Guy DeBoer phones in from the doldrums in the middle of the Atlantic, where La Niña is ‘causing hell’ with the Bermuda and Azores high pressure systems.

He set off on at the end of June for his 4,000 mile qualifier for the Golden Globe Race, in which he will race around the world solo, nonstop, and unassisted for the better part of the year using only traditional sailing techniques.

The undertaking is a perfect synthesis of his life until now.

DeBoer was a cabinet maker in his youth (refits), later a professional sailor (racing), as well as the owner of a sailing publication.

‘I don’t know what it is about my personality, but I tell a good story,’ he says, and he wants that story to be one of resilience.

‘I’m someone who tries things and gets knocked down, but the one thing you can count on is my getting back up again.’

DeBoer’s 2022 GGR attempt dramatically ended with his 1986 Tashiba 36, Spirit running aground off Fuerteventura due to exhaustion.

Thieves made off with almost £60,000 worth of gear including life raft, sails, food, sextants, and running rigging.

Yet, ‘I chose to rebuild rather than walk away,’ he says.

‘It only took me five weeks to build a mould and totally re-fibreglass the hole. You could have driven your car through the side of the boat, and now the repaired port side is stronger than the original structure.’

Spirit has sat on the hard in Fuerteventura since then.

‘The beauty about the Canary Islands is that they’re very low humidity, and not extreme temperatures.

You can go aboard a boat that has been abandoned in a harbour for 10 years, and it looks like someone was aboard yesterday,’ he explains. ‘No mould, no mildew.’

‘In November I went through all the systems. Everything was just like it was at the 2022 starting line.’

2022 Rewind

Back in 2022, ‘The solo part was new to me, and of course it showed. But I like to think that I have evolved as a solo sailor since then.’

He has new rules, many of which centre around conserving energy and keeping the motto: ‘don’t break the boat, don’t break the sailor, don’t break your mast.’

He’s shortened his by a metre and a half following the advice of Jean Luc Van den Heede, winner of the 2022 edition.

‘He lost virtually no sail area because he did a big roach mainsail, and even when everybody else lost their mast, he didn’t.’

DeBoer has also developed a top-secret navigation handbook that breaks the race down into nine legs, noting strategy and tactics for each segment.

‘I’ve re-evaluated every system and every practice. I’ve learned hard lessons, and I believe I’ve evolved into a better ocean racer because of them.’

For example, ‘I’m no longer racing when I’m near land. It’s to conserve energy, get enough sleep, and stop working so hard until I get back into the open ocean again.’

Then the race is back on, full throttle.

‘I’m a true competitor,’ DeBoer admits. ‘I’m not in the race for a spiritual experience.’

Sleep strategies

At 70, DeBoer is the oldest skipper still set to depart from Les Sables d’Olonnes in September.

He may not be worried about his age but he is well aware of it, and of the need to manage the race’s physical toll.

He suffered from vertigo early on in the 2022 edition, when, ‘The very first night it was light air, and my body shut down. I was throwing up, I had dry heaves. I didn’t rest well enough the week before.’

The excitement of the start? I offer.

‘Ego,’ he corrects.

This around he’s working with Dr. Philip Haydon, a sleep specialist and solo sailor, on his sleep plan,  learning about what rest really does for the mind and body.

‘When solo sailing, we’re up and down 24 hours a day,’ he explains. ‘If you think of your brain as a balloon, and the balloon fills up as you go through your day. When you get to sleep, it deflates again.

‘While solo sailing, every time you wake up and start working, the balloon keeps inflating, and you have to be careful to sleep enough and take enough naps to keep it deflated and maintain the mental capacity to make good tactical decisions.’

While he’s learned that, ‘You can train yourself for very long periods of time of living on a regimen of 20 minutes napping, 20 minutes working,’ he won’t be pushing that rule.

All-American adventure

DeBoer is one of a handful of American skippers taking part in the 2026 GGR.

‘I believe I’m only the seventh American ever to enter a solo nonstop around the world race, and no American has ever won one. I’d like to change that.’

He feels that the lack of American representation in offshore spaces is largely cultural.

‘The United States has not been a big supporter of solo sailing. I’ve sailed in Olympic trials, and some of the biggest ocean races in the world, and no one is on the dock except family and friends.

To show up in Les Sables and have 200,000 people there and signing autographs, it’s absolutely surreal for an American. It’s hard to comprehend.’

Yet compared to other French mainstay sailing events, he feels the GGR presents a unique challenge.

‘Vendée Globe sailors are extraordinary, but their race is over in about 65 days.

In the Golden Globe we’re at sea for eight or nine months. That means more storms, smaller boats, and longer exposure to risk and isolation. There’s no real way to train for that except by doing it.’

His ‘smaller boat,’ a 1986 Tashiba 36, is a heavy displacement Bob Perry design.

DeBoer used to own a sailing publication for which Bob Perry contributed cruising articles, and Mark Mills — then an up-and-coming designer — reviewed race boats.

When he decided to enter the race in 2019, DeBoer wrote to Mills and Perry with a short list of the approved models. Both felt the Toshiba was the fastest option and emphasised its safety, comfort, and seaworthiness.

Mark Mills also believed it was the fastest of the Golden Globe-approved designs.

DeBoer traveled through France, the Netherlands, and the UK searching before he found Spirit closer to home in Rock Hall, Maryland.

He refit Spirit himself, fitting two mandatory watertight bulkheads, replacing the seacocks, and completely rewiring the boat.

Having done most of the work for the 2022 race, this time he helped fellow entrant Stephen Wraith prepare his boat.

‘I needed money, so I helped him get his boat ready, and gave him advice. I’m very open, except when it comes to the actual race strategy.’

In his racing career, DeBoer was a helmsman, tactician, and navigator, always part of the afterguard.

He started a group chat with the other skippers where, ‘Everybody’s asking everybody else questions. We’ve been able to share and learn a lot from all our experiences.’

‘This group of skippers that make it to the starting line are going to be much more prepared than the prior races.’

Quick facts: Guy DeBoer / Spirit (Tashiba 36)

Sail Plan? 

Spirit is cutter-rigged with a bowsprit. In terms of sails, I have:

• Mainsail with four reefs
• Light-to-medium overlapping genoa
• Twin yankee
• Staysail
• Asymmetric and symmetric spinnakers
• Storm jib and trisail (as required)

Rodney Keenan of Evolution Sails donated two sails to me, the new stay sale and a new maximal overlap Genoa.

And then Smart Sails made my new main sail, my Yankee, which is a speciality Genoa for reaching, and the mandatory Vane sale. I use twin Profurl furlers, and an Antal Batten System.

Self-steering set up?

I carry both a Windpilot and Hydrovane for redundancy.

One major lesson from 2022 is redundancy: to finish this race, you must not lose the boat, the rig, or your self-steering.

Storm tactics?

When a true storm arrives, I stop racing and start surviving.

I carry a drogue, use warps, and focus on setting the boat up to survive breaking seas. Wind isn’t the real danger — breaking waves are.

The number none rule is don’t break the boat.

Three unexpected items you’ll take onboard: 

1. Cigars and rum
2. Guitar. I’ve spent a lifetime wanting to learn how to play an instrument. I don’t yet know how to play, but maybe by the finish line I will.
3. 20-25 books. War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and books by James Clavell, Irving Stone. Also some murder mysteries from my friend Bobby Cotton

 

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