In 2018 Don McIntyre from Australia organized the Golden Globe 2018 race 50 years after the first non-stop round the world race won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Following the success of the the 50 year anniversary race, Don came up with the idea of organizing a retro Whitbread race in 2023 to commemorate the first Whitbread race which was sailed in 1973. So the Ocean Globe Race 2023 (aka Retro Whitbread) was born! More information of the race itself at www.oceangloberace.com.

”As a keen sailor and equally keen fan of Olin Stephens I finished the Golden Globe Race this spring with the S&S design 1710, Benello Gaia 36 Asteria. After finishing the race I soon made a decision to enter the next Golden Globe Race in 2022 with Asteria, but having sailed in the 1981 Whitbread race I was inflamed with the idea of entering also the Golden Globe Race.

During the summer and early fall I ended up acquiring the yawl rigged Swan 55 Galiana from Southampton. Since my childhood I have admired the 55 as the classiest and prettiest Swan ever built by Nautor in Finland. It also happens to be the biggest boat that can be entered in the smallest class of the race, which is Swans between 46 and 55 feet built before 1988. She might not be the fastest downwind surfing boat in this category, but definitely she is a very seaworthy and also potentially fast boat.

As Finland has a long tradition in sailing round the world round the great capes dating back to first half of the previous century, when the windjammers made their annual circumnavigations transporting grain from Australia to Europe followed by our legacy of a number of Whitbread and BOC boats, my ambition is to recruit a crew consisting of 20-35 year old ex dinghy sailors to introduce a new generation of Finnish sailors to the Southern Ocean and the Round the World Racing scene.

We sailed Galiana home to Helsinki in late fall and she was sailed actively for a few weeks by a growing group of interested sailors. Now she is safely up at the Jouko Lindgren yard in Helsinki waiting for a new active season”.

You can follow the activities through tapio lehtinen sailing facebook site and www.tapiolehtinensailing.com pages.