Monday, 12th December 2016
After close on 12 months of preparation, Shane Freeman set sail on Sunday from SYC aboard Mushka, a Tradewinds 35 that he purchased last year. For those of you who haven’t heard, Shane is one of 30 entries in the Golden Globe Race which starts in June 2018, a retro re-run of the calamitous 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. In that race there were nine starters but only one, Robin Knox-Johnston, finished. The general principle for this anniversary event is that if it wasn’t on Knox-Johnson’s boat in 1968, it can’t be on your boat in 2018. So competitors will circumnavigate the earth using no digital equipment whatsoever. No GPS, chart plotter or any number of other modern aids we rely on these days.
Since his arrival with the boat in February, Shane has spent almost every day at SYC, down at the end of E-row, working on the boat. The refit for this journey has been huge. New rigging, new sails, LED lighting all around, new anchoring systems, converting the forestay and the inner stay from to hanked sails, plus a new track and car system for raising and lowering the main sail. There’s been the replacement of the front deck hatch, the replacement of starboard fuel tank and the exchange of the gas stove top, with a methylated spirits unit. The three blade fixed propeller was replaced with a two blade prop, the removal and inspection of the rudder, an inspection of the steering pedestal and linkages, the addition of new blocks and winches and the removal and replacement of the boats waste system. New HF and VHF radios were installed, all engine hoses were replaced, the deck covered with non-slip paint a new life raft and more.
Of course all of this preparation has not only been for the 2018 event because unlike many of the competitors who are mainly from Europe, Shane has to get his boat to the start line from half way around the world.
Of the 30 competitors lined up for the GGR2018, many have had years of competitive sailing experience in world-class yachting races. On the other hand some who’ll line up, could be classed as weekend sailors who’ve never really sailed in open seas. Shane’s places himself in the middle of the field when it comes to experience and gaining more expertise for the actual race is one of the reasons that he’s decided to sail the boat single handed to the start line and not send it by ship as the two other Australian entries will do. With the refit of the boat complete, Shane set sail on December 11th.
The trip will take him below New Zealand, under Cape Horn and up the east side of the Americas, part of the same route that he’ll need to follow in 2018. His first scheduled land fall is the Falkand Islands, around 8 weeks of non stop sailing. For this journey, Shane will have all the digital aids that he’ll need but he’ll be honing his celestial navigational skills in preparation for the real event in 2018.
You can follow his adventure on the following links.
Shane’s Blog.
