many human beings have gone into space. The numbers reflect just how hard it is
to achieve. The GGR restricts its entries to 25, which is the maximum that is possible to cater for in such an event, according to Barry Pickthall, Don’s media partner in the first event and GGR ambassador. ‘It was based on the Whitbread Race in 1981-82 where we had 28 entries and that was enough. We were a very small team when this all started – usually just the three of us,’ Barry adds. ‘There’s a few more now!’ A great many sailors also sign up but
can’t make the startline. What does it take to get there? ‘It really depends on whether you’re
prepared in your head,’ Don says. ‘That’s the first reality. If your head space isn’t right then you’re never going to get there anyway. And if your head space is right then it comes down to your approach. What does the sailor want out of it and how much money do they have? ‘Either you buy a cheap boat and do a
big, expensive refit where you pay people to do it. Or a longterm refit if you do it yourself. Or you buy a boat that is in reasonable condition and service every- thing and fit new gear, which costs you more but saves time. The big thing that people forget about the GGR is that, yes, the capital cost is a big part, but if you survive and come back with your boat, and sell her at the end, then your real out- of-pocket costs are not that extensive. ‘You can do the GGR for less than
£40K if you take the boat out of the equa- tion. You buy the boat, fit it out sensibly, do the race, sell the boat… You paid the entry fee, serviced the safety gear, got some extra equipment… you can do it all for that without thinking twice.’ I note that when Don started this, nearly 10 years ago, he was going to be a
52 SEAHORSE
contestant himself. Then when needed in race control for the 2018 event he definitely felt he would do it in 2022. So why is he the organiser, rather than a contestant? ‘The world is a crazy place sometimes
but the world needs adventure like crazy too,’ he affirms. ‘I made a conscious deci- sion when I got to 50 that I want to sup- port adventure. And that’s because adven- ture makes good people. It makes people who have confidence; they can communi- cate, they understand value judgement and risk assessments and they make good com- munity leaders. They make entrepreneurs and the people the world needs. You can’t learn those things from a book, but you can from the Boy Scouts. I really believe adventure is critical for people.’ Risk assessment is a good place to take
the conversation. In an increasingly risk- averse world the idea of starting a yacht race like this, even on older principles, sounds doubly anachronistic. ‘I have been running events for 40 years
and done many adventures, and it’s all about risk mitigation and management and we are really risk averse, but all adven- tures have risk and that is part of the attraction,’ Don says. GGR sailors do have quite a lot of safety equipment, including EPIRBs plus a satellite phone and two handheld GPS sets that they have to demonstrate they can use before the kit goes into sealed boxes for emergency. ‘You can never go back to what it was,
we’re not going to allow multihulls and we want to make it an interesting competi- tion. So we have restricted the boats so that any type of boat could win and that was proven this time with Simon Curwen sailing a Biscay 36 which wasn’t consid- ered a fast hull, but sailor and sails and preparation made the difference; a Rustler 36 with Abhilash; a Cape George 36 with
Kirsten, and it’s really fascinating. So it’s the core values we try to recreate with this modern version of the Golden Globe. ‘Back in 2014 when I was starting this
stuff the world was going crazy – people ripping playgrounds out because they were a liability, this sort of thing, and people said I was going to lose my shirt over the GGR because the liability is huge. While we will never change the ethos of the GGR we look very closely at what happens in an event and we adapt to it. The simple principles make it what it is – it’s unique as a sporting event and if we change it too much it will turn into a round-the-world yacht race and it will eventually die; our objective is to make sure it is here for ever. ‘But in terms of risk and learning curves,
here’s a simple example: I am now con- vinced that having a solid cockpit dodger in the Southern Ocean in extreme condi- tions is extremely dangerous. From the 2026 edition we will ban solid dodgers. ‘In future you can have a soft dodger or
a more solid companion cover. When Ian (Herbert-Jones) got caught in extreme weather he had a soft dodger but it wasn’t easy to pull down, and his words to me on the sat phone were, virtually word for word, the same as Gregor McGuckin (on his Biscay 36 ketch Mary Luck) in the 2018 race – that he could not hold the boat stern to the waves, so the extra windage at the back will slew the boat round. It’s even worse if you can’t get a drogue out or some warps, or have a little handkerchief at the front of the boat just to pull the bow down. ‘So that’s one example, but we will also
have a another one-day conference on heavy weather – there are no hard and fast rules, but we really need to reinforce the knowledge of storm tactics.’ Speaking of weather, is it getting worse
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124
