For Inauguration Day in his native USA, Rich Wilson is in celebratory mood. Not only is the only American in the Vendee Globe around-the-world yacht race back into brisk 30 knots winds as he heads for Cape Horn some 1,400 miles away, but the politician he backed in the US election is to be made President today.

Wilson, 59, from Rockport, Massachusetts, who aboardGreat American IIIis currently in tenth place in race, said: ‘It’s going to be a great day for the United States for a variety of reasons. Barack Obama is a really smart guy, and certainly the most calm politician I have ever seen in the US. He just does not get rattled, and I think that will help a lot in calming the mood of the country and the world, and that will help towards some rational decisions. There are a long, long list of things that have to be worked on, but it will be a good day for the USA.’