Image: Sailing East towards the rising sun - Southern Atlantic
GSC organisers asked their skippers what brought them to sign up for the Global Solo Challenge and below are a selection of answers which gives a feel of how the event is perceived by entrants. As organisers we are pleased it is seen as a non elitarian opportunity to achieve a dream, with a friendly and open approach and affordable budget. We will be following up this article with more insight and words from other skippers into the motivations behind the desire to take on such a challenge.
After nearly a year since launch of this new solo, non-stop, circumnavigation, organisers have received 400 enquiries from skipper of over 40 different nationalities. 37 have since entered officially the event and a recent poll of the remainder of the enquirers indicates there are 8 skippers who declare themselves as “intending to enter”, 26 are “still considering” the Global Solo Challenge but need several factors to align, work, family, finances, training and preparations. Not everyone has responded to the poll but we can conservatively expect the number of entries to reach somewhere around 45 or more, which is more than we ever expected when announcing the event a year ago.
Organisers are still receiving new enquiries on a daily basis. There will be some attrition and dropouts even during the phase leading up to the start, which is natural for such a challenging project, but the numbers point to a solid and exciting first edition.
Olivier Jehl
This race represents for me a unique opportunity to take part in a solo round the world race. The budget is reasonable, it allows me to look for responsible companies in their investments, taking care of others and the environment, which fits with my way of being.
Sharing an adventure at a reasonable budget allows it to be shared with everyone without elitism.Who says reasonable budget, says sobriety in efficiency, we stay in technology, we do not stop technology but we recycle our resources as much as possible while following the technological train (I will set off on an old boat to which I will add the ‘modern electronics, modern seamanship, modern sails, use satellites, use renewable energies, etc.)