Pity the organiser of the 2018 Golden Globe – and the follow-up confirmed for 2022 – Don McIntyre. A veteran solo round-the-world competitor (above left) now turned professional adventurer, McIntyre was forced to sit this one out when his ‘little idea’ turned into a monster as the concept captured the public’s imagination along with the interest of dozens of wannabe competitors. Among some frankly pretty inspiring projects, McIntyre bought a 34ft yacht for Jessica Watson (right) to sail around the world solo, going on to mentor the Australian who was 15 when she set out, 16 when she returned, the youngest person ever to sail alone around the world
1965 and was in very shabby condition with many of the original sails! So really I was nursing her home, not sailing her.’ She has since been professionally refurbished at the Nordic Refit Centre in Larsmo. Much of her deck was replaced and the interior stripped prior to rebuilding with stronger bulkheads and new fastenings. Lehtinen’s professional effort is sup-
ported by a group of Finland’s top meteo- rologists, sailmakers and even a racing coach. The proud Finn aims to be the first Finnish sailor in 30 years to round Cape Horn – it would be a surprise if he was not up at the front of the fleet. By contrast more than a few of the race
entries are heading out in pursuit of adven- ture… Kevin Farebrother, a 50-year-old Manchester-born fireman who now lives in Perth, is certainly in that category, with three summits of Mount Everest on his ‘varied’ CV. On his last Everest quest this former Australian soldier took a copy of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s book of the first Golden Globe, A World of my Own, discovering that ‘The story of winning the first Golden Globe in 1969 was far scarier than anything I’ve experienced on Everest. ‘I am a climber more than a sailor. I like
the high-altitude stuff in the Himalayas. I have only been sailing for five or six years… I think there is something about climbers and sailors. One attracts the other – it might be ropes or it might be the weather! I learned to sail in Perth. An adventurer at heart, I soon heard about this Golden Globe Race and two years later here we are.’ Farebrother bought Don McIntyre’s
Tradewind 35 Silver Heels in 2016 and has renamed her Sagarmatha, Nepalese for Mount Everest. He sailed her 6,000 miles from Sydney to Perth, going the long way
round, where he worked on her himself for three months during 2017. Farebrother and boat are in Les Sables training with the French veterans. ‘I can learn a lot from those guys… they seem to know a bit!’ At the other end of the adventure
spectrum is Ertan Beskardes, a Turkish- born British national who began sailing on the Bosporus aged 12. He came to the UK in 1979 and he and his wife began building a boat in their Bournemouth garden in 1994. They sailed regularly from nearby Christchurch harbour, first with a Dras- combe Longboat, then a Parker 235 pocket-cruiser then a Jeanneau Odyssey 33, but always limited to coastal sailing. Beskardes says: ‘I always wanted to do
something special like sail around the world. When I learned last year there were places for the 2018 event I quickly found a Rustler 36, Lazy Otter, in Sardinia and have been preparing ever since.’ After an initial Sardinian refit, including
new rigging and seacocks, Beskardes then sailed his boat solo from the Med back to Falmouth, stopping for repairs and upgrades on the way. ‘The boat is 25 years old and it hasn’t been used for years, so there were obviously all sorts of things to sort out… But this is a strong boat. Now I am just fine-tuning and trying to improve and learn the boat as we go along. ‘I am sure I am the least prepared and
least experienced on this journey. My first aim is make it to the startline, then who knows what will happen. For me this is a personal adventure.’ Characters all and here is yet another: a
sailor who certainly knows his way around the globe. Robin Davie, 67, is a seagoing veteran. After serving in the British Merchant Navy for 20 years Davie
competed against Don McIntyre in the 1990 Around Alone Race, going on to make his second and third solo circum - navigations in the 1994 and 1998 editions. During the 1994 race he was dismasted thousands of miles from Cape Horn but successfully sailed under jury rig around the Cape to the Falkland Islands. After two decades spent in the USA Davies returned to Britain in 2017, also bought a Rustler 36 and began preparing in earnest. Robin says of the GGR: ‘Having done
three solo circumnavigations with stops Don’s Golden Globe reignited the passion and presented a rare opportunity to finally complete my original dream of sailing around the world solo without stops.’ Davie has been working on his boat,
C’est la Vie, himself near the Rustler yard in Falmouth. He adds, ‘Mine’s an old one that needed totally rebuilding. It’s not a refit…’ Davie re-glassed the whole hull-deck joint, extended the chainplates, replaced the mast step and constructed a substantial doghouse to protect the cockpit. ‘After three BOC races I know what’s coming. Preparing the boat, I’m doing my own thing. It’s a case of you better have your own ideas and you’d better put them into practice, so you come to the startline with the boat you want for the job you think it is. ‘You spend a lot of time imagining
everything that could go wrong during a race like this. To somebody it will happen, all of it. That’s one of the realities. Having done it three times I have been dismasted, I have lost rudders. You name it, it has happened to me, so for me the philosophy to work from is expect the unexpected because it will arrive. ‘Hopefully you can handle it, but that’s q
just the nature of the beast…’ SEAHORSE 53
BRENDON THORNE/GETTY
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