The Finnish Round the World Racing tradition continues in the 2023 Ocean Globe Race
The Finnish Round the World Racing tradition continues in the 2023 Ocean Globe Race
by Don McIntyre on June 23 7:50 AM PDT
September 10, 2023
Tapio and OGR 2023 crews in the back, sitting with local optimistic sailors, future crews for OGR 2031! © Aïda Valceanu
Helsinki will host the 2023 Ocean Globe Race at the HSS Yacht Club, founded in 1893, which is one of Finland’s most respected yacht clubs.
The event was co-organized by McIntyre Adventure and Tapio Lehtinen Sailing, who got to present the whole young racing team for the first time. Everyone is eager to face the South Ocean and Cape Horn during the 50th anniversary of the legendary Whitbread Round the World Race.
Finland is home to Nautor Swan and Baltic Yacht builders, as well as the famous 2018 Golden Globe veteran Tapio Lehtinen, who took S&S Gaia 36 around the world during the grueling 334 days plagued by the nest colony. He became the sixth person in the history of the event. orbit the earth without interruption, alone, without GPS, satellite phone or electronic navigation devices.
Regardless of this ordeal, Tapio decided to give the race around the world again, not once but twice in the next two years!
He will compete non-stop alone at the next GGR 2022 in September with the clear goal of improving to 5th place. Just weeks after finishing, he joins the fully-fledged 2023 Ocean Globe Race on a Swan 55 Galiana designed by S&S with a crew of young Finnish sailors, forty-two years after the first Whitbread in 1981-82 at Skopbank of Finland.
Concerns about the state and climate of the oceans and the desire to come up with solutions to improve the situation are key themes in Lehtinen’s two upcoming competitions: “I am extremely proud and grateful that we have been able to bring together domestic partners who share the same values and move towards a carbon-neutral circular economy. ” Tapio added.
Ocean Globe Race founder and chairman Don McIntyre was impressed when he finally met Tapio’s young crew. “The organizer of OGR is so exciting to see and experience the passion and enthusiasm of this wonderful young team assembled by Tapio. They are all strong characters and unique skilled individuals, but it is clear that everyone considers the team their own. This competition will be an important part of life. move them all! ”
Tapio leads OGR’s Finnish authorization to participate in sustainable communication. Three of the 21 confirmed teams from 12 countries will come from Finland, including Sebastian Gylling on Swan 51 Eira and Jussi Paavoseppä on Swan 651 Second Wind, ex Fazer Finland.
Jussi Paavoseppä could not be happier with the choice of boat. Production Frers designed the optimized mast and keel profile Swan 651, which competed in the 1985 Whitbread as Fazer Finland and finished third in the revised time.
“We recently bought Second Wind from his careful owners and are now assembling a great crew for this unique event.” “It is a pleasure to bring the former Fazer-Finland around the world again and one of the Finnish ocean sailing legends back to a new challenge with the Finnish crew,” said Jussi.
Jussi and his crew get another Swan 651 around the world, the DOMINIQUE Dubois’ Futuro, which has just been refurbished with Carboma / Multiplast yard expertise.
Sebastian Gylling, who runs the Finnish charter company Southern Ocean Company, stepped into Frers ‘design of his 1981 Swan 51 Eira and is delighted with the project: “After living in the oceans, racing, cruising and crossing borders, we finally have the opportunity to make a decent tour.’ Sebastian said, “It’s not a round trip, it’s a legendary race. “The golden years of the burglary” have been virtually impossible to experience … So far. ”Over 50,000 miles in the last three years, Sebastian knows his boat well!
Meanwhile, two historic Flyer Class OGR yachts, Marie Tabarlyn’s Pen Duick VI and Lionel Reigner’s l’Esprit d’Équipe, will face their first offshore meeting this week as they take part in the SSE Round Ireland Race, which walks the island clockwise for 705 miles, and the Wicklow Sailing Club . Follow them here.