At 8:08 a.m. local time on the 18th, Chinese sailor and “One-Armed Captain” Xu Jingkun, sailing the “SINGCHAIN China Dream Team vessel, Haikou,” crossed the finish line of the 2024-2025 Vendée Globe, a solo, non-stop, round-the-world sailing race. He completed the race in 99 days, 19 hours, 6 minutes, and 11 seconds, becoming the first Chinese captain in the history of the event to finish the race.
The 10th Vendée Globe set sail on November 10, 2024, in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France.
The Vendée Globe, established in 1989, is held every four years. The race requires participants to sail solo, without stopping, external assistance, or resupply. Starting from the Vendée region of France, sailors must navigate past landmarks such as the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn, circumnavigating the globe before returning to the starting point.
The total distance is approximately 26,000 nautical miles. Known as the “Mount Everest of the Seas” and the “Olympics of Sailing,” the Vendée Globe is considered the most challenging and grueling sailing race in the world.
Born in 1989, Xu Jingkun lost his left forearm in an accident at the age of 12. However, he continuously pushed his limits and became a national team sailing athlete at 16.
His journey took him from the remote hills of Shangdong where he was a talented track and field athlete – who used to run 10kms each way to and from school – through Paralympic sailing which gave him a taste of international travel and competition in the USA to sailing solo around the seas of China in 2012 in a 24ft boat.
He sailed from Qingdao to Dandong City in Liaoning Province and Yongxing Island in the south, setting a world record for “the world’s first one-armed sailor to circumnavigate the oceans of China autonomously”.
Through six ocean crossings and over 30,000 nautical miles of intensive sailing, with a 100% accident-free completion rate, Xu ultimately earned his spot in the 10th Vendée Globe, becoming the first Chinese participant in the event.
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