Yi Qun Liu (Yves) and Trekka lead the Globe 5.80 Transat qualifier to Lanzarote by about 10 nautical miles, with 471.6 nm to go at midnight UTC on Monday 2 November. Viivi Moisio's Flow is second and still racing after Race Control reported a whale strike on Sunday afternoon that damaged her outboard. Both main weather forecast models show a near-calm over the whole course on Tuesday.
The six home-built 5.8 metre yachts left Marina de Lagos in Portugal at 14:00 UTC on Saturday 31 October. After a slow first night, the leaders are now about 78 nm south-west of Cape St Vincent, with Lanzarote still a long way off.
Globe 5.80 Transat 2026 qualifier: miles made good towards Lanzarote
Nautical miles gained on the 565 nm tracker course, start (31 Oct, 14:00 UTC) to 2 Nov, 00:00 UTC. Three-hourly tracker positions.
Source: Globe 5.80 Transat live tracker (YB Tracking). Origami's flat line shows her stop in Marina de Lagos overnight on 31 October. Flow's 00:00 position is interpolated between her 23:00 and 01:00 reports.
Race at a glance
Leader: Trekka (Yi Qun Liu, China), 471.6 nm to Lanzarote
Second: Flow (Viivi Moisio, Finland), 477.3 nm at 01:00 UTC; she missed her midnight report
Third: Capucinette (Katherine Urpani, Malta), 482.2 nm
Fourth: Inimini (Matthew Freestone, UK), 483.2 nm
Fifth: Meraki (Bruce Payne, Australia), 504.2 nm
Sixth: Origami (Dean Frost and Lee McCarthy, UK), 537.2 nm
Best 24 hours: Trekka, 78.2 nm made good towards the finish
Distances to finish are tracker positions at 00:00 UTC on 2 November, the last time five of the six boats had all reported.
What happened when a whale met Flow?
Race Control says the encounter came on Sunday 1 November about 45 nm south of Lagos, at 36°26.88'N 009°02.6'W, with Flow sailing south at 4.9 knots.
Matthew Freestone raised the alarm at about 14:15 UTC, calling Race Control by satellite phone from Inimini, half a mile away. Viivi had radioed him on VHF to say a whale had hit the boat and she was worried about her rudder and outboard. She had not asked for help, but Matthew altered course towards her anyway. Half an hour later Katherine Urpani messaged from Capucinette that she was heading over as well.
Just after 15:00 UTC Viivi reported in herself. Her rudder was fine, the outboard was damaged, her Starlink had stopped working and she did not need assistance. By 15:30 UTC Matthew had Flow sailing alongside, with Viivi understandably a little shaken. He reported damage to the propeller and thought she might need a tow into Marina Rubicón.
The first news came from the one boat in the fleet without Starlink. Matthew's satellite phone got the word ashore.
Viivi's own account, relayed by the race, fills in the picture. The animal was long and slender with a pointed snout, and its fins looked bright blue, which she thinks may have been the light. It knocked into the outboard, which was partly in the water, then shadowed the boat for about ten minutes while she sounded her horn and shouted at it at the top of her voice. Finally it bumped the rudder and swam away. She rated it a good deal friendlier than orcas. Her windvane and hull came through fine, and she is working on the bent outboard.
The encounter does not seem to have slowed her much. In the four hours to 23:00 UTC Flow was making 4.1 knots towards Lanzarote, as quick as anyone in the fleet.
The Notice of Race asks any skipper who diverts to help another boat to report the details, so the jury can decide whether to grant a time allowance. Race Control has thanked Matthew and Katherine for responding so quickly.
Who is leading the Globe 5.80 Transat qualifier?
Trekka leads, and has done the most with the light airs. Yves has covered 97.4 nm over the ground since the start, more than anyone, and his 78.2 nm made good in the 24 hours to midnight UTC is the best in the fleet.
The chasing pack is quicker right now. Over the last four hours Capucinette made 3.9 knots towards the finish and Inimini 3.9, against 3.5 for Trekka. At 00:00 UTC the front four were within 11.6 nm of each other.
Bruce Payne is 32.6 nm behind on Meraki, having made 55.6 nm towards Lanzarote over 24 hours in the first race of his life.
Why did Origami go back to Lagos?
Race Control has not published a reason. The tracker shows Origami turning back for the Algarve on Saturday evening and lying alongside in Marina de Lagos from 23:05 UTC on 31 October to 10:45 UTC on 1 November, almost 12 hours, before heading out again.
The Notice of Race allows an unscheduled port stop in exceptional circumstances, provided Race Control approves it first and is told when the boat gets under way again. We will update this story when the reason is known.
The stop has cost the race's first two-handed crew a lot of ground. Dean Frost and Lee McCarthy are 65.6 nm behind Trekka and have made 23.8 nm towards the finish in the last 12 hours.
Dolphins at dawn and a windvane called Blondie
So far Bruce has been the fleet's most entertaining correspondent. In a short video posted on Sunday morning he talks about a slow start and fickle wind that hung around all night. He hand-steered Meraki until midnight, then gave the job to Blondie, his self-steering gear, which he reckons did a spectacular job through the small hours.
At first light he came on deck to find a pod of dolphins riding alongside. The breeze had filled in by then, and Meraki was running under full main and her A5 spinnaker.
Matthew had seen the light airs coming. Before the start he posted that the forecast showed very little wind and the leg might take a while, adding a laughing emoji. Katherine's Race Day 1 video, filmed with Lagos still on the horizon, shows barely a ripple on the water.
What is the weather forecast for the Globe 5.80 Transat?
Expect an easing easterly today, a near-calm across the whole course on Tuesday and a possible north-westerly on Wednesday. This is our own reading of the free ECMWF and GFS models on PredictWind. Routing and paid weather services are banned in this race, so the skippers are working from free forecasts as well.
Now. Both models give the fleet an easterly of 11 to 12 knots, with pressure at 1018 hPa. With the course running south-west, that puts the breeze well aft of the beam.
Monday, about 11:00 UTC. The easterly eases to 8 or 9 knots around the fleet. Halfway down the course the models disagree, with ECMWF showing 4 knots from the south-east and GFS 6 knots from the west. Nearer Lanzarote there is 12 to 13 knots from the east.
Tuesday, about 13:00 UTC. Both models show a broad calm over the whole route: 2 to 3 knots near the fleet's present position, 2 to 4 knots mid-course and 4 to 6 knots off Lanzarote. The stronger breeze, 20 to 25 knots, stays well to the north around a system off north-west Spain.
Wednesday, about 16:00 UTC. ECMWF fills in a north-westerly of 9 to 10 knots from the fleet's current area down to mid-course. GFS has only about 5 knots from the south-west, and both keep the Lanzarote approach light. Who benefits will depend on where each boat has got to by then.
What to watch
The leading four have been making 70 to 78 nm a day. At that rate Trekka would need just over six more days to reach Lanzarote, and Tuesday's calm will add to that.
Any boat still racing at 13:00 local time on 13 November is withdrawn. On our sums, Origami has to average about 1.94 knots towards the finish from midnight on 2 November to make it. Over the last 12 hours she managed 1.98 knots, so Dean and Lee are cutting it very fine.
For now Trekka heads a close-packed group, Flow is racing on with a bent outboard, and Origami is in a race against the clock, with Tuesday's calm still to come. The main race to Antigua starts from Lanzarote on 14 November.
Meet the skippers
Read our profiles of Yi Qun Liu (Yves) and Trekka, Viivi Moisio and Flow, Katherine Urpani and Capucinette, Matthew Freestone and Inimini, Bruce Payne and Meraki, and Dean Frost, Lee McCarthy and Origami. The Globe 5.80 Transat is a sister race to the Golden Globe Race, which Go Boating follows every day.
%20held%20at%20Elmore%20in%20November%202026-900x427.png)
