GOLDEN GLOE RACE DIFFERENCES
The original 1968-69 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race attracted nine entries, with only one, the then 30-year-old Robin Knoxjohnston finishing after 312 days at sea. Chay Blyth, John Ridgway, Bill King, Loïck Fougeron and Alex Carozzo all retired from the race less than 100 days after starting due to illness, storm damage or lack of experience. Nigel Tetley sailed for 246 days before he was rescued after his trimaran sank in the Atlantic. Bernard Moitessier famously kept sailing, and sailed one and a half times around the world before stopping in Tahiti. Donald Crowhurst died while trying to finish the race. He started on 31 October 1968; his trimaran was found empty 253 days later.
Tetley and Crowhurst raced in 40ft Victress trimarans, Carozzo and Moitessier favoured the ketch; Knox-johnston circumnavigated in a 32ft double-ended wooden ketch. Fourgeron sailed a 30ft steel cutter, King in a 42ft wooden schooner and Blyth and Ridgeway favoured 30ft fibreglass sloops.
50 years later, the race was relaunched by Australian sailor Don Mcintyre. 18 skippers crossed the start line, and only 5 finished. The fleet comprised six Rustler 36s, three Biscay 36 ketchs, two Endurance 35s, two Tradewind 35s, an OE32, a Lello 34, a Gaia 36, a Nicholson 32 and an Eric Suhaili replica.
The first three to finish - Jean-luc Van den Heede, Mark Slats and Uku Randmaa - were all sailing the Rustler 36. Istvan Kopar came fourth on his Tradewind 35 cutter and Tapio Lehtinen came fifth in his Gaia 36. Only six of the 18 made it beyond the race gate at Hobart, including Susie Goodall, who needed rescue after her Rustler 36 dismasted in the Southern Ocean. The others either retired, suffered equipment failure or lost their boats – three required rescue from the Indian Ocean.
Due to the number of knockdowns in 2018, the start of the 2022 race was moved two months to 4 September so the boats would not reach the Southern Ocean too early. New rules were also introduced: no spar restrictions apart from maximum length, rules on rigging sizes dropped, the introduction of weather faxes and no HAM radio transmissions. The route was also changed, with the 2022 fleet now having to keep the Atlantic island of Trinidade to port.