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Latest News: €213 Million Golden Globe Race 2022 Media Value

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Solo Act: Kirsten Neuschäfer Wins the Golden Globe Race

• By Theresa Nicholson
• September 11, 2023

When Kirsten Neuschäfer decided to compete in the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race, she searched for a fast, safe and stable boat. She studied designs with a good ballast-to-weight ratio, and sought out a hull and rig that could withstand a hard beat to windward. 

She found Minnehaha in Newfoundland and knew that the tough, sturdy Cape George 36 was the one. The quick cutter with a generous sail plan met all of the official requirements—a production boat with a full keel, less than 36 feet long, designed before 1988—and a few requirements she had set for herself. 

“I wanted a super-secure boat for the Southern Ocean, which was fast as well,” Neuschäfer says. “ Minnehaha suffers a little in light airs, but I knew I had a good chance of surviving. It was clear to me that the GGR was a bit of a race of attrition.”

Her instincts, along with detailed preparation, hard work and a bit of luck, served her well. Eight months after 16 skippers set out from the west coast of France to race solo 30,000 miles eastbound around a Southern Ocean course, Neuschäfer and Minnehaha caught one last whisper of wind off Les Sables d’Olonne, ghosted over the line, and sailed into history.

“I didn’t actually know that I’d won until the boats came out to meet me,” the South African sailor said of her historic finish. “I knew I was very close to Abhilash, so I was pushing hard. I knew we were very close.”

Indian skipper Abhilash Tomy battled the same light airs that Neuschäfer faced near the end of the race and arrived a day after, taking second place. Austrian Michael Guggenberger finished third, as the final skipper to complete the race in the racing class.

The Golden Globe Race is a nonstop, solo, unassisted round-the-world race with the start and finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne. Competitors are required to sail small boats using paper charts, VHF radio, sextants and celestial navigation. No modern weather-routing software is allowed, nor satellite communication, electronic instruments and autopilots. 

The route takes the sailors south through the Atlantic before heading east to Cape Town, South Africa, and around the Cape of Good Hope. After crossing the Indian Ocean and keeping Tasmania to port, sailors traverse the storm-plagued Southern Ocean and round Cape Horn. The ­final stretch leads north through the Atlantic and back to Les Sables d’Olonne.

Of the 16 skippers who started the 2022-23 race, 11 retired and two others made a single stop, moving them out of competition and into the Chichester Class. Neuschäfer’s victory made her one of only three people to win the race—and the first woman ever to win a solo circumnavigation yacht race.

“ Minnehaha suffers in light airs, but I knew I had a good chance of surviving. The GGR is a race of attrition.”

The race is based on the 1968-69 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston aboard his 32-foot Bermudan ketch, Suhaili . Knox-Johnston was the only skipper to finish; in doing so, he became the first person to solo-circumnavigate the globe nonstop. Nine others retired, one was dismasted, and one committed suicide. The race was run once more in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of the original race. Eighteen sailors set out, and five ­finished. French sailor Jean-Luc Van Den Heede won the 2018 edition. 

More people have gone into space than have sailed singlehanded around the world. The small nature of the club means that the sailors, while competing, still look out for one another’s health and safety.

During the first dash south down the Atlantic in the 2022-23 race, Neuschäfer relayed to the race committee the VHF-radio mayday call of fellow sailor Guy DeBoer, who’d hit rocks near the Canary Islands. After a night spent grinding over the rocks, DeBoer abandoned his boat the next morning with the help of a local rescue team.

Two months later, 450 miles southeast of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tapio Lehtinen’s Gaia 36, Asteria , flooded after taking on water from astern, and sank in less than 20 minutes. Lehtinen had just enough time to activate his EPIRB, put on his survival suit, and swim to his drifting life raft. “I gave Asteria a last standing salute as she went down,” the Finnish skipper said. Neuschäfer, the closet sailor to his position, altered course and hand-steered through the night to assist in his rescue. 

“The emergency handheld GPS showed Tapio’s coordinates,” Neuschäfer says. “I followed the track, but it was very difficult to spot a small, orange life raft. I was able to reach him on the VHF, but the early morning light was behind him, and I couldn’t see him. He fired off a flare, and I approached him on a beam reach. He’d been waiting 24 hours and was ready. He threw me a line, and I caught it on the first try, pulled him in, tied the life raft to Minnehaha , and helped him aboard.”

The two sailors shared a glass of rum. An hour later, Neuschäfer managed Lehtinen’s dangerous transfer from Minnehaha to bulk carrier Darya Gayatri , a freighter that had responded to the emergency call as well. “When I saw he was on board, I was just relieved for him,” she says.

Neuschäfer’s own heavy-weather plan focused on mitigating risks and staying true to strategies she’d set. When a low-pressure system approached on her way south to Cape Horn, she set a warp off her stern and held on for 12 hours until the storm blew over. In strong winds north of the Falklands, she hove-to, knowing that beating to windward in the extreme conditions risked damage to her boat. 

By this time in her life, she was no stranger to adventure. Neuschäfer’s early years had led her from South Africa to a set of jobs in Europe, followed by a solo trans-Africa biking trip, where she pedaled the continent north to south in her 20s. Her later experience working for Skip Novak on his Pelagic Expeditions exposed her to the wind and weather systems of the Antarctic Peninsula, Patagonia and the Falklands, and built her familiarity with the Southern Ocean.

“You need a great deal of self-sufficiency on these expeditions,” she says. “You need to know which tools and spares to bring. You need to be able to do all kinds of troubleshooting, refit the boats, change out a propeller, or fix a rig under difficult weather conditions.”

Neuschäfer had also done several long-distance ­deliveries, including taking a Leopard catamaran from the South Africa factory to Australia, and completing a singlehanded delivery from Portugal to South Africa on what she calls a labor-intensive boat. “This, that and the next thing needed to be done, and I discovered that I can solve problems out at sea,” she says.

As she followed the 2018 Golden Globe Race, she liked its spirit of adventure. “There are a lot of reasons to decide not to do something,” she says. “Having succeeded and followed my heart in other decisions, I knew that the GGR was something I should do.”

Her plans were nearly derailed early when she left her boat in Newfoundland and flew to South Africa, and then COVID-19 restrictions kept her from returning to Canada. She was eventually able to get back to Newfoundland and sail to Prince Edward Island, where she spent a year preparing for the race. She fell in love with the people there and made lifelong friends. Several were present at the Golden Globe Race finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne.

For her part, Neuschäfer makes light of the fact that the race dubbed a “Voyage for Madmen” was won by a woman. “I entered as a sailor,” she says. “I competed as a sailor and won as a sailor. On the same token, it’s a male-dominated race. If what I did inspires someone, then good will come of it, and I’m happy for that.”

Neuschäfer clearly has inspired the sailing world. On the final night of her race, as Minnehaha made its way up Les Sables d’Olonne channel, thousands of supporters lined the harbor walls, cheering and waving flares. Neuschäfer’s smile lit up the night. When she reached the dock, a friend handed her a bottle of champagne, which she sprayed into the air. Dressed in her sailing bibs and bare feet, she stepped off her boat and onto dry land for the first time in 235 days, and hugged her mother. 

Theresa Nicholson is CW ’s senior editor.

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Golden Globe Race

The start of the 2022 Golden Globe Race. Photo: Ville des Sables d’Olonne – Christophe Huchet

The third ever edition of the Golden Globe Race started in late 2022. The first was in 1968, which was followed many years later by the race’s rebirth in 2018. 

What was unique about the Golden Globe race?

The original Golden Globe Race was the first race around the world solo without stops or any outside assistance. 

The GGR remains one of sailing’s best known events, capturing the hearts and minds of a global audience. It also began a thirst for single handed round the world racing that continues to this day. 

The first participants in 1968 are well known, whether it is the eventual triumph of Britain’s Sir Robin Knox Johnston over his arch rival Frenchman Bernard Motissier, or the tragic story of Donald Crowhurst (the story of which is the subject of the film, The Mercy ). 

It was then, and remains today, a serious undertaking for anyone hoping to achieve it. Even in the modern era racing around the world solo and without assistance remains a very difficult task to achieve. Despite many trying, many attempts still end in failure (though not usually with tragic outcomes).

To put the challenge into some perspective, more people have travelled into space than have raced around the world alone and unaided. 

That original race saw sailors able to set off on their voyage within a fairly wide window of opportunity, with the only rule being that the first person to complete a lap of the globe would be declared the winner. 

Recently the race has been reborn with a round the world race being held in 2018, attempting to capture something of the adventuring nature of those early intrepid sailors. 

The event was a success and, as such, another edition will be held this year, as contestants set off on the Golden Globe Race 2022.

The same organisers of the 2018 and 2022 Golden Globe have also announced another reto race in the form of the Ocean Globe Race , which will look to recreate the Whitbread Round the World race of old.

What is the Golden Globe yacht race?

The 2022 Golden Globe Race is a solo, nonstop yacht race around the world with no assistance and without the use of modern technology.

This means the skippers can’t use GPS, chartplotters, electric winches, autopilots, mobile phones, iPads or use synthetic materials like Spectra, Kevlar or Vectron.

Their only means of communication is via registered, licensed maritime-approved HF Single Side Band (SSB) Radio, with discussions generally limited to the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) weather. They are allowed to listen to HAM radio, but are not allowed to transmit.

Where does the Golden Globe race start and when?

The 2022 Golden Globe Race will start on 4 September 2022 from the port of Les Sables d’Olonne on France‘s Atlantic coast.

Over the years this has become the effective home of round the world racing, with a variety of modern events starting from this French venue. 

The best known is the Vendée Globe, which is essentially the modern version of the Golden Globe Race, with participants racing highly technologically advanced yachts around the world at blistering speeds.   

Who was the winner of the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race?

• Kirsten Neuschäfer – SOUTH AFRICA – Winner of the 2022-23 Golden Globe
• Abhilash Tomy – INDIA – Second place in the 2022-23 Golden Globe
• Michael Guggenberger – AUSTRIA – Third in the 2022-23 Golden Globe

Skippers still racing but now in the Chichester class (those who have made 1 stop):

• Simon Curwen – UNITED KINGDOM – Winner of the 2022-23 Chichester class – for those who have made 1 stop

Who is competing in the 2022 Golden Globe Race?

Chichester class – for those who have made 1 stop

• Jeremy Bagshaw – SOUTH AFRICA 

18 skippers started the 2018 race on 1 July 2018, with just five finishing, so it is not expected that all these skippers will make it to the finish. 

2022-23 Golden Globe Race retirements

• Edward Walentynowicz , (Canada), Rustler 36, Noah’s Jest
• Guy deBoer , (USA), Tashiba 36, Spirit
• Mark Sinclair (Australia), Lello 34, Coconut
• Pat Lawless , (Ireland), Saltram Saga 36 , Green Rebel
• Damien Guillou , (France), Rustler 36, PRB
• Ertan Beskardes , (UK), Rustler 36, Lazy Otter
• Tapio Lehtinen , (Finland), Gaia 36, Asteria
• Arnaud Gaist – FRANCE
• Elliott Smith – USA
• Guy Waites – UNITED KINGDOM
• Ian Herbert-Jones – UNITED KINGDOM

Jeremy Bagshaw on his 2022-23 Golden Globe Race

• July 20, 2023

A lifelong sailor, Jeremy Bagshaw started sailing as a child in an Optimist dinghy before moving onto Fireballs and Lasers. He raced offshore while at university and prior to Golden…

Michael Guggenberger on his 2022-223 Golden Globe Race

• July 18, 2023

Originally, Michael Guggenberger planned to take part in the 2018 Golden Globe Race, but delayed until the 2022 edition to allow more time to prepare. This paid off for the…

Abhilash Tomy on his 2022-23 Golden Globe Race

• July 13, 2023

In 2013, Abhilash Tomy became the first Indian to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, via the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn and Cape Leeuwin, aboard the…

Simon Curwen on his 2022-23 Golden Globe Race

• July 11, 2023

Chichester Class winner Simon Curwen tells Katy Stickland all about his experience taking part in the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race

How I survived a dismasting in an 80 knot storm in the middle of an ocean

• July 7, 2023

Cape Horn gave me a good beating, and I needed to sort some problems on the boat, so I anchored off Picton Island in the lee of the Horn. It…

Kirsten Neuschäfer on her 2022-2023 Golden Globe Race

• July 5, 2023

Winning the Golden Globe Race meant everything to Kirsten Neuschäfer; her ambition would not only drive her, but would also leave her frustrated and despondent, especially when she became trapped…

Guy Waites crosses the 2022 Golden Globe Race finish line

• June 19, 2023

Guy Waites has crossed the finish line of the 2022 Golden Globe Race. The Scarborough skipper completed his solo circumnavigation of the world with two stops

Jeremy Bagshaw: the final finisher in the 2022 Golden Globe Race

• June 9, 2023

South African skipper Jeremy Bagshaw has finished the 2022 Golden Globe Race after weeks of punishing north-easterly winds and a broken forestay left him crawling towards the finish line

Michael Guggenberger is third in the 2022 Golden Globe Race

• May 12, 2023

Austrian skipper Michael Guggenberger has come third in the 2022 Golden Globe Race, having been one of the most prepared entrants in the race

Golden Globe Race: Michael Guggenberger approaching Biscay

• May 5, 2023

Michael Guggenberger has passed the Azores and is expected to cross the finish line next week