Stripped Down Sailing on Comeback: Golden Globe 2018
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| Sir Robin Knox-Johnston only finisher and winner of Golden Globe 1969 today still making legends and sailing. |
It takes years to prepare to sail around the World, imagine preparing for an Round-the-World Regatta where no GPS nor modern technology can be used and you would have to sail across the most dangerous ocean routes...Alone!
While there is an increasing tendency of evolving Sailing Sports to the cutting edge of technology -driven especially by Multihull High Profile Competitions there is also an inevitable countermovement which is going back to basics, to the origin. Stripping down Sailing from all technology and coming in close contact with the raw essence of the sport is what the tendency is all about. Back to nature. Ocean Nature.
On May 1 Mcintyre Adventure -organizer of the 2018 Golden Globe Race, the race leading this retro-movement announced that the Transatlantic Regatta Barkley was on the verge of getting on.
“25 of the World’s best and Bravest Ocean Racers on their solo passage, 3050 nautical miles across the North Atlantic to ‘The New World’ -Brooklyn, New York City,” Mcintyre Adventure blasted away on Facebook.
One sailor stands out from these 25 Brave competing. Loïck Peyron -only Sailor in the World which has won the Transat three times has chosen to sail the legendary race the “Old Fashion Way”. In late April Peyron told the BBC that he wanted to sail in the boat which was used by his hero in 1964 the Pen Duick II. Peyron will be crossing the Atlantic for the 50th time. The Transat Barkley Regatta is a tribute to the late Eric Tabarley which is considered the “Godfather of French Sailing”.
“...to feel what Eric Tabarley went through, back to basics, slowly! Is AMAZING!” Peyron told the BBC.
Peyron was also invited to sail the Golden Globe 2018 edition and described it as the “SLOWEST RACE in the World!”.
“Soon we will see Retro divisions for many races..this is my prediction!” Peyron ended it.
Over 30 sailors are confirmed, preparing and training for the Golden Globe Race 2018. The Golden Globe Race has not been sailed in over 48 years. The race will be sailed again in 2018 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first and only Golden Globe Race which took place in 1968–1969
To understand the importance of the Golden Globe Race one needs to know that all Round-the-World most famous Regattas today were inspired by the first Golden Globe Race. The Golden Globe Race 1968-1969 was the first Round-the-World Regatta. Vendee Globe, Transat, BOC Challenge and many other major Regattas sailed today were founded on the columns set by the Golden Globe Race in the late 60s.
When Mcintyre announced a new Edition of the Golden Globe Race and set its start date exactly 50 years from the first edition they assured that while simple the race would be wild.
“The 2018 Golden Globe Race is very simple. Depart Falmouth, England, sail solo, nonstop around the world via the five Great Capes and return to Falmouth. Entrants are restricted to using the same type of yachts and equipment that were available to sailors who sailed the first race. That means sailing without modern technology or benefit of satellite based navigation aids. Competitors must sail in production boats between 32 feet and 36 feet overall designed prior to 1988 with a full-length keel and rudder attached to their trailing edge,” Organizers explained on April 22, 2015 when the Golden Globe Race 2018 was officially announced.
Throughout the first months of 2016 sailors reported to be set into the “training and preparation mode”.
Ouest France reported on April 25 that Sailor Antoine Cousot is preparing for the Golden Globe. With a focus on the Falmouth UK start line set for June 14, 2018 the French sailor is already making fast waters across the oceans.
“I have always dreamed of participating in this legendary event and now I will be able to do it for the 50th anniversary!” excited and inspired Antoine told the media.
French Champion Eric Loizeau and Experienced Uka Randmaa from Estonia announced their sign up in December last year. Others who signed before include Graham Applin aged 52 from UK, Francesco Cappelletti with 37 years from Italy, Loïc Lepage -59 also from France and an anonymous entrant from New Zealand. Additionally sailors from Austria, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Palestine, Russia and Switzerland and other French Sailors are confirmed as part of the fleet of the lucky 30.
French participants are expected to be high as they usually are in long-distance regattas, Transatlantic and Around-the-World Races but sailors from other countries -such as the US which has been growing into the sport, are also gearing up for the real thing.
Bangor Daily News reported that Roy Hubbard -one of the 30 sailors confirmed for entry is already getting into action.
“Imagine sailing around the world in 300 days, guided by only a sextant and the stars, with limited contact with anything other than the sea and a 32-foot boat. It’s the 2018 Golden Globe Race!” Bangor introduced Hubbard as officially signed into the Golden Globe Regatta.
Roy Hubbard may be 27 but has nearly two decades into sailing experience as he came into contact with the discipline very early in his life.
Hubbard agenda is focused. His main goals and targets are well set. Secure a boat, secure the needed equipment, find a sponsor and log 10 thousand miles of training courses which are required to draw off the start line.
“It’s daunting, for sure,” Hubbard said. “There’s a lot of prep. It’s going to be hard just to get to the starting line.”
Hubbard will be representing the US in the race along with Antonio Felipe García Martínez aged 41 -Miami native born to Cuban refugees. They will not only face the challenge of taking up the World's Oceans force but the privilege of competing side by side day after day with legends of the sport.
“Hubbard has loved sailing since he was a child growing up in Connecticut. He idolized explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake and Sir Ernest Shackleton, and wanted to walk in their shoes,” the media reported.
“There’s not a lot left new in the World to explore,” Hubbard said, but taking part in an elite contest like this is his as a way of paying homage to his idols, and having a great adventure of his own.
“At age 8, Hubbard dug a neglected Sunfish sailboat out of his grandmother’s garage, cleaned it up and took it out on the water. He kept sailing, upgrading to larger boats over the years, until he came to Maine for college, where other obligations made his sailing excursions less frequent. Now, he’ll have to get back in the swing of things,” Bangor printed.
Hubbard also recognized that there is a tendency to improve the sport and not lose contact with its original form.
“They want to make it as close to the original race as possible,” Hubbard told the press and added. “The best way to move forward is to move backward, in a way.”
Those who will sail the Golden Globe Race 2018 Edition are obliged to carry onboard a listed and inspected safety gear which includes satellite phones, GPS and other goodies useful when disaster thunders down. But if they open the security bag they instantly abandon the race.
Golden Globe Race 2018 assures that safety is priority and that all boats will be tracked constantly. Sailors are also forced to report via radio once a week. Everyone agrees that the race will take 300 days at least to be completed.
Sailing around the World or long distance Regatta and fast regattas sailing around a course and around the buoys are very different. Modern times -hurried urban times may fit in perfectly with fast course stadium sailing but fall short when it comes to long distance sailing. Time is overplaced with strategy, fast adrenaline is replaced by patience and endurance, constant focus vanishes and time to meditate and contemplate the vast wide open ocean dominates.
Sailing around the world is not a time regatta, it is a spiritual regatta, a certain type of mental state is required. Sailors who have competed in Round the World Regattas assure that their life changed after the experience and that it would never be the same, all add that they have become different persons. These type of sailors which sail around the world and through the most dangerous Capes - talking Cape Horn and not through the Panama-Polynesia passing really deserve respect. Just imagining sailing alone for hundreds of days around the world without GPS using only stars and sectants for guidance with no company other than the Ocean and its mood is both vertigo-like and peaceful.
For some the importance of this type of Regatta in these times is inspiring and an important need. To strip down sailing and sail boats to the bare minimals and return to basic sailing techniques opens a window for a massive connection with the ocean. However the endeavour is more than a challenge.
The original Golden Globe race was tainted in controversy because most sailors could not complete the race and one sailor committed suicide. Of the nine sailors which competed only one made it to the finish line.
The man who did make it to the finish line did not only become a legend but continued and still today continues to carry the torch of the original spirit of sailing high, very high.
On April 22 Clipper Around the World -another controversial race known for training every day people from every part of the World to participate in a Round-the World Regatta, reported that its Chairman and Founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston celebrated 47 years since he won the first Golden Globe Race. That is right, not only is the man who sailed the first race around the World alive but he is very active and involved in the sailing leading the Clipper Race -one of the most famous races to be run in the past years.
Clipper described the sailors achievements Sir Robin Knox-Johnston as “Historical”.
“Forty-seven years ago today, Clipper Race chairman and founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston became the first man to have sailed solo, nonstop round the globe having been victorious in the Sunday Times Golden Globe race.
The sole finisher out of nine entrants, Sir Robin crossed the finish line off Falmouth, UK on 22 April 1969 aged 30 after 312 days at sea. With none of the modern technological aids available to sailors nowadays, Sir Robin was asked where he had come from on his 32-foot yacht Suhaili, to which he replied ‘Falmouth’.” Clipper Around the World reported.
"To be able to say you were the first to do something on a planet of seven billion is nice. It changed my life. I left as a young ambitious bloke and came back a completely different person," Sir Robin, now 76 reflects.
Sir Knox-Johnston carried on setting an incredible career relentlessly throughout the years. Lines of Honours in two legs of the 1977-8 Whitbread Race, co-skipper of Enza New Zealand at the Jules Verne Trophy 1994 and taking the fastest circumnavigation of the World, completed the Velux5Oceans Solo Round the World race in fourth position in 2006-7 at the age of 68, finished third in 2014 in the Rhum Class Solo Transatlantic Route du Rhum and in 2015 took part of the Transatlantic Race with friends and finished third in class. Sir Robin became the UK's Yachtsman of the Year four times, was ISAF Sailor of the Year in 1994 and in 2007 was included in the ISAF Hall of Fame.
In 1996 he created the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race to “offer people from all walks of life and ages the experience of ocean racing together with the opportunity of completing a circumnavigation”. More than 4,000 people have since been introduced to sailing through the unique event which is the longest in the World at 40,000 miles.
”When I first heard about the 2018 Golden Globe Race I thought it was a great idea, why not do it, reach out to people who have the ambition to do something special with their lives,” Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said.
“If the sailor wants to listen to music, they can bring a cassette player. If they want to document their trips in pictures, they have to bring a 35-mm film camera. They’ll have to predict weather on their own, and won’t be allowed to get forecasts from the mainland,” Golden Globe 2018 adds.
“The overriding aim is for a race where adventure takes precedence over winning at all costs; one where sailing skill and traditional seamanship, rather than modern technology and outside support, gets you round, and where the achievement truly belongs to the skipper,” Founder of the Race in its 2018 Edition Don McIntyre says.
No GPS, no cell phones or other modern amenities, after all who wants those out in the open Ocean? Golden Globe 2018, a Tendency or a Phase? One thing is certain...it will be a beautiful thing.
The light of the moon on the moving open ocean waves...an endless dark deep blue horizon...the knowing that there are miles of water below the deck...the sunrise...and the voice of the Ocean, clear which says, “Slow Down”...”Breathe it in”...” Remember”...”Remember”...”Remember”...
...”Remember Me?”...
While there is an increasing tendency of evolving Sailing Sports to the cutting edge of technology -driven especially by Multihull High Profile Competitions there is also an inevitable countermovement which is going back to basics, to the origin. Stripping down Sailing from all technology and coming in close contact with the raw essence of the sport is what the tendency is all about. Back to nature. Ocean Nature.
On May 1 Mcintyre Adventure -organizer of the 2018 Golden Globe Race, the race leading this retro-movement announced that the Transatlantic Regatta Barkley was on the verge of getting on.
“25 of the World’s best and Bravest Ocean Racers on their solo passage, 3050 nautical miles across the North Atlantic to ‘The New World’ -Brooklyn, New York City,” Mcintyre Adventure blasted away on Facebook.
One sailor stands out from these 25 Brave competing. Loïck Peyron -only Sailor in the World which has won the Transat three times has chosen to sail the legendary race the “Old Fashion Way”. In late April Peyron told the BBC that he wanted to sail in the boat which was used by his hero in 1964 the Pen Duick II. Peyron will be crossing the Atlantic for the 50th time. The Transat Barkley Regatta is a tribute to the late Eric Tabarley which is considered the “Godfather of French Sailing”.
“...to feel what Eric Tabarley went through, back to basics, slowly! Is AMAZING!” Peyron told the BBC.
Peyron was also invited to sail the Golden Globe 2018 edition and described it as the “SLOWEST RACE in the World!”.
“Soon we will see Retro divisions for many races..this is my prediction!” Peyron ended it.
Over 30 sailors are confirmed, preparing and training for the Golden Globe Race 2018. The Golden Globe Race has not been sailed in over 48 years. The race will be sailed again in 2018 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first and only Golden Globe Race which took place in 1968–1969
To understand the importance of the Golden Globe Race one needs to know that all Round-the-World most famous Regattas today were inspired by the first Golden Globe Race. The Golden Globe Race 1968-1969 was the first Round-the-World Regatta. Vendee Globe, Transat, BOC Challenge and many other major Regattas sailed today were founded on the columns set by the Golden Globe Race in the late 60s.
When Mcintyre announced a new Edition of the Golden Globe Race and set its start date exactly 50 years from the first edition they assured that while simple the race would be wild.
“The 2018 Golden Globe Race is very simple. Depart Falmouth, England, sail solo, nonstop around the world via the five Great Capes and return to Falmouth. Entrants are restricted to using the same type of yachts and equipment that were available to sailors who sailed the first race. That means sailing without modern technology or benefit of satellite based navigation aids. Competitors must sail in production boats between 32 feet and 36 feet overall designed prior to 1988 with a full-length keel and rudder attached to their trailing edge,” Organizers explained on April 22, 2015 when the Golden Globe Race 2018 was officially announced.
Throughout the first months of 2016 sailors reported to be set into the “training and preparation mode”.
Ouest France reported on April 25 that Sailor Antoine Cousot is preparing for the Golden Globe. With a focus on the Falmouth UK start line set for June 14, 2018 the French sailor is already making fast waters across the oceans.
“I have always dreamed of participating in this legendary event and now I will be able to do it for the 50th anniversary!” excited and inspired Antoine told the media.
French Champion Eric Loizeau and Experienced Uka Randmaa from Estonia announced their sign up in December last year. Others who signed before include Graham Applin aged 52 from UK, Francesco Cappelletti with 37 years from Italy, Loïc Lepage -59 also from France and an anonymous entrant from New Zealand. Additionally sailors from Austria, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Palestine, Russia and Switzerland and other French Sailors are confirmed as part of the fleet of the lucky 30.
French participants are expected to be high as they usually are in long-distance regattas, Transatlantic and Around-the-World Races but sailors from other countries -such as the US which has been growing into the sport, are also gearing up for the real thing.
Bangor Daily News reported that Roy Hubbard -one of the 30 sailors confirmed for entry is already getting into action.
“Imagine sailing around the world in 300 days, guided by only a sextant and the stars, with limited contact with anything other than the sea and a 32-foot boat. It’s the 2018 Golden Globe Race!” Bangor introduced Hubbard as officially signed into the Golden Globe Regatta.
Roy Hubbard may be 27 but has nearly two decades into sailing experience as he came into contact with the discipline very early in his life.
Hubbard agenda is focused. His main goals and targets are well set. Secure a boat, secure the needed equipment, find a sponsor and log 10 thousand miles of training courses which are required to draw off the start line.
“It’s daunting, for sure,” Hubbard said. “There’s a lot of prep. It’s going to be hard just to get to the starting line.”
Hubbard will be representing the US in the race along with Antonio Felipe García Martínez aged 41 -Miami native born to Cuban refugees. They will not only face the challenge of taking up the World's Oceans force but the privilege of competing side by side day after day with legends of the sport.
“Hubbard has loved sailing since he was a child growing up in Connecticut. He idolized explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake and Sir Ernest Shackleton, and wanted to walk in their shoes,” the media reported.
“There’s not a lot left new in the World to explore,” Hubbard said, but taking part in an elite contest like this is his as a way of paying homage to his idols, and having a great adventure of his own.
“At age 8, Hubbard dug a neglected Sunfish sailboat out of his grandmother’s garage, cleaned it up and took it out on the water. He kept sailing, upgrading to larger boats over the years, until he came to Maine for college, where other obligations made his sailing excursions less frequent. Now, he’ll have to get back in the swing of things,” Bangor printed.
Hubbard also recognized that there is a tendency to improve the sport and not lose contact with its original form.
“They want to make it as close to the original race as possible,” Hubbard told the press and added. “The best way to move forward is to move backward, in a way.”
Those who will sail the Golden Globe Race 2018 Edition are obliged to carry onboard a listed and inspected safety gear which includes satellite phones, GPS and other goodies useful when disaster thunders down. But if they open the security bag they instantly abandon the race.
Golden Globe Race 2018 assures that safety is priority and that all boats will be tracked constantly. Sailors are also forced to report via radio once a week. Everyone agrees that the race will take 300 days at least to be completed.
Sailing around the World or long distance Regatta and fast regattas sailing around a course and around the buoys are very different. Modern times -hurried urban times may fit in perfectly with fast course stadium sailing but fall short when it comes to long distance sailing. Time is overplaced with strategy, fast adrenaline is replaced by patience and endurance, constant focus vanishes and time to meditate and contemplate the vast wide open ocean dominates.
Sailing around the world is not a time regatta, it is a spiritual regatta, a certain type of mental state is required. Sailors who have competed in Round the World Regattas assure that their life changed after the experience and that it would never be the same, all add that they have become different persons. These type of sailors which sail around the world and through the most dangerous Capes - talking Cape Horn and not through the Panama-Polynesia passing really deserve respect. Just imagining sailing alone for hundreds of days around the world without GPS using only stars and sectants for guidance with no company other than the Ocean and its mood is both vertigo-like and peaceful.
For some the importance of this type of Regatta in these times is inspiring and an important need. To strip down sailing and sail boats to the bare minimals and return to basic sailing techniques opens a window for a massive connection with the ocean. However the endeavour is more than a challenge.
The original Golden Globe race was tainted in controversy because most sailors could not complete the race and one sailor committed suicide. Of the nine sailors which competed only one made it to the finish line.
The man who did make it to the finish line did not only become a legend but continued and still today continues to carry the torch of the original spirit of sailing high, very high.
On April 22 Clipper Around the World -another controversial race known for training every day people from every part of the World to participate in a Round-the World Regatta, reported that its Chairman and Founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston celebrated 47 years since he won the first Golden Globe Race. That is right, not only is the man who sailed the first race around the World alive but he is very active and involved in the sailing leading the Clipper Race -one of the most famous races to be run in the past years.
Clipper described the sailors achievements Sir Robin Knox-Johnston as “Historical”.
“Forty-seven years ago today, Clipper Race chairman and founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston became the first man to have sailed solo, nonstop round the globe having been victorious in the Sunday Times Golden Globe race.
The sole finisher out of nine entrants, Sir Robin crossed the finish line off Falmouth, UK on 22 April 1969 aged 30 after 312 days at sea. With none of the modern technological aids available to sailors nowadays, Sir Robin was asked where he had come from on his 32-foot yacht Suhaili, to which he replied ‘Falmouth’.” Clipper Around the World reported.
"To be able to say you were the first to do something on a planet of seven billion is nice. It changed my life. I left as a young ambitious bloke and came back a completely different person," Sir Robin, now 76 reflects.
Sir Knox-Johnston carried on setting an incredible career relentlessly throughout the years. Lines of Honours in two legs of the 1977-8 Whitbread Race, co-skipper of Enza New Zealand at the Jules Verne Trophy 1994 and taking the fastest circumnavigation of the World, completed the Velux5Oceans Solo Round the World race in fourth position in 2006-7 at the age of 68, finished third in 2014 in the Rhum Class Solo Transatlantic Route du Rhum and in 2015 took part of the Transatlantic Race with friends and finished third in class. Sir Robin became the UK's Yachtsman of the Year four times, was ISAF Sailor of the Year in 1994 and in 2007 was included in the ISAF Hall of Fame.
In 1996 he created the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race to “offer people from all walks of life and ages the experience of ocean racing together with the opportunity of completing a circumnavigation”. More than 4,000 people have since been introduced to sailing through the unique event which is the longest in the World at 40,000 miles.
”When I first heard about the 2018 Golden Globe Race I thought it was a great idea, why not do it, reach out to people who have the ambition to do something special with their lives,” Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said.
“If the sailor wants to listen to music, they can bring a cassette player. If they want to document their trips in pictures, they have to bring a 35-mm film camera. They’ll have to predict weather on their own, and won’t be allowed to get forecasts from the mainland,” Golden Globe 2018 adds.
“The overriding aim is for a race where adventure takes precedence over winning at all costs; one where sailing skill and traditional seamanship, rather than modern technology and outside support, gets you round, and where the achievement truly belongs to the skipper,” Founder of the Race in its 2018 Edition Don McIntyre says.
No GPS, no cell phones or other modern amenities, after all who wants those out in the open Ocean? Golden Globe 2018, a Tendency or a Phase? One thing is certain...it will be a beautiful thing.
The light of the moon on the moving open ocean waves...an endless dark deep blue horizon...the knowing that there are miles of water below the deck...the sunrise...and the voice of the Ocean, clear which says, “Slow Down”...”Breathe it in”...” Remember”...”Remember”...”Remember”...
...”Remember Me?”...
