Scorning modern electronics for a sextant, a 73-year-old French sailor has won the 30,000-mile Golden Globe solo round-the-world race after 212 days at sea – his first sailing victory – and a new record for the oldest skipper to sail solo non-stop around the world.

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede arrived in France’s Les Sables d’Olonne at the end of January in his 35-foot yacht Matmut. Of the 18 competitors who started the race in July last year, only five finished.

The race was Van Den Heede’s sixth circumnavigation. He nearly abandoned the event in November when his mast was damaged during a Southern Ocean storm, with 65-knot winds and 11m seas. A repair on land would have disqualified him, so he fixed the mast himself before rounding Cape Horn.

“But I admit that climbing a mast is no longer OK at my age,” he said in a post-race interview. “I climbed seven times. The worst thing was trying to undo the pins.”

Among those greeting Van Den Heede on his arrival was British sailor Robin Knox-Johnston, who won the only other Golden Globe race 50 years ago.