirs up, often with help from local sail makers, to counter 10 months of constant wear and UV exposure.

‘Not a nice feeling when the sailmaker looks at you and starts laughing when you tell him that you have to go another 8000 miles with these sails,’ Christian Sauer comments.

The eleven remaining competitors reunited with the fleet in Cape Town to rest, regroup, and make necessary repairs before setting off for Saint Helena, the first stopover of Leg 4.

Race news: Race organisers ban AI images across all McIntyre events

A contestant reported seeing an image of one of the fleet’s Globe 5.80s up in flames. After race organisers activated an emergency response, the image turned out to be an AI fake created by another entrant.

The episode led to a ban on AI images across all McIntyre Adventures events, including the Mini Globe Race, the Golden Globe Race, and the Ocean Globe Race.

The official press release states,

As of 1^st January 2026, “AI” Images are BANNED in all three of the McIntyre Adventure around the world races. Entrants and teams of the MGR, GGR and OGR are prohibited from creating, generating, producing or publishing in all “media”, an AI image with any connection whatsoever to the event entered in, or any subjects or people associated with that event, whilst an entrant is in the event and forever thereafter. 

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