Posted by Graham Cox
Leg One of the Mini Globe Race is the shortest passage of this circumnavigation race, at something under 1200nm, but nonetheless it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye. Apart from Gary Swindail, on QUESTION 2, who started a week later than the rest, all 14 ALMA Class Globe 580’s that crossed the start line in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, on 23 February, are now safely moored in Shelter Bay Marina, Panama.
Line honours went to Renaud Stitelmann on CAPUCINETTE, who led all the way, in an elapsed time of 8 days, 18 hours and 40 minutes. Apart from an injured foot, all was well aboard, and as usual, Renaud made it look like a walk in the park. After a boisterous few days off the Columbian coast, the last miles into Cristóbal Harbour, on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, were light, and he ghosted in through the breakwaters before making his unheralded way to Shelter Bay Marina. Race Director Don McIntyre, and his partner, Jane Zhou, were still in Antigua.
Keri Harris on ORIGAMI passed between the breakwaters of Cristóbal Harbour just under five hours later. He sailed 1160nm to get there, as opposed to Renaud’s 1166nm. His slightly more direct route was possibly due to hand-steering most of the way, given he did not have an operational mechanical self-steering gear. Details of his passage are scarce, but he would have most likely had to slow ORIGAMI down at times, when sleeping with the electric autopilot in charge.
LITTLE BEA was next, with an elapsed time of 9 days, 2 hours and 47 minutes. Apart from a few rough days off of Barranquilla, Canada Dan had a delightful passage, and has no work to do to the boat before the next leg, apart from adding a few chafe patches to the mainsail that he never got around to doing in Antigua (blame it on the rum). He still has a little discomfort from his sciatic nerve, damaged during the Atlantic crossing, but it is much improved. He booked himself into a hotel room for the night, to enjoy a comfortable bed that did not gyrate all night long, not to mention the luxury of air-conditioning. As he said ecstatically upon arrival, it was remarkable that the first three 580s arrived within eight hours of each other.
To add to that statistic, Aussie Dan Turner arrived two hours later on IMMORTAL GAME, all the more remarkable as he was sailing with a jury-rigged forestay for the last few days. All four of these sailors arrived on 4 March, and there were only 10 hours between the first and last boat. Within days, after a sleep and a few drinks with the MGR gang, Aussie Dan got to work, lowering his mast in preparation for haul-out. Besides antifouling for the long haul across the Pacific to Fiji, he needs to replace his forestay.
Adam Waugh arrived on 5 March, relaxed and fit, after sailing 1232 nm, with an average daily run of 127.5nm, which equates to an average speed of more than 5 knots. He may have gone the long way round (skirting the adverse currents and choppy seas further south), but carried a fair wind and tide all the way. Adam revelled in being able to sail without the pain of broken ribs, and LITTLE WREN is in good shape, ready for the next leg, 6,700nm to Fiji, via the Marquesas, Tahiti and Tonga.
ARGO and DELJA 100 also arrived on 5 March. There were only eight hours between these three boats. Christian Sauer may have been annoyed with himself for sailing off course and losing miles while asleep earlier, due to a fractious relationship with his mechanical self-steering gear, which he is still learning to ‘fly’, but ARGO only sailed 1198 miles to get there. Despite some rough days when he was being thrown around the boat, with waves breaking heavily aboard, he only has a few minor repairs to do. John Blenkinsop, aboard DELJA 100, tallied 29nm less than Christian for the passage, but obviously Christian was pushing a little harder when awake, arriving in Cristóbal Harbour three hours ahead of John.
DELJA 100 did a couple of nosedives during the rough seas off the coast of Columbia, resulting in green water sweeping the deck, but escaped unscathed. John is proving to be a consistent performer, sitting just behind the leading pack ever since the fleet left Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, and may yet prove to be the dark horse of the race. Whatever his final position, he could be described as the Aussie Larrikin of the fleet, and there can be no doubt that he is having a whale of a time. The enthusiasm in his videos is infectious.
Jakub Ziemkiewicz seems to have taken his manager’s prompting to heart since the early days of the Globe Transat (to work a bit harder at sailing fast) and sat in the middle of the fleet all the way this time, sailing BIBI 1170nm to secure 8th position on 6 March, 10 days, 15 hours and 16 minutes after departing Antigua. For some time, he kept pace with Pilar on PETER PUNK, who was not feeling well. On another occasion, he was quite close to Jasmine on NUMBATOU, and joked that he was going to come over for a party.
Because the committee boat was not waiting in Cristóbal Harbour to see Jakub finish, there is no record of whether he wore a fancy dress outfit on this occasion, as in the past. (Spanish conquistador? – and perhaps he’ll wear a grass skirt when he arrives in Polynesia). He anchored BIBI for the first night outside Shelter Bay Maria, then moved into a berth the next day.
SUNBEAR, PETER PUNK and NUMBATOU also arrived on 6 March, with only 11 hours between BIBI and NUMBATOU. Although Eric Marsh is a veteran ocean racer, he took this leg a bit easier than he usually does, while he worked out how to get the best out of this class of boat when racing downwind. His performance notably improved in the latter half of the race, and it will be interesting to see how he fares later on. He was quietly confident that, barring unseen circumstances, he would complete the circumnavigation. In a recent social media post, he was advertising a top-down furler for sale, so it remains unclear if he intends to fly his asymmetric spinnakers without the furler in future legs.
Pilar Pasanau fell behind the leading pack in the early stages of this leg, due to a stomach complaint, but later picked up some speed, and thereafter maintained PETER PUNK’s position in the fleet. As a consequence of her illness, she didn’t enjoy the passage much, and was looking forward to arriving in Panama. However, it seems likely that she will resume her position in the leading pack on the next leg.
If Jasmine Harrison’s self-portraits are anything to go by, depicting her lounging in the cockpit with a bright smile, she thoroughly enjoyed her crossing, taking 11 hours, 7 hours and 24 minutes to sail 1179nm and secure 11th place. The passage had its tougher moments though, with a few squalls and bouncy seas.
The approaches to Panama were particularly challenging. During Jasmine’s last days, her Mum reported: ‘Jasmine had a very sleepless night, and a long day today, as there was so much shipping around, and lots of debris in the water, like logs and plastic containers, which were occasionally hitting the boat, one with a big knock on the bow. Through the night, she could make out the light glow from Panama.
‘For the last 48 hours it has been challenging to point the boat, with hardly any wind. There was lots of lightning overnight across to the NW, too. Progress into today was anything from 0.5 to 3kn, and even occasionally backwards. On the approach to the finish line, there were over 24 huge vessels anchored, and an enormous RO-RO ferry was determined to keep coming towards her, then turning each time she tried to turn away from it. Then the challenge of navigating to Shelter Bay marina with daylight fading!’
NUMBATOU came into Shelter Bay Marina to a warm welcome from the other MGR skippers, the first to be welcomed by a reception committee on this leg, according to Jakub Ziemkiewicz. Undoubtedly, she was soon off to find some fried chicken before the restaurants closed.
Ertan Beskardes arrived next, on 7 March, aboard TREKKA, to secure 12th place, which may have come as a surprise, as he mentioned earlier that he thought he was coming last. This was due to his YB tracker not regularly updating for some reason, showing him in 14th position. His Starlink satellite dish and Garmin Inreach units were also on the blitz, so he had no way of checking data. Not that he is likely to have cared, he was revelling in the freedom of the ocean, and the adventure of setting off on a circumnavigation. He covered 1168nm in 11 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes, showing that he’d accomplished an efficient passage, given Keri’s yardstick of 1160nm on ORIGAMI, the shortest distance any skipper sailed on this leg.
SKOOKUM sailed 1176nm in 11 days, 21 hours and 29 minutes, also arriving on 07 March, in 13th place. Josh Kali may be a rookie sailor but he is a veteran mountaineer. He has traded his tent for the snug cabin of a 580 and is very pleased with the deal. For him, sailing SKOOKUM across an ocean is like never having to leave base camp, but miraculously finding yourself on top of the mountain.
It took him a while to learn how to push his boat hard downwind, but he had a great time, and was obviously getting faster as the days passed. One day, he posted a jubilant note on Facebook, with a picture showing him holding a bottle of Antigua rum and smiling broadly: ‘Greetings from SV Skookum! Averaged 5.8kts last night – that’s my best yet, and good enough to match Renaud the Swiss machine up in the lead! Getting faster! Toasted with a bit of fine Antigua rum! Cheers and Salud!’
Mike Blenkinsop, aka Popeye, arrived in 14th place, not technically last, because Gary Swindail and QUESTION 2 are behind him. He sailed into the marina under jib, bringing DELJA 99 smartly alongside the pontoon, after suffering engine failure and having no support boat to tow him in. He had sailed 1197nm in 11 days, 23 hours and 44 minutes. During the rough seas off the coast of Columbia, he suffered a bad broach that laid DELJA 99 flat. He was in the cockpit at the time, and says that he would have been swept over the side if he had not been wearing his harness. He was pushing the boat very hard, trying to make up time, when it happened.
Mike was very tired when he arrived. On the Atlantic crossing, he had suffered leg cramps, and this time it was toe cramps. His son, John, booked him into a hotel room, and he slept heavily, missing Don McIntyre’s impromptu skippers’ meeting. He said the last seven days of the passage had been very hard, due to the turbulent sea state off the Columbian coast, the ship traffic, and lack of sleep.
DELJA 99 is in good shape, apart from a shackle in his mainsheet track that broke. He mentioned that another boat had broken the top swivel of a top-down furler, not to mention Dan Turner’s rig damage. He was consequently planning look at his gear carefully before the Pacific leg. These are light boats, with proportionate rigs, and it is perhaps inevitable that there will be breakages, given how hard some skippers are pushing their boats. It is something the skippers will need to manage on the long hauls ahead, particularly on the passages known for wild weather, such as the South Pacific Convergence Zone, the Indian Ocean, and rounding South Africa’s Cape Agulhas.
One of the differences between this passage and the 2025 Globe Transat is that Captain Coconut, aka Mark Sinclair, is sailing alongside the fleet in his Golden Globe Race (GGR) veteran yacht, the bright-orange COCONUT, a refurbished Lello 34, aboard which he has already circumnavigated. Amusingly, a few of the 580s proved faster than COCONUT, and overtook Mark. He also deliberately rendezvoused with some of the other 580s in the fleet and got some excellent photos and video footage. COCONUT will follow the fleet (we can say that now!) around the world.
The final MGR skipper, Gary Swindail, on QUESTION 2, was 596nm from Panama on the evening of 10 March, sailing in 10-15 knots of wind, sometimes a little stronger, averaging 5 knots, and at this rate should take around a week to complete the crossing, though the winds may freshen closer to Columbia. He should arrive with enough time to rest up and truck his boat across to the Pacific side of the Isthmus, ready for the start of Leg Two of the MGR on 24 March.
He said that the seas were moderate in height but sloppy, often knocking QUESTION 2 off course, making the boat round up, though the Hydrovane handed the steering most of the time. He’s still learning how to get the best out of the boat, having never sailed it before setting off on his qualifying sail. Most of the time during the qualifier, the wind was forward of the beam, and during his first attempt, which lasted three days, conditions were brutal. He returned to Antigua, regrouped, and set off again after the mandatory briefing on 17 February. Nothing broke, however, and Gary, a professional boatbuilder, is very impressed with how tough the 580’s are.
When he left for Panama, the wind was SE, so he initially broad-reached to the west under reefed mainsail and A7. Since then, the wind has come more aft, and he spent a few days running with the A5 poled out opposite the A7, leaving the main on deck. When the wind increased, he changed down to working jib opposite the A7. On the morning of his call, he briefly put up the A5, but the boat began to feel overpowered, so he switched back to the A7.
He usually goes forward to do sail changes on his hands and knees, using knee pads and wearing a harness, but admits that he still has a few scrapes and cuts, and has left a few bloodstains on the topsides. He takes it slow and tries to avoid working on deck at night, settling the boat down before dark, sailing conservatively.
Gary has an Origo stove and has managed to cook a few meals, curried sausages and vegetables, etc, plus eggs. He loves fruit, and has a large supply of oranges and apples aboard. Cans of baked beans offer a good fallback position when it is too rough, he is too tired, or feeling lazy. Just before he left Antigua, someone offered him as much dehydrated food and army ration boxes as he wanted, so QUESTION 2 is well stocked for the long Pacific legs that lie ahead. When teased about whether he intended to hold a half-way party, since he had less than 600 miles to go, he laughed and said he might cook up some eggs.
He is carefully husbanding his electricity, never letting his batteries get below 50%, by turning off his chart-plotters and AIS most of the time. He switches them on briefly on a regular basis to record his position and check for shipping. He also has a good look around the horizon once ever hour, day and night, if he is not on deck, though he has seen very few vessels since leaving Antigua. He switches off his main VHF radio, but leaves the small hand-held one switched on.
He has a total of 200 watts in solar panels, one 50-watt unit on a pole aft, two 50-watt units on the cabin, and one spare. One unit is reserved for the autopilot, and the others service the house battery. He rarely uses the autopilot, but has already burned out one of the two units he carries. He also has an Echomax unit, but it beeps every time he turns it on, even when there are no ships in sight or registered on the AIS.
Having got away in such a rush, he still does not have antifouling paint on the bottom of QUESTION 2, but hopes to find the time to slap a coat on in Panama when the boat comes out of the water to be transported across the isthmus. Other than add some stickers to the hull, he does not have any work to do on the boat, and is very happy with the way his gear is set up. He will also be happy to catch up with the fleet and join the MGR family.
Leg Two is going to be one of the most fascinating passages of the circumnavigation, not just because of its length, 6700nm to Fiji, via the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti and Tonga, but because of its strategic challenges. The first of those challenges will be to work out of the Gulf of Panama, with its calms, squalls and adverse currents, and then break through the doldrums into the SE tradewinds.
Traditionally, back in the days when the only information available came from sources like OCEAN PASSAGES OF THE WORLD, compiled from centuries of recorded observations by ship captains, sailing vessels bound for the South Pacific from Panama initially worked along the Ecuadorian coast, before turning west and passing south of the Galapagos Islands. Small, light yachts have always fared better on this passage than heavier ones, unless the latter employed auxiliary power.
However, as the 2025 Globe Transat showed, access to wind and current information from sources like WINDY have changed the rules of the game, allowing skippers to make real-time assessments of local wind and current conditions, and set their course accordingly. Thus, the 580s were able to ‘cut the corner’ south of the Canaries, instead of sailing down to the latitude of the Cape Verde Islands, saving themselves a week or so of sea-time. It might be possible to do so here again, with the added benefit of keeping some distance off the Ecuadorian coast, where some acts of piracy have occurred.
One of the many fascinating aspects of the MGR is the opportunity it provides to observe how these technological changes have influenced the art and science of voyaging under sail. Another is the extraordinary bond between the entrants, who are more like family than competitors, something that harks back to the early years of events like the OSTAR. It is no wonder that the MGR is garnering critical acclaim worldwide. Mark Chew, editor of Southern Woodenboat Sailing (SWS), recently had this to say:
‘Some sailing races seem to get it just right. I think we can now add to a relatively short list, the McIntyre Mini Globe Race, which combines true adventure, competition, inclusivity, a nod to history, and above all a sense of fun. Others that spring to mind are the Marion Bermuda Race, the British Three Peaks Race (about to hold its 70th event), and the Race to Alaska. What’s the common denominator here? Perhaps, an understanding that competition is good but participation is more important.’
Image shows Mike Blenkinsop, aka Popeye, aboard DELJA 99, in the approaches to Panama. Photo by Captain Coconut, Mark Sinclair.
