No qualifications were needed to sail in that original race. The Times wanted to watch someone be the first to sail alone around the world without stopping at all. The paper wanted to capitalize on the excitement generated by the record-breaking trip of Francis Chichester, who in 1967 completed a solo circumnavigation via the great capes with only one stop, a feat that got him knighted by Queen Elizabeth with the sword of the sixteenth-century circumnavigator Sir Francis Drake.
This refers to the year of the original Golden Globe Race, which was sponsored by Britain’s Sunday Times in a bid to boost circulation. “Sailing Like It’s 1968,” as the slogan of the race proclaims. Despite the lengthy time at sea, entertainment is strictly analog: only paper books are allowed (no one ever seems to bring enough books), along with cassette tapes for music. The boats, shorter than thirty-six feet, must have been designed prior to 1988, a year chosen to ensure they remain “retro” but still structurally safe they are slower and smaller than ultramodern racing boats, which can complete a nonstop circumnavigation in eighty days rather than the nine months it might take a sailor in the GGR. The sailors can talk to whomever they can hail-passing ships or one another-by long-range high-frequency radio. Computers are not allowed, and satellite phones can be used only in emergencies or to communicate at set times with race headquarters. Weather information is limited to barometer readings and to whatever the sailors can pick up via radio-based fax transmissions. The sailors can’t rely on modern technology like GPS they have to navigate by the sun and stars, using only a sextant and paper charts. The rest, including two who continue to sail in a subordinate class, have fallen by the wayside for all kinds of reasons-mechanical, meteorological, navigational, emotional.Ī solo nonstop circumnavigation is never easy-only around 220 people have ever completed one-and the Golden Globe Race (known as the GGR) is a particular challenge because it’s old-fashioned. On September 4, 2022, sixteen solo sailors left France to race one another around the world. Now, having sailed east around the great capes of Africa, Australia, and South America, five of the skippers are back in the Atlantic and nearing France again, but only three remain in the main competition.
It’s not a show, though, and the drama has remained mostly hidden from sight, taking place across several oceans. For the past eight months I’ve been compulsively following what feels like a reality TV show in which every few weeks someone is forced off the set.
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