As most of you who have been readers of AAC for a while know, we started off as huge fans of the Golden Globe 2018 race, a retro re-creation of the race around the world single-handed non-stop run 50 years ago, and won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
Didn’t Go Well
But as the competitors entered the Southern Ocean and the casualty rate started to mount, I became increasingly disturbed. Yes, sailing around the world in the Southern Ocean in a small boat is a potentially dangerous endeavour.
Didn’t Have To Be That Way
However, it’s also a voyage that has been completed repeatedly without drama or disaster by seamanlike and well-prepared sailors. Most lately by our friend Susanne Huber-Curphey, one of the most accomplished sailors of our time, who has just completed her Longue Route voyage.
Susanne is now in Tasmania having sailed non-stop from Maine, USA, making one-and-a-half circuits of the Southern Ocean in the process, without even a knockdown.
And that includes being in the same storm very close to Abhilash Tomy and Gregor McGuckin, who were both capsized, and the former horribly injured.
How did Susanne make this voyage without problems? Good seamanship and a self-built series drogue to Don Jordan’s design.
Five times my life depended on the gorgeous ‘Jordan Series Drogue’, a total of 162 hours! Susanne Huber-Curphey
Her experience, when added to that of Trevor Robertson, Tony Gooch, and many others, shows that capsize risk can be reduced to near zero, even in the Southern Ocean, by deploying a series drogue before the waves get dangerous.
And, yet, five Golden Globe racers were forced out by capsize, and both the first- and second-place finishers were keel side up at least once.
Racing is Harder
By the way, it is important to point out that racers are faced with an intrinsic and difficult conflict that cruising voyagers are not: balancing survival and speed. And, no, I don’t have a good answer to that.
That said, perhaps even the great Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, who finished first, would have had an even faster time if he had used a series drogue, and so not pitchpoled, which damaged his rig and slowed his boat significantly for the last third of the race?
How Can We Fix the GGR?
So what can be done to save the Golden Globe Race so there can actually be another running in 2022, something, I for one, would like to see, as long as the casualty rate can be reduced?
I have lots of ideas, including making the start a bit later so competitors reach the Southern Ocean later in the astral spring and finish later in the northern hemisphere spring, and I will make specific gear and training recommendations in a moment.
It’s All About Culture
But before we get stuck into the technical stuff, I think the culture of the 2018 race was at the root of the problem..
So how can the GGR culture be changed to one that will organize a reasonably safe and seamanlike race that will attract sponsors and not incur the ire of the authorities?
McIntyre Must Move On
My suggestion is that Don McIntyre, Race Founder and Chairman hand over the leadership to someone with a more sober and measured approach.
Now, before I go any further, I need to point out that MacIntyre deserves huge credit for coming up with a great idea and then seeing it through to reality, as well as spending a pile of his own money to make it happen. I get that and I truly wish him well.
Damage to All Ocean Sailing
That said, I’m also angry at MacIntyre for the damage I feel he has done to the reputation of ocean sailing:
- MacIntyre’s blog posts and videos gave the impression that ocean sailing in small boats is intrinsically dangerous. It’s not.
- And, worse still, his position that capsizes and pitchpolings are just a risk of being out there is simply not true.
Let’s focus on the latter, because it’s the root of the former.
In my opinion, MacIntyre has a propensity for making bold pronouncements without citing any sources to back them up and, further, simply ignoring real-world experience and good science that conflicts with what he says.
Two egregious examples are his “slow pitchpole” theory and his repeated assertion that the race had a dismasting problem best solved with stronger rigs.
To the first I would say “cite your source” and, to the second, “that simply makes no sense at all and is analogous to saying that the answer to a plane design that crashes is to strengthen the wing spar”.
Basic Science
Sure, masts for the GGR should be built extra strong, but to recommend building them strong enough to withstand repeated capsizes is totally impractical, given that water is over 700 times denser than air—building a structure to withstand impact with the former, will make it impractical to operate in the latter.
The solution is to solve the core problem, which is capsize.
I’m Not The Only One
But if you think I’m upset about this, have a chat with Susanne Huber-Curphey. She is incandescent about the way the tone of the GGR 2018 press releases and videos has influenced the general public into thinking that long-distance single-handed sailors are a bunch of danger-seeking yahoos who need regular rescuing at vast expense. (Susanne and I have been carrying on a satellite-based email conversation over the last few months, ever since she rounded the Horn.)
I bring Susanne into this because I’m sure there are those who will say that since I have not sailed in the Southern Ocean I’m not qualified to comment—perhaps a fair position. But no one is more qualified than Susanne.
Don’t get me wrong, I have huge respect for the actual competitors in the GGR 2018, including those who were capsized and retired. They were racing and they knew the risks and took them, that’s fine with me.
(Of course, that still leaves the thorny question of the cost of rescue, and potential danger to the rescuers, but that’s another discussion, so I’m not going there now.)
The problem is that, instead of acknowledging that things were not going well and mistakes had been made—perfectly understandable, given that this was the first running of the race in 50 years—MacIntyre doubled down on the myth that repeated capsizes are just part of the game.
Fatalism Leads to Disaster
Not only has MacIntyre’s position damaged the reputation of the very race he founded, it has also increased:
- The chances that others will venture offshore with this dangerous attitude of fatalism, instead of properly preparing themselves against capsize, the number one cause of abandonment.
- The risk that national authorities will place ever more restrictive regulation on all of us who wish to go offshore.
What About Susie?
At this point I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Yeah, but what about Susie Goodall, a series drogue didn’t work for her?”
Not relevant. The cause was a construction issue and had nothing to do with the fundamental effectiveness of the series drogue as designed by Don Jordan.
My Suggestions to Save The GGR
So where does all that leave the Golden Globe Race, going forward? Here’s what I recommend:
- The Golden Globe organizers should consult with unbiased outside experts-by-virtue-of-success, like Susanne, Tony and Trevor, on the anti-capsize gear to require, and wisdom on when to deploy it.
- The results of said consultations should be made available to all competitors in the form of an obligatory capsize prevention seminar.
- All competitors in future Golden Globe races should be required to carry a series drogue and install the chain plates to attach it.
(For the rest of us, the Golden Globe 2018 has been the best possible demonstration of the dangers of not carrying a series drogue.)
This Matters
I am absolutely convinced that if these three steps had been taken before the 2018 GGR, there would have been no need for me to write this rant now and, infinitely more important, Abhilash Tomy would not be living the rest of his life with titanium rods in his back, having only just survived one of the most horrendous experiences in the history of offshore sailing.
(By the way, Abhilash tells me by email that his recovery is going well and he hopes to be out sailing again soon—he is one brave man. If the same happened to me I would be looking at real estate…in Saskatchewan.)
Got a Better Idea?
One final point. To the series drogue naysayers like Macintyre I say:
Got a better idea? Because, let’s face it, the track record of your recommendations and pronouncements ain’t good.
Further Reading
We have a full Online Book full of storm survival tactics and gear that works, based on real-world experience from the Southern Ocean veterans mentioned above, and others.
The Book includes in-depth chapters on what you need to know to buy, fit, and deploy the series drogue as designed by Don Jordan, as well as other experienced-based chapters on heaving-to.
Full access is included with membership, but you can view the Table of Contents prior to joining.
Hi John
Quite agree with 99% of this. I have made the same arguments myself, also to McIntyre directly. Specifically, but not limited to, this one..multiple times:
“masts for the GGR should be built extra strong, but to recommend building them strong enough to withstand repeated capsizes is totally impractical, given that water is over 700 times denser than air”
He does make really unfounded pronouncements on many subjects. Unfortunately he is not showing a great ability to reflect and adjust. Therefore I have little hope that he will “see the light” and listen to others with more experience/knowhow. And for that reason I agree with your recommendation “that he move onto going sailing”.
Except…He won’t. He has already said he will stay ashore for 2022 (if it actually happens). Any sponsor will want him ashore, because he is a “good talker” and “entertains the crowds”. He loves all that drama. Fame and notoriety are the same for him. He is financially invested and can’t get his “money back” unless he runs a financially more liquid event. He can’t do that from the Southern Ocean.
So while you are right, I suspect that McIntyre will stay. Won’t pivot or adjust in the way he needs to, and if it runs again (probabilty < 30% at a guess), then it will suffer from many of the same issues – and some new ones.
I already know a major equipment sponsor who is seriously considering whether to supply entrants in any future editions. Not on a sponsored basis, and not on a paid basis, because they disagree with the way McIntyre is running it.
PS The race / adventure duality which you touch on, is a major problem as well. The GGR doesn't know what it is, and it needs to….
Oliver
Hi Oliver,
I hope you are wrong…but fear that you are right.
” Any sponsor will want him ashore, because he is a “good talker” and “entertains the crowds” ”
Really? My interest in the race was very very high but I could not watch any of his video updates right through. His appallingly slow delivery combined with his apparent compunction to tell us all about their video production difficulties and other problems totally unrelated to the race had me escaping early from every video I tried to watch.
I didn’t really follow the GGR closely but certainly heard of the carnage it produced!
It sounds like adding anti-capsize equipment and training is a very good idea, but I would question the requirement of having a series drogue specifically. There are other drogues out there that are not quite so dramatic in their deployment – that have the intention of slowing the the boat and regaining control, rather than almost stopping the boat it in it’s tracks. The Galerider is one, the Shark another – being put to good use by Randal as he circumnavigated Antarctica in his Figure 8 trip (in Tony’s old boat).
I certainly agree with your thinking to make the race safer and rather more responsible – just wary of being quite so specific with the kit!
Hi Bill,
That’s certainly a reasonable position to take. That said, I for one am satisfied that the science shows conclusively that to survive the real killer huge waves that are “once in a lifetime” in most oceans, but more common in the Southern Ocean, only a multi-element drogue is adequate and that the level of drag the JSD exerts is the minimum to be effective. Also note that there is nothing dramatic about the JSD deployment or action. In fact many users have described it a bit like bungee jumping: gentle arrest with no shocks.
The bottom line is that the JSD is the only solution based on good and methodical wave science, so until I see better science, coupled with a track record as good as the JSD, it will remain my default recommendation.
More here: https://www.morganscloud.com/2018/10/13/just-get-a-series-drogue-designed-by-don-jordan-dammit/
Hi William,
I’ve never used a JSD, but my impression is that when it is prepared for ocean passage, deploying it is quick and without any difficult operations. It can be made as easy as just pull a release line and it will do the deployment with no need for attention. Since it is deployed from the stern, unlike the less desirable classic sea anchors, no change of course is needed, assuming the weather is severe so we’re already on a downwind course.
For a race scenario, there is indeed a problem with the JSD: It takes a significant amount of time and effort to get back it in, unless the weather has calmed down a lot. A single element drogue, just for reducing speed, is much easier to get in. However, they don’t do the same type of task. One is for survival. The other is for adjusting boat behaviour, no more.
In a race like the GGR, survival conditions were experienced many times by all participants. All all logic and all accounts I know of tell me that there is only one remedy that will reliably and drastically improve our chances in those conditions: A correctly made and prepared Jordan Series Drogue. No other options exist. (Except for running fast with the weather, if the boat is made for that and the crew very capable.) Thus, making the JSD mandatory seems like the obvious choice.
Jumping out of a plane, or even more so, base jumping, is definitely far more “intrinsically dangerous” than crossing oceans in sailing boats, even participating in the GGR, (with a JSD). If one wants to jump out of a plane or base jump, a parachute seems like the obvious option, but there are some alternatives. The wing suits are perhaps the most extreme one. It gives the option to maneuver and go fast, but you can’t use it all the way down to the ground. It can be a nice extra option to have, but if you jump in a wing suit, you must also have a parachute.
As I see it, the JSD is a parallel to the parachute that will actually take you safely all the way down to the ground. Many of them need zero skill. Just pull the line and hang there until you’re down. Just like the JSD. All ocean passagemaking boats need one, albeit vastly less urgently than someone jumping out of a plane needs a parachute.
Hi Stein,
Good analysis, and great metaphor.
I really like this article. Culture is a factor. But I think it is more than just JSDs.
I understand the interest in racing smaller, affordable, conservative, and hopefully, safe boats. But some of the technology restrictions were pointless and cruel. Why not sat phones and video? Several sailors suffered horribly from isolation in the first running. Isn’t solitary confinement used as a punishment (and I like solo sailing!)? Why not weather information, perhaps a restriction on 3rd party routing? Perhaps they could have skirted the worst storms. I can see rules intended to preserve the character of the boats, but not declining basic technology that keeps mom and pop boats safe. It’s arbitrary and adds nothing to the race, unless preserving historic hazards is one the goals. If so, I’m not interested.
No, this is like sending climbers into the Himalayas with wooden ice axes and no oxygen. Silly on the face of it. Add a competitive urge, and the formula is bad.
Or perhaps, as you suggest, some 3rd party advisors, if listened to, could show an interesting, safe path that we have not considered. I’d like that.
Hi Drew,
I agree on the comms. In fact I would go a step further and say that the rules that compelled competitors to speak with MacIntyre every week but prohibited them from talking to their loved ones seem kind of sick to me. And then it got really weird when MacIntyre appointed himself storm avoidance router for some boats based on some arbitrary criteria known only to himself.
Attempting to be the Elon Musk of dubious sailing stunts is not a great life goal, in my view. I thought this was supposed to be a tribute to the original race’s Corinthian aspects, not a series of unfortunate (and easily avoidable, given available tech) events. And so horribly inconsistent, given that the JSD wasn’t available in 1968 as far as I know, and restricting satphone use just to headquarters is stupid and arbitrary.
Hi Drew,
I hesitate to add to this thread, being well aware that I haven’t been there and done that! However I did work with Colin in an unsuccessful attempt to get a boat that I built approved as an entrant in the race. The boat met all the published requirements for acceptance but had 33′ of waterline length and probably 15% greater speed potential than all the eventual entrants. As it turned out the race devolved into a virtual one design contest, the majority of the best prepared skippers choosing to sail Rustler 35’s—- which just happened to be the boat Don MacIntyre owned and originally planned to sail in the race.
Abhilash Tomy * commented that the start time was somewhat of tune with the weather patterns, which leads me to two suggestions for any future race.
1- Speed = safety—- If Valiant 40’s and Fast Passage 39’s were the vessel of choice (both with a historical tie to early single handed racing) rather than short waterline 35 foot boats, they have enough extra speed capability so that storm avoidance becomes a possible tactic. With blister V40’s available for 40k and requiring the same extensive refit as any older sailboat. the cost of entry would not be markedly different than a Rustler.
2- Combine a bit of extra speed, somewhat more capsize resistance, and real time access to weather forecasts (not shore based routing) and you might have a recipe for an Golden Globe that begins to resemble an extremely challenging Global sailboat race rather than a destruction derby.
With JSD’s of course!
Hi Richard,
That’s an interesting idea and certainly in the spirit or the race since Joshua is just shy of 40 feet and probably heavier than a Valiant.
The other thought would be a one design of some sort (A40?). Such a boat might not even be any more expensive than taking a Rustler, or a Valiant, and refitting it.
Hi Richard,
Don was planning to race a Tradewind 35 which he later sold to Kevin.
The next race has a better start timing – there is more time to prepare in France before setting off and the Race starts mid-September. That would not only help with arriving in the Southern Ocean in summers but also help participants to be back in the Bay of Biscay after winters (unlike this time).
The routeing has been made longer with more waypoints (Trinidade and Cape Town), less restriction on Southern Latititude etc.
There is also a requirement to sail their GGR boats for 2000 miles as part of entry process. This was not part of the previous race requirements.
Hi Abhilash,
Thanks for the fill on that. Sounds to me like good changes.
Here are some of my views about what could have possibly caused so many issues during the race:-
– Time of the year – we were too early in the Southern Ocean
– Time to prepare – The visit to Falmouth was very forced and we sailed to LSO and had just about 12 days there to finish all last minute preparations. We were loaded with social activities and press and briefings and these were not really accounted for when I was budgeting time. When I embarked on my first non-stop circumnavigation I could plan my time exactly as I wanted right up to the departure. Of course, it is true that one must be prepared well in advance and shouldn’t leave things to last minute but try building a boat in India and getting it to a race from the EU facing bureaucracy and all that. A lot of 1968 stuff is not available in India and some of the things that I ordered on E bay and had them delivered in UK wouldn’t work when I laid my hands on them. EU customs won’t let food from India through. The difficulties were innumerable. The French and the English had it way easier. One of the reasons why Capt Coconut discontinued his voyage was because he was wary of having to bring his boat all the way back to Australia at the end of the Race.
– I have no problem with extended periods of isolation. BUT PSTN networks which were the norm in 1968 no longer exist and it is difficult to impossible to place a phone call through to your family.
– We could get weather only from government weather services, sometimes retransmitted through HAM stations. These give only gale warning and one day’s weather forecast in the form of a synoptic situation which needs to be plotted and you do your own weather predictions. All this is real fun. But there was no prediction or associated low in these messages about the storm that we faced on 21 Sep.
– We had a warning from Don saying that there would be storm which wont last long. Which was quite true but you need to understand that there is more to a storm than just saying that there would be a storm. What we had was a fast moving storm which created cross waves topping at 15m. Hand steering did not help because you could only cater for waves from one direction and it is not easy to move a long keel boat like a dinghy.
Nehaj appears to have been in the same storm but quiet possible the storm had a different character at the point where she was.
– Perhaps a pictorial representation of weather could have helped us take better decisions and avoid the cross seas?
Hi Abhilash,
Thanks very much for the fill from someone who was there. Fascinating and the best sort of information for us all to learn from.
I’m interested that you also feel that the race should have started later. That makes huge sense to me, although I don’t have enough southern hemisphere experience to recommend a better start date. What do you think the ideal start date would be?
My other thought is that I think (and recent studies seem to indicate) that climate change may have made the weather at sea substantially worse than it was in 1968. Do you think that’s true? If so, it makes it even more important to let competitors have graphic weather information, because, as you say, in a fast moving intense low even a few miles difference in positioning can make all the difference.
Hi John
I can tell for sure that my experience of the Southern Ocean was different from my last circumnavigation.
For a long while after rounding Cape of Good Hope we kept getting headwinds (sometimes upto 40+ knots at about 40S). Curiously we had the lows above the highs as if they had interchanged their positions.
Hi Abhilash,
Thanks for the fill on that. Of course it’s hard to disentangle what’s weather and what’s climate change, but I’m pretty sure the latter means that now offshore sailors are substantially more likely to encounter boat capsizing breaking waves than they were 50 years ago. And that in turn means we need to upgrade our capsize prevention strategies.
I am grateful that you have put into words what many of us have thought throughout the race. It seemed almost entirely dominated by the commercial interests of the organisers who sat in splendid isolation whilst others risked life and limb.
Your point that; “I’m also angry at MacIntyre for the damage I feel he has done to the reputation of ocean sailing” is entirely relevant and I’m sure that insurance companies will also be taking a closer look at us from now on. I was frankly disgusted by the whole thing and especially when there were heroes out there, doing the same thing yet in a far quieter and more restrained way via the Longue Route. Thanks again.
Hi Jeremy,
I agree, and one other point on the Long Route: they we allowed any weather information they wanted, including outside assistance to avoid the worst part of storms.