It’s almost time. The Global Solo Challenge is about to start, in less than a month.
Almost 3 years ago, Marco Nannini launched the idea and concept. Not much was ready or wholly thought-through. 29 months later, the first group (2 boats) is about to set sail for a solo, non-stop circumnavigation, following the Great Capes routes. Here the previous post.
As solo and shorthanded sailor and skipper, I cannot but admire who will make it to the start. And dream, of course.
I have mixed feelings about this race. It was born to fill the gap between a vintage Golden Globe Race and a high tech open class Vendée Globe. It was born to give a chance to the adventurer within the sailor, any sailor, to realise the Dream. The concept encouraged production boats meeting specific safety requirements to be worthy candidates.
It turns out that, out of 55 initial entries, only 19 qualify. It also turns out that, since opening to Open classes, most of the 19 yachts left are not production boats. In fact, 12 boats are Open 40, 50, 60 and 70 plus one VOR70.
Interestingly enough, the wide majority of 36 retired yachts ARE production boats of some sorts. Why did they retire? Didn’t the meet the safety criteria? Was the budget too high? Are the sailor behind those boats more constrained to life as we know it?
Nevertheless, I’ll be following this incredible feat. First to leave will be Dafydd Hughes aboard a S&S 34 that has been refitted entirely, after shah had been in a barn for 13 years; and Ivan Dimov aboard a his Endurance 37.
At the time of writing this, the last boat scheduled to sail is an Open 70, more than 4 months later, early in January!
Here is the full entry list and respective scheduled starts. Arrival date is estimated on the March 15th, 2024.