ROBIN DAVIE
‘The race is
about the effort
the person on
board makes
and their
psychology,
rather than the
dollars spent on getting to the
start line,’ reflects Robin Davie,
who for the last eight months has
been rebuilding his Rustler 36
in a shed in Falmouth. The BOC
Challenge Around Alone Race
veteran believes ‘preparation,
preparation, preparation’ is key
to the race and says he is looking
forward to ‘sailing the trade winds,
the calm of the doldrums and the
storms of the Southern Ocean.’
‘I will be treating every problem
as if it has a solution to be found.
Things can go wrong no matter
how many sea miles you have
under your belt. The key is mindset.
Don’t have great expectations
and build yourself up so things
can come crashing down.’ERTAN BESKARDES
‘Sailing alone is one of the last
things I am worrying about,’ says
Ertan Beskardes as he repairs and
makes adjustments to his Rustler
36 after an initial shakedown sail
from Sardinia to Palma.
‘I don’t really know what the
challenges will be. This adventure
is a lot of firsts for me. If I have a
problem, I will just deal with it,’ he
says. ‘My biggest worry is making
sure the boat is up to scratch so
it can sail as safely as possible,’
he adds.
Beskardes, who has sailed mostly
solo, said his lack of Southern
Ocean sailing experience is not
something he is concerned about.
‘I know in life people only talk aboutthe very best or the very worst.
I read Robin Knox-Johnston’s
book and he did not talk about
days of terrible weather, just
periods of bad weather. Southern
Ocean sailing is not something that
worries me.’GREGOR McGUCKIN
Despite no headline sponsor,
Gregor McGuckin is confident
about reaching the start line
in his Biscay 36, Mary Luck. He
believes he has an advantage,
having done all of the yacht’s
refit work himself. ‘Everything
has been taken apart and put
back together, whether it needed
it or not, so I have confidence in
my own boat. I know her history,
which will give me peace of mind
when the conditions get rough
as I know everything possible will
have been done to prepare her
and nothing will have been missed.’
McGuckin believes the isolation
aboard will be his biggest challenge
and is taking a
library of sailing
and non-
sailing books.
‘I’ve done long-
distance sailing
before but not
on my own, so
I have been
talking to other racers and sailors
to help identify the challenges.
It is about recognising in yourself
when you are up and when you
are down, and observing how
you react,’ adds McGuckin, who
like those who sailed before him
(Knox-Johnston took a case of
brandy, a case of scotch and 120
cans of lager when he took part),
will take along a few bottles of
Irish whiskey in store to ease the
particularly bad days.Robert Farrelly/GGR/PPLfurling. Electronics like GPS, radar, AIS, mobile
phones or any computer-based device, CD players,
electronic watches or clocks, video cameras and
electronic digital cameras, satellite equipment of any
kind, digital binoculars, pocket scientific calculators,
electronic clocks or watches, watermakers, carbon
fibre, Spectra, Kevlar and Vectron are all banned.
Instead, the skippers will navigate using traditional
instruments, and all celestial notes, observations and
calculations for the entire voyage are to be clearly
recorded in separate documents. The competitors
will record their voyages using cameras which take
35mm film and Super 8 film.
RACE PACKS
Every yacht will have a race pack on board which
includes a stand-alone satellite tracking system for
web-tracking updates which the skippers can’t see, a
two-way satellite short text paging unit direct to Race
HQ only for twice-daily 100-character text reports,
and two handheld satellite phones for important
calls to Race HQ and a once-a-week safety check.
A sealed box with a portable GPS chartplotter and
satellite phone will also be in the pack for emergency
use. If the seal is broken, competitors will be deemed
retired from the race. All ship’s log notes will be
scrutinised at the end of the race. In the original,
Sir Francis Chichester was a scutiniser and was
the first to spot Donald Crowhurst’s discrepancies.
SKIPPERS’ REFLECTIONS
Some of the entrants consider the challenges aheadADVENTURE