Guillou opens early lead as Golden Globe fleet splits tactics in Biscay

Two days into the 2026 McIntyre Golden Globe Race, Damien Guillou's early gamble south is paying off, and the fleet is only just beginning to spread out across the Bay of Biscay.

The 16 boats left Les Sables-d'Olonne on 6 September into a light south-westerly, tacking hard from the start. By the second day the breeze had strengthened and forced the fleet's first real tactical call: push south for a cleaner angle around Cape Finisterre, or sit north and wait on a shift to the north-west.

Guillou, sailing Solarem, took the southern route and has the numbers to show for it. He has covered 272 nautical miles since the start with a 24-hour run of 103nm, the best in the fleet. Ireland's Pat Lawless is close behind on distance but actually posted the fastest single day, 105nm, to sit second overall.

Andrea Lodolo, Guy deBoer and Etienne Messikommer took the opposite bet, sitting north to catch the incoming north-westerly first. Neither route has broken clear yet, and won't for a day or two.

The tracker still shows the fleet tightly packed. Guillou's lead over Selim Yalcin in fifteenth place is barely 120 nautical miles, on a course with more than 25,000 nautical miles still to run.

Sweden's Pär Nyman isn't part of that picture at all. He turned back into Les Sables-d'Olonne shortly after his ceremonial start to deal with problems aboard Lazy Otter, a lost piece of rigging and, worse, corrosion and broken bolts found in the upper rudder fitting on inspection. The repairs are done and he is expected to reload and head back out, but the tracker has him barely moved, 12 nautical miles sailed and going nowhere in the latest snapshot.

That is the cost of a delay in a race with no shortcuts. Entrants sail without GPS, satellite navigation, autopilots or electronic instruments of any kind, restricted to gear Robin Knox-Johnston could have carried aboard Suhaili in 1968. Outside assistance is not allowed at any point on the 30,000-mile course, and anything more than a sheltered stop for repairs risks being dropped into the Chichester Class. For Nyman, every hour at the dock now is an hour he will not get back over a race the leaders are expected to sail in around 260 days.

The next few days should start to separate the two camps properly, once the current front clears through and the wind swings north as forecast. Guillou's early move south either puts him ahead of the pack before the high-pressure system catches up with everyone else, or it does not. Either way, Biscay will not stay this crowded for long.