Sailing a boat around the world is the ultimate physical, psychological and emotional challenge for any individual. A solo sailor is skipper, navigator, tactician, crew, chef, engineer, watch leader, sailmaker, weatherman and driver all rolled into one. They need to manage their eating, sleeping, sailing, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, driving the boat to the optimum, focused solely on the ultimate goal in the ultimate challenge, completing the course and winning the race.
The solo sailor cannot be pigeon holed into one particular personality type. As a group they are a rich tapestry of individuals with very unique personalities. Yet this eclectic set of challengers all share a single minded determination to overcome obstacles and confront their fears regardless of what is to be encountered on the way.
Lining up on the Start line on the 22nd October will be a plethora of solo sailors from many countries across the globe. These range from some of the leading lights in professional solo ocean racing, such as Mike Golding (UK), Alex Thomson (UK) and Bernard Stamm (SU) to courageous newcomers from USA, Japan, Germany, New Zealand whose sole focus has been to get their campaigns to the start line of this incredible competition.
The oceans don’t discriminate between the hardened professional and the brilliant unknown and in a race of attrition such as solo circumnavigation the old adage holds firm “in order to finish first, first you must finish.”
Group picture of the eight VELUX 5 OCEANS skippers from the final press conference 20. October in Getxo. Left to right: Bernard Stamm, Graham Dalton, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Unai Basurko, Mike Golding, Alex Thomson, Kojiro Shiraishi and Tim Troy