Scarborough Sailor Guy Waites is spending his last day in the Golden Globe Round the World Yacht Race, but says his circumnavigation will continue.
Guy had until tomorrow to reach a checkpoint in Tasmania, but he's not expecting to get there until Friday after barnacles slowed his progress before Christmas.
Since removing the barnacles, during an unplanned stop in Cape Town, Guy has been the fastest competitor in the race, but has been unable to make up the lost distance and admits he's not going to make it to Hobart on time.
Race organisers say that Guy will be withdrawn from the race tomorrow but Guy says he will continue his voyage with his own team taking over responsibility for his safety and communications.
Race organisers GGR say that Guy has indicated to them that he will
"continue to Cape Horn, against the directive of the GGR, without stopping in Hobart to ensure a fast passage around Cape Horn – his big objective."
The Rules of the GGR require all entrants to stop in Hobart if they are unable to pass through the gate by 31st January as a February departure greatly increases the risk of Autumn gales rounding Cape Horn in April, especially if the transit across the Southern Ocean is slow.
GGR Co-Founder, Don McIntyre says:
"It is unfortunate that we must retire Guy from the GGR and we wish him well with his new plans. Should he want to, he will be free to use his sat phone, GPS and access any weather information and routing to assist and fans can follow his personal blogs and tracker."
Guy will be withdrawn from the event as soon as he passes 147º East, the longitude of Hobart. The GGR transition process for his withdrawal from the event requires Guys team and manager to officially take over all safety responsibility with the following action plan:
- The first point of contact or “Next of Kin” will be changed from GGR Race Control to Guy’s manager, Julie Waites.
- GGR Race Control updated MRCC Australia (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) and MRCC Chile regarding the new first point of contact and his withdrawal from the event.
- Guy will be removed from the GGR tracker after the longitude of Hobart. His own YB tracker will be available after Hobart and shared on his page
- GGR Race Control will stop the weekly calls and daily text messages, but may occasionally post or repost messages from his social media channels as is done with other retired entrants.
Guy's team have confirmed all safety actions are now in place and Guy can rely on a wealth of expertise led by his wife and Team Manager Julie, including Norman Bailey, the former Commodore of the Newport YC, world-class weather experts, Clipper Ventures Race Directors and crew, who Guy met as a skipper on the Clipper 2019/20, and of course the Commodore and friends at Scarborough Yacht Club.
Guy's wife Julie said:
"We are fully prepared at Guy Waites Sailing to take over the GGR responsibility to assist Guy with his challenge to complete his solo circumnavigation around the world. This is something we are used to with Guy‘s previous solo ocean crossings and I have a great team behind me who will give Guy and I their full support. We will try our best to update all his supporters and followers on social media over the next few months, however our priority will be the focus on Guy and Sagarmatha."
Guy is now in the Southern oceans, somewhere he says always new he could perform well.
Guy says he's been taking a southerly track where possible to make the most of ocean currents
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