01/05/2023
Here is an article that we penned just before the first skippers in the GGR returned to France we meant to post it sooner:
Brave sailors of the Golden Globe Race 2022 race to the finish on French shores
-Golden globe sailing race which started in 1968 is coming to a finish for the third time in its history.
In 1968, 29-year-old Merchant marine officer Robin Knox-Johnston sailed into Falmouth in the south of England on his sailboat ‘Suhaili’, becoming the first ever person to complete a solo non-stop round the world voyage in what was then called the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Now, fifty-four years on and the Golden Globe Race (GGR) is set to finish again for the third time in its history, only this time uniquely, with potentially three skippers arriving into the Bay of Biscay as close as 100 nautical miles apart, having sailed 30,000 since last August. These skippers are from an original fleet of sixteen who started the race in Les Sables D’Olonne on the west coast of France and were slowly reduced to five, with the brutal attrition and toughness of the race across the oceans forcing skippers to retire.
The stories that we have witnessed from the race are of Hollywood proportions. This is real time folklore from a retro race reborn, folklore that just keeps on giving. Tales of woe and triumph with boats always dancing on the brink of danger. The GGR is life and death under stars and sun, as these lonely sailors battle up to eight- metre swells trying to maintain mental fortitude and a steady stretch on the rhumb line.
The original race in 1968 had just as many epic tales as the most recent one has produced. The case of Donald Crowhurst was a tale of tragic proportions; the inexperienced skipper falsified positions along the route and ended up apparently taking his own life under the pressure to perform and the financial stress. In the case of Bernard Moitessier - a Frenchman who grew up playing on boats around Vietnam - it is a story of the poetic hero. The closest rival to Knox Johnston in the original race, Moitessier shocked the world by deciding not to want to return to normal life and restarting his journey just before the finish in the Atlantic. He sailed around the world again ending up in Tahiti on a mission to “save his soul”.
The modern GGR has kept the same format as the 1968 race so the skippers cannot use modern navigation equipment or boats. Instead, they rely on using a Sextant and their charts to plot their course from the stars and sun, or get their location and weather from passing ships and local forecasts on their VHF radios.
For one skipper, Kirsten Neuschäfer of South Africa, the race has been a journey of humble attrition, having rescued her fellow competitor Tapio Lehtinen. The Finnish native and well experienced skipper spent twenty-four hours in a life raft after his vessel ‘Asteria’ dramatically sank. Waking up on board to a foot of water Lehtinen immediately put into motion the GGR team emergency plan of operation, alerting the team and deploying his raft. Deep in no-man’s land in the Indian Ocean, the nearest human to Lehtinen on earth was Neuschäfer, who immediately altered course and sailed her Cape George 36 ‘Minnehaha’ as fast as her sails would allow to try and pick up the man overboard.Having successfully found him and after pulling him aboard, the two shared a rum and an iconic moment before Lehtinen was transferred to a massive passing container ship in high seas. Regardless of experience this is a difficult feat for any skipper, especially one in the middle of a round-the-world race. Neuschäfer soon after headed back and continued her assault on the course and is currently approaching Bay of Biscay in pole position to win the Golden Globe Race. Finishing first would see Neuschäfer as the first ever woman to win to win a non stop round the world race.
One skipper alongside Neuschäfer is Commander Abhilash TomyOfficial of India, a man who is no stranger to the attrition of the GGR and has the scars to prove it. Tomy competed in the 2018 GGR when his boat was rolled and dismasted, leaving the skipper immobilised deck and needing to be rescued. 5 years later with steel pins in his back and a new vessel ‘Bayanat’, Tomy is approaching France to complete what seems a journey that’s taken years and has turned him into an icon of resilience.
Sailing ahead of these two is English born sailor GGR 2022 - Simon Curwen, who has led the entire fleet for the majority of the race. Curwen was rolled and his boat required a repair on its self-steering equipment, forcing him to pull in near Chile just prior to rounding Cape Horn. This stop under GGR rules put Curwen in ‘Chichester Class’, in reference to Francis Chichester - the man who originally circumnavigated the globe in 1967 making one stop along the way , this means that Curwen cannot win the overall GGR title even if he arrives in port first . The fact that he will not , however, should never take away from his immense sailing. Travelling light on ‘Clara’ his Biscay 36 vessel designed for speed to compete, Curwen took fewer spare parts than any other skipper. He showed his prowess in moving between pressure systems with speed throughout the race, and the experienced skipper proved his mettle once again by stopping for a whole week before rounding Cape Horn to catch up to the fleet and take first position again.
There is a novel to write on every skipper who has competed in the GGR 2022. Ireland’s own Pat Lawless who, having sang to us and made us laugh from the high seas, had to retire at Cape Town due to a self-steering issue aboard ‘Green Rebel’. We had the privilege of interviewing Lawless on our podcast and his desire to re-enter the 2026 GGR due to take place was palpable. There was the bohemian dreamer Elliot Smith from Florida who, having very little experience with big sea sailing, put every last dollar into buying his boat ‘Second Wind’ and made it as far as Australia. Approaching the Australian west coast without any local charts and a makeshift Bowsprit, the 27- year-old American had us all on the edge of our seats and now has a story he will tell for the rest of his life.
The GGR is nicknamed “the voyage of madmen”, but there’s something much deeper going on in the GGR. There’s the hero’s journey, the Joseph Campbell school of journeys. There is nothing in the world quite like this race: the isolation, the stripping back of technology, the solitude and the stars. It’s an echo of our ancestry and the true spirit of adventure.
All eyes will be on Les Sables D’Olonne in the coming days to see the heroes return.
Shane Power
Broad Reach Podcast
