The Skipper

Sailing Experience

About 15.000 nm. Major passages: Atlantic crossing, Caribbean Sea south to north, south to west, Mediterranean east to west and sailing Lazy Otter from Lanzarote to The Netherlands in 2023.

Why the GGR?

I got hooked on the online coverage of the GGR 2022 after seeing the Lanzarote gate interviews. It was around the Cape Town gate coverage that it suddenly became clear to me that I could do this and especially that I wanted to do this. I think my main reason for signing up is that I’m looking for meaning and purpose while at the same time doing something really exciting. Although returning to the same place after circumventing the globe might be as pointless as life itself, it gives me the direction that I need at this stage in my life. It’s also about the challenge of course. Not only in competition or with respect to others but to myself.

Solitude is also something I want to explore. I have a wonderful and supportive wife and three beautiful sons. I’m surrounded by them most of the time and until recently also by my hotel guests. I used to own and manage a small hotel, which was also our home. I loved doing that but I am in for a change. Doing this project is great. I’m already enjoying preparing and working on Lazy Otter, a Rustler 36. She was GGR 2022 entrant Ertan Beskardes‘ boat. In preparation for 2026 we plan to participate together in the Twostar Plymouth to Newport race. Twostar is the double handed version of the original Ostar single handed race. Sailing back solo should give me my qualifying miles for the GGR.

Best and worst aspects

The things I can think of are both the best and worst. Very little communication: nice, quiet and simple but also frighteningly lonely. The obligation to have to pass through the gates: longing for contact but knowing it will be short and that I will miss my loved ones even more.

The Boat