In 1968, nine sailors set out on the very first solo circumnavigation race, sponsored by the London Times. The race was called The Golden Globe and it was to become perhaps the most historically significant sailing race of all time.
Of the nine entrants, only one was to finish. Francis Chichester on board the 40'
Gipsy Moth completed the roughly 30,000 mile circumnavigation via the Five Capes (Aghulas, Leeuwin, South East, South West and Horn) in 226 days. The other eight contestants either retired, sank or committed suicide at sea. Of those, the Frenchman Bernard Moitessier may have become, in the final analysis, a more historically significant figure than Chichester. Moitessier rounded Cape Horn, eastbound, and instead of turning left into the Atlantic Ocean and heading for the finish line, rather famously said "f*ck it" and continued onward past Cape Aghulas, into the Indian Ocean, and spent several years bopping around the South Pacific.
Moitessier's years at sea resulted in a fabulous chronicle of his adventures,
The Long Way, and his other writings on survival at sea - particularly in storm conditions such as those frequently found in the Southern Ocean, set the baseline for solo and shorthanded blue water sailing.
On July 1 of this year another group of solo sailors will depart Les Sables D'Olonne, France, for the 2018 running of the Golden Globe Race. They will follow roughly the same course as their forebears some five decades ago. The course is quite similar to that followed by the Everest of sailing, the Vendee Globe. There are, however, significant differences that make the GGR even more interesting.
Unlike the Vendee, the GGR is open to anyone who can demonstrate the successful completion of 8,000 miles of solo, blue water sailing. The participants are not highly-sponsored professional ocean racers. They will not be competing in 70', purpose-built, technology-laden speed machines. Competitors in the GGR must sail in factory-built, production boats generally described as "cruising boats".
Additionally, they must sail in a manner that is technologically consistent with the original GGR of 1968. This means no generators, no water makers, no GPS chart plotters, no constant high-speed satellite links. Navigation must be celestial. The only electronics allowed on board are an AIS tracking device, so the boats can be monitored from race HQ, an EPIRB in case of dire emergency (i.e. sinking), an SSB radio to summon help and a satellite texting device, to be used to send daily 100-character messages to race HQ to report progress and conditions.
Of the 31 entrants thus far named, there are three Americans:
Istvan Kopar, age 64. He will be sailing a Tradewind 35 named
Puffin.
Roy Hubbard, age 28, on board
Duke, a Baba 35.
Carl Huber, age 57, also sailing a Baba 35.
None of these boats are new - the Baba 35 was designed in the late 70s by Robert Perry and built by the Ta Shing yard in Taiwan. Roughly 75 were built, between 1979 and 1986. They're heavy boats - about 21,000 lbs - and the fleet has counted many, many circumnavigations.
The official web site for the Golden Globe Race is
here.
