being the Benello Gaia 36, an older, long- keeled version of the legendary S&S design #1710, winner of the first One Ton Cup. The same hull design was used for the first boat Nautor built, the wonderful Swan 36. As a Finn I would naturally have pre- ferred the Swan 36, but according to the NoR the boats needed to be long keeled, so I found a 1965 Gaia 36 in Fiumicino, Italy in a pretty sad shape, and then sailed her mostly singlehanded and without engine to Kokkola in northern Finland for a very total refit. On my way I met Barry Pick- thall in Hamble, who generously appraised my new yacht: ‘Tapio, she is a wreck!’ Half a million euros later I was (almost) ready to start the GGR in 2018. But mid- way through the race and approaching Tasmania I was beginning to be concerned about my boat speed which was poor – and rapidly getting poorer; after jumping over the side on the first reasonably calm day I realised that the bottom of my boat looked like a garden with thousands of barnacles covering it.
Against what had been agreed the yard had painted the bottom with a Baltic-legal, low-toxic antifouling… Clearly it was very low-toxic indeed.
As a kid I was taught, and later I taught my own and other kids, that when you head out to sea as the skipper of a vessel, it is a matter of honour to get to your planned destination without outside help. So, after some soul searching, it was clear to me that giving up was not an option. I ended the 2018 GGR in fifth and last place
of the 18 boats that started the race; crossing the finish line 111 days after winner Jean-Luc Van Den Heede. A friend of mine even submitted an application to the Guinness Book of Records with the claim that in the history of sport no one has ever finished any sport- ing event longer after the winner than I had ‘achieved’. To my great disappoint- ment I didn’t get even that recognition. To motivate myself to keep sailing to the finish line in 2019 I promised myself and Asteria one more try, which meant entering the 2022 GGR. But with better antifouling, a better wind vane and a few other useful improvements…
Also, Don was always on hand, trying to help me keep my spirits up during my lonely slog north; and so during one of our mandatory weekly satphone interviews he revealed ahead of the time that he was organising a 50-year anniversary race of the first 1973 Whitbread starting in 2023. I again recalled ‘my wisdom’ about passing up on opportunities, and was soon planning how to participate in two back- to-back round-the-world races, starting in 2022 and 2023.
So very soon after getting back home I already had my eyes on the S&S Swan 55 yawl Galiana, which happened to be for sale in Hamble and in very good condition – my dream yacht since I was a young teenager.
During the 2018 GGR I had been devas- tated about the loss of biodiversity and life on the oceans. There were obviously far
fewer birds and sea mammals than 40 years earlier. Later I learned that the number of fish in the oceans has declined by 60 per cent during those four decades, caused by both over-fishing (Chinese, Russians…) and climate change which has caused acidification and warming of the oceans disrupting some of the eco systems. So I decided to finance my two-race pro- gramme through co-operation with Finnish companies who in their respective fields of business are part of the solution on our way towards a carbon-neutral circular economy. I also decided to do the OGR with a young Finnish team. I have huge respect for the Finnish seamen who dominated the Great Grain Races between 1922 and 1949, making the trip around Cape Horn annually on Gustaf Erikson’s four-masted barques. I wanted to keep the legacy of Finnish ocean sailing alive. I have also received a lot from the sport of sailing throughout my life, so now it was time to give something back. After launching the OGR project I got over 100 applications from young Finnish sailors and after lots of time afloat together we finally boiled the large group down to the race team. For myself it was a fantastic return to my youth, sailing with people one and half generations younger than my own kids. I am optimistic that for them the OGR experience will be a stepping stone on their continuing ocean racing careers. Tapio and his young crew onboard Galiana finished the Ocean Globe Race in eighth place… and this time just 10 days behind race-winner Maiden – ed
SEAHORSE 57
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