Nearly 50 years ago, an epic race, where its nine participants were supposed to sail solo around the world in non-mechanised yachts, ended with only one of them finishing it. Others met varied fates: one of them committed suicide during the race, while another quit halfway, deciding to settle down on the isles of Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. The Golden Globe Race (GGR), which had started off Plymouth in Britain, was never held again.
To mark its golden jubilee, a new GGR, covering 30,000 miles and having 30 participants, will be flagged off on June 30, 2018, at the same place. This time, Commander Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy is the only Indian, rather the only Asian, who has been invited to the race.
The sailors would skirt the Cape of Good Hope, pass through the Indian Ocean, skirt the coastline of Australia, cross the international date line and round the Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America before heading north and reaching the finishing line, passing through the Atlantic Ocean once again.
A daunting itinerary, but commander Tomy is no stranger to such a journey, having circumnavigated the globe non-stop and unassisted in a sailing boat in 2013 to become the first Indian to achieve the feat.
Talking to PTI over the weekend, the 38-year-old Kirti Chakra awardee described the GGR a raw adventure in its purest form, which today’s speed-obsessed sailing world has forgotten.
What makes the adventure raw is the rule that participants can only use the equipment and gadgets carried on board by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s yacht Suhaili, when it won the GGR in 1968. So no GPS sets or satellite phones. To communicate, participants can only use HF sets (high frequency radio sets).
But for commander Tomy, a difficult challenge will be to raise over ₹7 crore that he would need for the race. Unlike his circumnavigation expedition, which was supported by the Navy, he is completely on his own this time.
A public fund-raising campaign has been launched on crowd-sourcing platform Ketto, while he is also trying to get help from corporates. The boat, which he would be using in the race, named Thuriya and built by Goa-based Aquarius Shipyard, was launched last week.
The 32-foot vessel is an exact replica of Suhaili , except that fibre glass and steel have been used to make it. “A few people know that Suhaili was built using wood logs confiscated by the Customs in Colaba. That is our contribution to the global maritime history,” said Mr. Tomy.
In comparison, INS Mhadei , in which he sailed around the world in 150 days, covering a distance of 23,000 miles in 2013, was over 56-foot long.
The biggest challenge of the GGR participants will be navigation without technology such as the GPS. They will have to rely on the age-old celestial markers — the stars, the sun and the moon — and a compass to determine the location and chart the route.
“Minutest of calculation mistakes can lead to getting the location wrong. Also, we will have to use error-prone mechanical (analogue) watches because digital watches didn’t exist in 1968,” said Mr. Tomy.
To be sure, every boat will have a GPS set fitted on it, but it is only for the outside world to keep tabs. The participants themselves won’t be able to use it. There would be a satellite phone too, on which they will receive a call from the organisers every week and will give updates of their progress. They can call themselves only in distress, but it would lead to automatic disqualification.
Mr. Tomy will have to gain knowledge of advanced medicine, oceanography, meteorology, rules of diet, boat repairing, and also some diplomacy, in case they enter the waters of a wrong country.
For the journey, he will be stocking supplies for 320 days, including a litre of drinking water every day. He can only take a minimal amount of canned food, owing to the small size of boat. The participants will have to do some fishing if they want to supplement their diet.
The Indian Navy has given him go-ahead for participation in this once-in-lifetime race. But because of his shoestring budget, he cannot afford to load his boat on a bigger ship for reaching Plymouth. There is a possibility that he will have to sail there in Thuriya , which is expected to take six months.
“If I manage to raise money, I will send Thuriya on a larger carrier from South Africa after sailing through the Cape of Good Hope. If not, I will sail all the way to the starting line, and it will help me learn a lot,” he said.
“Rarely does anyone get such a historic opportunity, and this is mine,” said the Navy commander.
