The Golden Globe Race will take place, but it won't be a race! Following discussions with the French Sailing Federation, the round-the-world race, which 50 years later wants to put the participants back in the shoes of the competitors of the 1969 Golden Globe, will not be able to be included in the official race calendar.
The reason given by the FFV: too much deviation from the new safety standards. The organizers of the GGR defend themselves against this. Leading the defenders is the navigator Jean-Luc Van den Heede who has to start on Matmut, a Rustler 36.
While competitors will not be allowed to communicate with land other than by SSB, safety devices such as emergency beacons or iridium telephones will be present on board for safety purposes only.
Thus the rules of the race stipulate on each boat:
- 3 independent tracking systems
- 2 iridium satellite phones
- 3 distress beacons, one of which is personal
- 1 SSB radio
- 1 HF SSB radio
- 1 VHF radio
- 2 HH VHF radios
- 1 One GMDSS VHF HH radio
- 1 VHF aviation band radio
- 1 Solas life raft
- 1 emergency solar panel system.
Certain means such as aviation radio or the Solas raft are not even compulsory in offshore races supervised by the FFV
In addition for this race, competitors must prove to the organiser that they are capable of setting up a makeshift rig or sailing without their rudder. No other race requires this kind of pre-start situation!
Even though the FFV has given itself until January to take a final position, the presentation of the safety instructions for this race has already made them announce that they will do nothing to prevent "this adventure from being lived, considering that the sailors preparing for it are following in the footsteps of History."
A departure with 2 mythical boats
The start of this event is therefore confirmed for the 1 er july 2018 from Les Sables-d'Olonne. And for the image, Bernard Moitessier's Joshua and Sir Robin's Suhalli (two legendary boats from the 1969 event) should cross the start line followed by the whole fleet, which could include a maximum of 30 boats (23 definitively entered by the end of 2017).
