Golden Globe Race 2022: The clock is ticking - Golden Globe sailors in a preparation marathon

Just three and a half months separate a good two dozen skippers from the adventure of a lifetime. The Golden Globe Race 2022 begins for them on 4 September in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France. The single-handed non-stop race around the world was held in 2018/19 as a new edition to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Golden Globe in 1968/69.

However, it remains to be seen who of the 23 registered adventurers and ocean sailors from all over the world, including one woman, will actually sail across the start line on the Atlantic coast on the first Sunday in September. The mountain of refit tasks to be completed still seems insurmountably high for many, and the distance to be sailed to the starting harbour is sometimes very long.

Seven participants from the other side of the world still have to sail to France. Before that, they are expected in Spain, where safety checks will be carried out on their boats and the so-called prologue, a prelude regatta to Les Sables, will begin on 6 August. The Race Village in the Vendée port of Port Olona will then open there on 20 August. According to organiser Don McIntyre, those who manage to keep to this schedule are well on their way to the starting line.

"The first challenge of the Golden Globe Race is getting to the start," says the Australian. "The biggest challenge is then to finish! Many participants are under time and financial pressure. The human element of putting things off until the last minute comes into play now. Some wish they had done more in previous years, but quite a few are also well organised. That will be the difference when the starting gun goes off."

One person who is well prepared, has extensively and professionally modified his boat and is currently meticulously planning his diet for at least 200 lonely days at sea is Frenchman Damien Guillou. As an experienced regatta sailor and former preparer for Vendée skipper Kevin Escoffier, the 39-year-old family man has extensive expertise from the French offshore scene, prominent supporters and a main sponsor for the boat and campaign at his side.

Guillou, with whom YACHT was able to sail a beat off Lorient last week, is therefore likely to be one of the favourites. His Rustler 36 is the same type of boat that Jean-Luc Van den Heede used to win the race in 2019 after 211 days. Guillou bought it second-hand and refitted it extensively over two months in the shipyard in Port-la-Forêt, if not turning it into a new boat.

Among other things, the rig was completely replaced, the foredeck was gutted and converted into a sail and provisions load and a hardtop was built over the companionway. In addition, the type of equipment that skippers are allowed to use while travelling has also been brought on board. According to the official version, these are just things that already existed in 1968, but have been extended somewhat in favour of the safety of the participants.

However, electronic navigation and communication with the outside world are forbidden. Guillou's "PRB" therefore has things like a wind steering system, three(!) sextants ("Just in case ...") and a towed log. You will search in vain for radar or a chart plotter.

By no means everyone is so far and so well equipped, if not over-equipped. One participant is even just finishing his circumnavigation, which began in the 2018 Golden Globe Race - and wants to try his luck again at the start in September: Mark Sinclair is currently sailing the long beat from South Australia to France. By the time he arrives, he will have more than completed the 2,000 nautical mile solo qualifying voyage that everyone has to complete.

The participants from South Africa also have a long journey ahead of them, including Kirsten Neuschäfer, who has German roots (see interview YACHT 17/2021). The professional skipper - for Skip Novak, among others - has refitted her Cape George 36 in North America and already has an Atlantic crossing to South Africa in her wake.

There is also good news for Austrian starter Michael Guggenberger (see interview YACHT 14/2020). As he told YACHT, after a long search a few months before the start, he has finally been able to find a sponsor who will make the final preparations for his Biscay 36 possible. "This makes my life a lot easier and cooler," says Guggenberger. He is extremely optimistic: "I can now fully concentrate on the race, I will go to the start in a great position and come back relaxed. From a financial and mental point of view anyway!"

So the clock is ticking, even for everyone else. Among them is 80-year-old Brit David Scott Cowper, who has already travelled the world in both directions in his wake and is also known for his crossing of the Northwest Passage in a motorboat. Although the pandemic has set him back a long way in his preparations, he is still confident.

That includes Finnish participant Tapio Lehtinen, who took part four years ago and is currently refitting two boats. This is because he also wants to sail in the Ocean Globe Race 2023 - a crew regatta around the world that Don McIntyre wants to organise for the first time next year as a revival of the first Whitbread Race.

So things are busy, if not hectic at times, in the fleet of budding non-stop soloists. The advantage of this could be that they have little time to hesitate and doubt the risky adventure that lies ahead.