TWO yachts designed in Looe are set to take part in the McIntyre Golden Globe Race around the world, writes John Collings.

Sixteen skippers will set out from the French Atlantic resort of Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday (September 6), forsaking modern comforts and ditching navigational aids for the spirit of the original 1968-69 Sunday Times Golden Globe event, which saw Devon’s Sir Robin Knox-Johnston become the first person to sail solo, non-stop around the world.

Sailed without GPS or modern electronic navigation aids, the retro 28,000-nautical mile singlehanded race is open to 32-ft to 36-ft yachts designed before 1988. The rules state that competitors must navigate using only sextants, the stars, compasses and paper charts.

No computers, auto-helm, or shore-based weather routing advice is allowed either during the eight months or so they will be at sea alone.

Ireland’s Pat Lawless is campaigning his Saltram Saga 36 yacht, Silvermines Hydro, that was designed by the late Alan Pape in Looe and built by former Plymouth boatbuilders K R Skentelbery & Sons.

Naval architect Pape, who died in 2004, developed the Saga from the hull of the Colin Archer Norwegian Redningskoite sailing lifeboat.

Former full-time fisherman Lawless has unfinished business with this race, having been forced to retire west of Cape Town in 2022 after a key part in his self-steering system failed.

The 43-year-old is sailing to raise funds for Parkinson’s Ireland after his wife, Rita, was diagnosed with the disease. He is also aiming to become the first Irishman to complete the race.

Norway’s professional licensed yacht captain Mara Løvenskiold Kveseth is sailing Showgirl, another Pape-Skentelbery built yacht.

The former international athlete said: “I’m someone who has never been very good at staying inside boxes.

“For the past years, my life has revolved around the sea. Living on a sailboat, moving with the weather, learning patience the hard way, and slowly realising that the ocean has a way of stripping things back to what actually matters.”

There should have been a third Pape-Skentelbery yacht taking on the challenge but 70-year-old Scot Andrew Ritchie pulled out for personal reasons. Four other boats taking part are Rustler yachts hailing from the Falmouth company of the same name.

Across the three previous Golden Globe Race editions, 43 sailors have started but only nine finished.

Don McIntyre, founder and chairman of the Golden Globe Race, said: “The final week before a Golden Globe start is unlike anything else. Years of preparation come down to just a handful of days. There’s excitement, but also quiet reflection.

“Families know they’ll soon lose sight of their loved ones, and the skippers know they’re about to step into a dream they’ve worked years to realise. On Sunday, modern life falls away, and it becomes just the sailor, the wind, the sea and the stars.”

The McIntyre Golden Globe Race 2026 supports the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) as its charity of choice.

For more information on the event, visit: goldengloberace.com