– 4 months to Start –

Patrice Carpentier appointed Golden Globe Race Director

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Patrick Carpentier, the newly appointed GGR Race Director

French skipper Philippe Péché is all smiles at the launch of his Rustler 36 PRB at the end of February. trial sailing has now begun in earnest.

Antoine Cousot and his Biscay 36 have won sponsorship from employment agency Métier Intérim

Dutch  skipper Mark Slats celebrates his record setting transatlantic row in December, before returning to Holland to prepare his Rustler 36 MAVERICK for the GGR

Stripped bare. Tapio Lehtinen's Gaia 36  ASTERIA  undergoing a major refit at the Nordic Refit Center in Finland. She is expected to be launched early April.

Irish skipper Gregor McGuckin enjoying some heavy weather downwind sailing in big seas during a delivery voyage

Russian skipper Igor Zaretskiy preparing his Endurance 35 yacht ESMERALDA in Alicante

British skipper Ertan Beskardes refitted his Rustler 36 yacht LAZY OTTER  in Fertilia Marina, Sardinia  and is currently completing his 2000 mile solo sailing trial enroute to Falmouth

British skipper Susie Goodall joins Race Founder Don McIntyre to present the GGR at the Sail Spain festival in Bilbao 3-4th March

 Latest GGR route chart with Canaries film pick-up 'gate' supported by Rubicon Marina, Lanzarote, and two others in Storm Bay, Tasmania and off the Falkland Islands.

Dateline: Les Sables d'Olonne 06.03.18 – Don McIntyre, founder of the 2108 Golden Globe race, is proud to announce the appointment of Patrice Carpentier, the well-known French sailor, author and editor of Course au Large Magazine as Race Director.

Patrice, who has been sailing since the age of 12, and is multilingual, brings a wealth of experience to this leadership role, having completed five circumnavigations. These include the first two Whitbread Round the World Races aboard Grand Louis and Gauloises 2, and two Vendée Globe solo non-stop races. He also finished 2nd overall in the 1991 Mini Transat despite suffering a broken mast during the first leg. He competed successfully with standard production yachts in two Route du Rhum races in 1982 and 1990 and was still winning in 2017 with victory in the 2-handed IRC/UNCL championship. All told, Patrice (67) has clocked up more than 300,000 sailing miles and crossed the Atlantic 35 times.
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Entries stand at 20 representing 13 Nations

With 4 months to the start of the 2018 Golden Globe Race from Les Sables d’Olonne, France on July 1, the number of entrants now stands at 20, representing 13 countries.

These skippers have a remarkable range of backgrounds. Professional sailors and adventurers dominate, but they also include an engineer, foreign exchange trader, hydrographer, pilot, tailor and university lecturer. All have considerable short – and single-handed sailing experience, one having logged five solo circumnavigations. They hail from Australia (2), Estonia (1), Finland (1), France (4), Ireland (1), India (1), Italy (1), Netherlands (1), Norway (1), Palestine (1), Russia (1), UK (3), and the USA (2). Their average age is 47. The youngest, Britain’s Susie Goodall is 28; the oldest, French solo veteran Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is 72.
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GGR Race HQ opens on May 7

Plans for the Race Village are well advanced and the GGR Race HQ will open in Les Sables d’Olonne on May 7. The Race yachts will be berthed in the central marina and open for public display for two weeks from June 16 when the Race Village opens, until the start on Sunday July 1.

Visual of the of 2018 Golden Globe Race Village in Les Sables d'Olonne

Also on public display will be four iconic solo circumnavigation yachts: Suhaili, the yacht that carried Sir Robin Knox-Johnston to victory in the original Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, together with Bernard Moitessier’s rival entry Joshua, and the two yachts that pioneered this solo circumnavigation record with one-stop, Sir Francis Chichester’s Gipsy Moth IV (1966/7), and Lively Lady, sailed by Sir Alec Rose in 1967/8

The two week build-up to the Race start will be packed with activities and displays that will carry visitors back in time to that golden age of sailing when sailors relied simply on the wind and their wits, navigating by sextant and paper charts without any outside assistance, GPS and other electronic or digital aids.

Also planned is a film festival celebrating the sea and man’s pioneering spirit, presentations by some of the world’s biggest sailing names, including Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, and a full entertainment programme on the main stage each evenin

How to follow the Race

There are plenty of opportunities to watch the start of the GGR from the harbour wall and promontories around Les Sables d’Olonne, as well as at sea. Once the fleet has sailed over the horizon, the yachts will be tracked 24/7 with regular updates on individual positions within the fleet, coupled with wind and weather conditions viewed on the web site goldengloberace.com

Yellow Brick will provide 24/7 tracking of the fleet

In addition, skippers have the ability to send short text updates every 6 hours, which will be posted directly on the web site. Live video updates of radio interviews with the skippers speaking to Race Control will published on Facebook, together with a weekly video roundup. The public can subscribe to receive these updates throughout the race by going to goldengloberace.com

In addition, the public can join the race by entering the Sail Online GGR Virtual Race. Each entrant is allocated an identical boat with similar performance polars to the real yachts, but unlike the GGR skippers, virtual competitors have the benefit of real-time weather information which is released into the race model at 10 minute intervals, producing an ever changing wind and wave situation that makes the virtual game as close to reality as possible. And adding further realism to the experience, the live online tracker information from the real yachts can be overlaid on the virtual course allowing virtual sailors to compare their navigation efforts against those competing in the GGR.

The Sailonline Virtual Race will commence at the same time as the GGR on July 1^st and will be split into two natural legs from Les Sables d’Olonne to Hobart, and from Storm Bay, where the GGR skippers must stop for at least 90 minutes, back to the French finish line. For further information go to www.sailonline.org

Storm Bay, Tasmania is the middle ‘gate’ that all GGR yachts must pass through, where skippers will hand over film, logs, tape recordings and letters. The Race Rules forbid any outside assistance, so no one can board the boats or hand across spare parts, but family and media will get an opportunity to provide moral support and interview each skipper as they pass through. The Hobart Gate will be assisted by The Royal Yacht Club Tasmania, while the outward Canaries Gate set off Lanzarote is supported by Rubicon Marina. The Falklands Yacht Club will assist at the final Gate after rounding Cape Horn.

The leaders are expected to complete the 30,000 mile solo circumnavigation in around 240 days.

Great sponsorship opportunities

The latest sponsor to nail their sponsorship colours to the Golden Globe Race masthead is RALF TECH watches, the official timing sponsor for the Race, which is offering one of its traditional self-winding chronographs to each competitor. Accurate timing is an essential component of astro navigation, which all competitors will use to plot their positions around the world – just as Robin Knox-Johnston and Bernard Moitessier did 50 years before. In this return to the ‘Golden Age of Sailing’, modern electronic and digital technology is barred, the general rule being: If it wasn’t available to Knox-Johnston in 1968/9, it isn’t available to 2018 GGR skippers either. “It’s this return to basics that skippers and the public find so appealing,” says Race Founder Don McIntyre, adding: “There had been pressure for yachts to carry video transmitting equipment, but a poll amongst skippers was unanimously against the idea.”

Other sponsors to have aligned their brands to competing yachts include DHL Express, PRB, Matmut Insurance Group, Fugro, Altia, and Métier Intérim. 

With four months to the start, attractive commercial opportunities remain for corporate sponsors to take full advantage of the 1 million + visitors expected to visit in Les Sables d’Olonne for the start and €120 million projected media coverage and social media exposure as the Race unfolds over the next 12 months. For a sponsorship prospectus pack, contact Barry Pickthall: barry@goldengloberace.com +44(0)7768 395719

MERCY film wins worldwide acclaim

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, winner of the 1968/9 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, shared the Red Carpet with Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz at the world premier of the film MERCY on  February 9.

Sir Robin says of this portrayal of the Crowhurst tragedy set during the 1968/9: “I was blown over by the film.  I know I knew the story inside out, but the way they had written up the drama, whilst keeping to the facts was really good and the acting was brilliant. Yes the story is inevitably sad, but I thought the producers handled it very well and were sympathetic to the Crowhurst family.

Later, Sir Robin had the opportunity to sit round a table with Mercy Director James Marsh, Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz to discuss the film and the original Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Watch their conversation Click Here

Details of skippers and their yachts

Click Here to view skipper profiles.

Click Here to download the Boat Stats (xlsx).

Click Here to download the Entrants' Details (xls).

Press accredition now open

To register for regular press updates on on the 2018 Golden Globe Race Click Here

To view  lightbox of copyright reserved historic solo sailing pioneers, Click Here 

To access the high res images you must first register with PPL Media Click here

Please allow 24 hours for acredition to be confirmed

For further information contact: Barry Pickthall - GGR Media Coordinator 

barry@pplmedia.com +44 (0)7768 395719

www.goldengloberace.com