Shane Freeman describes himself as an adventurer who happens to love sailing. In recent years  has been charting a course around the Pacific where particularly enjoyed  trade wind sailing. Through the 2000’s he competed in a number of Bass Strait races organised by the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria aboard his Northshore 33 class yacht. Shane says that he knows enough about ocean sailing to understand the reality of what he is undertaking.

I’m doing the GGR for the personal challenge it represents and will be bringing strong management and project skills to the preparation of the boat – and myself.

Shane has selected the Tradewind 35 class yacht Mushka to do the GGR and is sailing her from Melbourne to the UK  over the winter of 2016/17.

The Boat

Mushka is a Tradewind 35 class yacht, built in the UK in 1984. Shane Freeman bought bought her in Brisbane Australia in 2015 and sailed her to Melbourne later that year. She has since undergone a major refit including new sails and rigging, the removal and inspection of rudder and chainplates, replacement of all lights, a new HF radio, fitting of additional cockpit drains; strong points fitted for deployment of a drogue, replacement of anchoring systems, and cooking facilities.

Website: freemansailing.com

Facebook: facebook.com/freemansailing/

Twitter: twitter.com/Shaneaustralia/

YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCjFVCKFyFX1v0DJOegcWsWg

Robin Davie is the master of three previous solo circumnavigations that have included dismastings and the loss of a rudder!

He was an entrant in the 2018 GGR but was beaten by time to make the start. Finding and refitting his Rustler 36 simply took too long. He was the last entrant to withdraw before the start. Now it is a different story. His boat is looking good and he is more fired up than ever before with more solo transatlantic training planned leading to the start of the GGR.

Robin (being a young man) is hoping to repeat or better JL VDH’s performance, but he would never tell you that.

The Boat

Robin Davie bought his Rustler 36 in Benfleet, Essex and sailed west to Falmouth to refit himself close to Rustler Yacht’s yard where she was built for home completion. ‘Nothing was ever quite finished, and the more I looked, the more I found needed working on or replacing’ he says. Davie has re-glassed the hull and deck joint, extended the chain plates, replaced the mast step and constructed a solid doghouse to protect the cockpit area. He planned to re-launch her in March and cross the English Channel to Les Sables d’Olonne to fit a new mast taken from Jean-Luc Van Den Heede’s rival Rustler 36 Matmut then devote the last three months before the start to completing sea trials.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robin.davie.9

Rescued Golden Globe 2018 sailor Abhilash Tomy re-enters 2022 GGR

Indian sailor Abhilash Tomy was an entrant in the 50th anniversary edition of the Golden Globe, a solo non-stop race around the world which started from Les Sables d’Olonne France on July 1st 2018.

He was rescued after 83 days at sea following a complex international effort. The winner of the first 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe was Englishman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sailing a 32ft timber yacht built in India named Suhaili. He became the first person ever to solo circumnavigate the globe non-stop after 312 days. Abhilash was sailing an exact replica of Suhaili, named ‘Thuriya’ and also built in India.

Abhilash, a Navy commander who had previously sailed solo non-stop around the world was running third in the race when an extreme storm deep in the Southern Indian Ocean rolled and dismasted his yacht, severely injuring his back and was unable to move his legs. Trapped below, he sent a short text message to race control and turned his EPIRB on. Then all communication was lost.

Halfway between Australia and South Africa, the disabled yacht was as far from rescue as anyone could be. Three and a half days later, a French Government fisheries patrol vessel OSIRIS arrived at the scene. In difficult conditions the crew were able to recover Abhilash in a stretcher. He was later transferred to an Indian Navy vessel sent to recover him and two days after arriving in India titanium rods were inserted in his spine and 5 vertebrae were fused into one.

My legs were so badly off that I had to learn to walk again. But I did learn to walk, and then got into a cockpit and got back to Navy flying, and sailing! Now three and a half years later, I am heading back into the same race that almost got me killed.

Abhilash Tomy

The Boat

Abhilash has purchased a Rustler 36 in France, and named it ‘Bayanat’. It previously raced in the last Golden Globe by Philippe Péché with PRB sponsorship. He has just five months to complete a full refit and sail a 2,000 mile solo voyage to qualify for the GGR. He is the last entrant to join this incredible human adventure that is unlike any other event in the world.

Technical Boat Photos

Website: https://www.abhilashtomy.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abhilashtomysailing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrd8XOpbTXxc1WL0ESu5L2w

Twitter: https://twitter.com/abhilashtomy

Videos

2018 Boat

Antoine Cousot is a professional sailor based in Noirmoutier, France, with his wife and three children. He has sailed the equivalent of three times around the world, delivering boats and skippering large luxury yachts. With over 15 oceans crossing under his belt, Antoine has extensive passage making experience.

Antoine is working with Oceano Vox Vendée, a local non-profit organization to raise awareness of environmental issues and conduct researches on psychology during the race.

Why enter the GGR? Antoine says:

 It is a unique opportunity to take this relationship with the sea even further. It is a challenge to accomplish what few sailors have done before; it is a quest with cosmic dimensions.

I have had to give up an international career, a comfortable living and sell my house and boat. I have returned to France with my family and created a company to manage this project. This entrepreneurship has its ups and downs and is very demanding but all in all, a rich experience of personal teaching and discipline that will help me in whatever I decide to do after. As for others, just getting to the start is a victory but more, I want to realise a dream to sail in the wake of Bernard Moitessier and say, I did it!

Antoine is also using the campaign to raise £1m for The Antoine Cousot Scholarship Fund to give 50 students the opportunity to transform their futures, through flexible, practical education in Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences run by the Open University, which, like the GGR is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Antoine, an Open University graduate says:

The OU changed my openness to the world we’re living in. They came to me with the right tools at the right time, helping me pursue my dreams. Now, I want to share my experience with others – learning is intimately part of our life.

The Boat

Antoine Cousot’s Biscay 36 was the first of these classic ketch designs, built by Robert Ives/Falmouth Boat Construction in 1975. She returned there during the 2016/7 winter for a full refit. Relaunched in May 2017, Antoine then sailed her during the summer in the gulf of Biscay. The yacht was then exhibited at the 2017 Paris Nautic Boat Show.

Cousot has won sponsorship from the Vendée based employment agency Métier Intérim and has devoted the early Spring months to getting as much experience as possible in the winter storms of the Atlantic to readiness himself for the Southern Ocean.

Are Wiig is a professional seaman, engineer and yacht surveyor from Svelvik near Oslo. He has chosen an Olle Enderlin designed OE32 class double-ender named Olleanna to compete in the Race. Wiig, who has more than five decades of sailing experience, finished 2nd in class in the 1988 OSTAR with his 30ft yacht Granada. He later covered more than 30,000 miles in that boat before building and sailing a 33ft catamaran. In 2000 he bought a sistership to the 56ft multihull Umupro Jardin, winner of the 1984 OSTAR, and won several shorthanded and fully crewed races in his native Norway.

He says of the race: ‘The Golden Globe is a dream come true.’

The Boat

Are Wiig bought his OE 32 class yacht Olleanna in 2015 and the job of making her compliant with the GGR rules began. This Olle Enderlein designed yacht is modeled on the classic Scandinavian double-ender and was designed in 1971. Olleanna was built in 1973, is fitted with a masthead rig and makes surprisingly good speed, even in light winds.

In October 2017, Wiig completed a 2,600-mile solo voyage from Oslo up into the Arctic Circle to North Cape (71° N) and back.

I experienced steady winds between 10 and 40knots with gusts of 70 knots off South Utsire. The boat performed very well, averaging 6 knots throughout the voyage.

He says the voyage also uncovered several leaks around deck fittings and windows, which he fixed during a final refit during the 2017/18 winter ready to be relaunched once the ice melted in the spring.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aresailing/

Retired: 16 November 2022 – personal reasons
Ertan retired after reaching the Cape Town gate on November 16 on Lazy Otter. He said he lived an incredible experience over the 10 weeks, but did not think he would enjoy the next three months to Cape Horn, citing extreme isolation. “I was looking for the unknown and I found it” he said.

Originally from Istanbul, Turkey. Now Bournemouth, UK.

Ertan Beskardes entered the 2018 edition of the Golden Globe as one of the last entrants to sign up. With just months to the start, he bought a Rustler 36 and started training and rebuilding the boat. His close knit family were 100% behind his efforts. This was critical to him making the start, as the pressure was immense toward the end. His much loved friendly style was obvious to all in the GGR and his breakfast omelettes for all on the marina became world famous!

Just five days after setting off on the GGR adventure it all hit home. The boat was ready, but he was not. He made the bold decision to retire. As the FIRST entrant into the 2022 GGR, Ertan is continuing his planning and preparation including the 2020 OSTAR and will surely be ready in Sept 2022!

Ertan Beskardes is a Turkish born British national who began sailing on the Bosphorus at the age of twelve

He came to the UK in 1979 and made a career in military tailoring and regalia, before setting up his own company with his wife in Bournemouth in 1994. There, they built a boat in the back garden and have been sailing regularly in nearby Christchurch harbour since 1998. As their children grew up he graduated first to a Drascombe Cruiser Longboat, then a Parker 235 cruising yacht before buying a Jeanneau Odyssey 33 in 2012, sailing each year-round. Ertan had planned to sail singlehanded to the Azores, taking part in the Jester Challenge race once, and twice on his own accord only to be thwarted each time either by limited time or bad weather.

He says:

I have always been self-employed and always wanted to do something special like sail around the world. I first learned about the Golden Globe Race on Facebook in 2017 and thought to enter the second race in 2022, but then learned that there were places available for the 2018 event. I quickly found a Rustler 36 in Sardinia and have been preparing her for the race ever since.

The Boat

Lazy Otter was purchased in Fertilia, Sardinia during our Med cruise end of 2017. She was originally bought with the intention of doing the GGR 2022, but Don would let me compete in GGR 2018 if I got to the start. So I left Sardinia with the intention of starting 2018 race.

She was prepared within the next 6 months, as best as I could. Shortly after the start, I decided to stop the race. I was not happy being away after 6 months of race preparations.

Lazy Otter and its skipper are now much better prepared boat for 2022 race. I have learnt great deal about the race, spending time with last lot of GGR sailors have been invaluable.

There has also been lot of sailing done with Lazy Otter. Since 1st July 2021, based at Les Sables, boat is ready, more importantly I am ready for the journey ahead. For me race is ambition to achieve dream but not in the expense of everything else in my life. I have a family, a business and plenty of wonderful things around me.

The race must be exciting and fulfilling for me. Don always says it’s about the people and it’s very true. Every entrant will have to find their own reasons to be isolated for so long away. 

Our achievements can only have a value if we are to share all with our loved ones. Me, my family, friends and colleagues are ready for the start of this rare journey, whom I owe a great deal to make things happen now and during my long absences.

Can not wait to be in the start line with my loved ones and great people of Les Sables!

Technical Boat Photos

Videos

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ertan.beskardes.7

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ertan.beskardes/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/uzra90

Francesco Cappelletti is a professional Ocean Yacht Master with commercial endorsements based in Tuscany. He has delivered yachts throughout the Mediterranean, Western Europe and across the Atlantic and also worked as a charter skipper and sailing instructor. Before becoming professional he sailed the West coast of Italy and Islands in a 20ft boat without any electronics or autopilot.

Francesco says of the GGR:

After learning about the race, I found myself thinking how important the accounts from the original Sunday Times Golden Globe Race have been during my training as a seaman. I used to sail without an autopilot or electrical instruments, and with only a Tilley storm-lamp as my light source. Sailing round the world alone in this basic way is a must-do-in-lifetime goal. I see the 2018 GGR as a chance to pay tribute to my core passion for the sea.

The Boat

Francesco has selected the sloop rigged Endurance 35 007 built in 1975 by the French shipyard Stratimer. He expects this rugged design will perform well in light winds and be one of the better suited for rough downwind conditions expected in the Southern Ocean. He particularly likes her spacious living quarters, sheltered cockpit and clean deck. Her refit over the 2017/18 winter included replacing her decks, reinforcing the bow area, converting her to a ketch and fitting new bowsprit, chain plates and rudder. Francesco used crowd funding to raise the money for her new masts. He expected to relaunch 007 and complete initial trials in the Mediterranean prior setting sail for Les Sables d’Olonne in May.

Website: https://francescocappelletti.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francescoceanrace/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francescoceanrace/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6R8AVx2r1lc3nKuFouVlwg

Ever thirsty for adventure, Gregor McGuckin has been involved in the outdoors from an early age. Starting out climbing the hills and mountains around Ireland, he soon discovered the sea and windsurfing and surfing became a daily part of life. He chose sailing as his profession, starting as a dinghy coach, delivery skipper and in recent times, skippered of a 62ft yacht based in the Caribbean. He has logged over 45,000 miles crossing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and many other passages around the world. Always looking for the next challenge, Gregor was excited by the opportunity to compete in the 2018 GGR and hopes to become the first Irishman to complete a non-stop, unassisted solo circumnavigation of the world. via the three Great Capes.

Gregor has partnered with an Irish publisher CJ Fallon and Ireland’s Marine Institute to create an education programme based around his GGR voyage, designed to engage primary children in adventure and the marine environment. Distributed free to classrooms across Ireland, the overriding goal has been to create an army of ‘Ocean literate’ young people who understand the importance our oceans have on them so that they are well placed to ensure a sustainable and sensible future for Ireland the world.

He says of the GGR:

When I started sailing, the main attraction was the freedom it gave me to explore. As I grew older and started sailing larger vessels, the scope of the areas I could potentially explore became almost infinite. When I started reading about the GGR I had already crossed the Atlantic a few times and the Indian ocean and asking myself ‘What next’. A circumnavigation was always a dream along with ocean racing, so when this came up as an affordable way of achieving both it was a no-brainer.

The Boat

Gregor has selected the ketch-rigged Biscay 36 Mary Luck to compete in the GGR. Her refit was due to be completed at the end of February 2018, and he planned to spend March and April sailing around his native Ireland combining training with a promotional tour of ports.

The yacht’s name will be the subject of a competition among primary school children taking part in the education programme associated with Gregor’s GGR entry.

Born and bred on the banks of the River Volga running through the Russian city of Yroslavl on its way to enter the Caspian Sea, Igor Zaretskiy is one of Russia’s most experienced international sailors. He has twice won the Russian ¼ Ton championship, competed in multiple RORC Caribbean races, and such classics as the Fastnet, Newport-Bermuda and Middle Sea races. In 2010 he won the Jester Challenge singlehanded transatlantic race, a feat that won him Russia’s Yachtsman of the Year title.

He says of the GGR:

Sailing around the world has been a dream since childhood. I knew about the first Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968/9, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to take part 50 years later.

The Boat

Igor Zaretskiy has selected the Belliure Endurance 35 ketch Esmeralda to compete in the GGR. Supported by the magazine Yacht Russia, his team spent the 2017/18 winter preparing the yacht in the warmer climes of Spain. They took delivery of a new rig in February and planned to relaunch her at the beginning of March ready for Igor to sail first to the Azores before heading north to Falmouth as part of the yacht’s sail trials.