They will finally be 16 skippers to set off on the Golden Globe Race 2022. On Sunday, September 4, 2022, the participants in this extraordinary race will set off from Les Sables-d'Olonne for a non-stop round-the-world race without assistance.
Attention, same starting line, same course, same no assistance, and yet this race is not the Vendée Globe! Indeed, the boats that are allowed to enter are selected from a list of models built until 1980. All with long keels. This race aims to reproduce the sailing conditions of the first Golden Globe, a round-the-world race held in 1968. For this, besides the choice of an authorized sailboat, the sailors must not resort to modern geolocation or communication means. No GPS, no satellite phone, and not even a digital camera! Just a sextant and an SSB radio. In 2022, it will be the second edition of this event won in 2018 by the Frenchman Jean-Luc Van Den Heede.
14 men and 1 woman
This year 2022, there are 15 men and one woman at the start. If the winning skipper in 2018 was 75 years old, the average age of the participants this year is 55. The youngest is 27 while the oldest is 68. All these sailors come from all over the world. If we count 2 French, there are also 2 English, 2 South Africans. But there is also a Finn, an Australian, a Turk, an Indian, an Irishman, a New Zealander and even an Austrian. Among the 16, 4 skippers have already participated in the race 4 years ago, 2 having finished it, the others having had to abandon.
As far as the choice of boat is concerned, the Rustler 36 is the most popular boat since 4 participants chose it. It must be said that it is the model on which VDH finished the previous event in the lead. Moreover, his boat will again be in the hands of a sailor. But other models like the Tradewind 35 or the Biscay 36 are also well represented.
Difficult to publicize in the media because of the absence of images sent from the boat, the Golden Globe Race offers another vision of ocean racing and the success of the last edition shows the enthusiasm for this kind of atypical project, which requires an incredible commitment from these sailors.
Sailboat models on the starting line in 2022:
- Gaia 36
- Lello 34
- Biscay 36
- Saltram Saga 36
- OE32
- Cape George 36
- Tradewind 35
- Tashiba 36
- Rustler 36
- Barbican 33
