‘I keep pinching myself in the arm to make sure I’m not dreaming,’ says Swedish solo skipper Pär Nyman.

Days out from setting off to sail around the world solo, nonstop, and unassisted, he’s preparing for the 2026 Golden Globe Race alongside fifteen other skippers.

The energy at the pontoons ahead of the September 6th start, ‘It’s really, really good. I understand now why people talk about the GGR as a family.’

But before he arrived in Les Sables d’Olonne, for a moment Nyman wasn’t so sure he wanted to be part of it.

Near drop

‘I was even considering quitting the whole thing,’ he reveals.

The deadlines, fines, penalties, paperwork, forced routes and regulations that came with taking part in a competition had taken some of the joy out of sailing.

‘Sailing is about freedom, for me. It was very painful, feeling like I was having to do things just because someone else said so.

I started asking myself, ‘Should I really do this if it kills my passion for sailing? Why am I here? Am I selling myself out? Am I out of integrity with myself and my values?”

But once he was welcomed in Les Sables d’Olonne, Nyman’s whole mood shifted.

‘I’m in the right place,’ he says now. ‘Of course there’s a lot of stress and things that still need doing, but people are so friendly and helpful.

I would be even more relaxed if we were just a bunch of people doing this together, and everyone wants everyone to succeed, and that’s our shared goal. But the race provides structure, and a sense of increased safety.

I’ve also heard many coaches say that if you have a goal, you should surround yourself with people who are already doing it. So that’s what I’m doing.’

Seduced by the Southern Ocean

For Nyman, that goal is one of singular focus: the Southern Ocean.

Even sailing on optimists as a kid, he delighted in taking on conditions his peers wouldn’t consider going out in.

He later worked as a climbing instructor for the Swedish Climbing Association, skydived, and raced motorcycles, none of which were short of adrenaline.

‘But it’s not the danger itself, it’s the intensity,’ that draws him, he says.

Particularly in nature, ‘I like that feeling of being put on the spot. I feel stimulated. I actually laugh about it a lot of the time, and when it’s something more serious, I sharpen.’

During the GGR, ‘I have no idea how I will react when I’m in a real storm and it’s totally out of control. I might just lie down crying, or give up, or I might get super focused. Who knows. I haven’t been there yet.’

Pär Nyman’s sailing story

Nyman spent a few years in the Navy’s Youth Corps, then worked as a sailing instructor in his twenties. He had an Albin Vega 26, and later an Olle Enderlein 32 he purchased during COVID.

By then, ‘I hadn’t sailed for a few years. I felt like if I didn’t do it now, I would never.’

Though he did the ARC with strangers and sailed on increasingly longer passages with friends, he felt an increasing pull towards solo sailing.

‘It’s easier to feel connected to the sea when I’m uninterrupted and in harmony with myself,’ he says.

‘And it’s simpler to sail alone, in a way. There’s no one to argue with apart from myself, and that’s more than enough.’

An unexpected calling

Nyman was crewing around the world with his daughter when the GGR first came up on his feed.

It was the spring of 2025, little over a year out from the start. He jumped to contact race founder Don McIntyre.

‘Immediately, I felt like it was too much for me, all the paperwork. And I didn’t have the sailing experience required, the knowledge. I didn’t really have the finances, either.’

Though he knew he’d be short on time and money, he kept toying with the idea.

Eventually, he got back in touch with McIntyre while on a passage from New Zealand to Fiji.

Miraculously, McIntyre was already in Fiji for the Mini Globe Race, moored in the very same marina Nyman was headed towards.

‘Of all the places, right!?’ Nyman laughs. ‘Three days later, I’m sitting with him and Jane in the cockpit, and as he talks about the GGR I get this incredible calling.’

Not about the GGR itself, he specifies, but about the Southern Ocean.

‘I felt this energy rising in my spine. It’s difficult to explain, I’ve never felt anything like it before. But I just knew that I had to go.’

Quick turnaround

With barely over a year to get his ducks in a row, Nyman had to act fast.

McIntyre directed him to a Rustler 36, Lazy Otter, that had entered both previous editions of the race.

Nyman bought the boat in July of last year and sailed it from France to the West coast of Sweden with his daughter and his girlfriend.

A month later, he set out on his first solo sail, a 325 mile passage to Bergen, Norway, to visit fellow GGR skipper Daniel Alfredsson, who has since retired.

‘That was my first time solo on the ocean for real, and it was amazing,’ he recalls.

He took to sea again for his qualifier, for which he intended to the Shetlands, and ended up pressing on to Fair Isle, then to Iceland and back, sailing a total of 2,123 miles in 16 days.

‘I just kept going and going. The boat felt so solid, and I felt so comfortable on board. It was no big deal at all. I just enjoyed it.’

Pär Nyman’s Golden Globe Race boat

To get Lazy Otter ready for her third go-around attempt, Nyman gave the vessel a refresh. Short on time, he had to stick to essential modifications.

‘I am adapting to the boat rather than the boat adapting to me,’ he says.

Lazy Otter got new chainplates and a new Sta-Lok rig, which Nyman built himself.

He proofed the collision bulkhead, resealed the cockpit lockers, renovated the Hydrovane, secured all the cabinet doors and floorboards, and rebuilt the HF radio to be watertight.

‘The transom on the foredeck was also leaking in rough conditions. I had to pump 100 to 150 strokes with my manual bilge pump every eight hours, so I fixed that and installed the heavy duty bilge pump according to the rules.’

Though he would’ve liked to build another companionway hatch and bring the halyards and reefing into the cockpit, there was no time to change it.

At time of interview, he was reassembling his Hydrovane with a new bracket, and still needed to finish resealing the through-hulls on the aft deck and installing air vents.

He was considering increasing the number of solar panels and adding a lithium battery power bank for his live streaming equipment, an exception applied to those who are in the ‘GGR Live Window‘ live-streaming program.

The GGR Live Window

Alongside six other skippers (Ertan Beskardes, Andrea Lodolo, Gunnar Christensen, Etienne Messikommer, Louis Kerdelhué, Damien Guillou, and Mara Løvenskiold) Nyman is set to take part in regular one-way, real-time broadcasts throughout the race.

It’s a first for offshore racing, and an unprecedented level of onboard access for what has previously been called ‘The Loneliest Race in the World.’

Skipper motivation to take part varies, Nyman says.

‘For some, it would feel wrong to have it onboard, while others think it’s fun. Others see it as something that can help them get sponsors.’

Nyman, who already sailed live on national TV during his qualifier passage to Iceland, is ambivalent towards his own participation.

His previous streaming experience prompted an outpouring of messages from people inspired by his venture.

‘One guy even bought himself his own offshore, heavy duty cruiser. So if I can contribute to that, to people getting more connected to themselves and their dreams and taking steps towards their goals, that’s great.’

His friends and family are also enthusiastic about his participation, which ‘feels safe to them.’

Yet Nyman says he’s been wanting to go on a longer solitary retreat for some time now.

‘I’ve been really looking forward to the solitude aspect of the race, and to not talking to anyone for almost a year. I’ll miss that part.

And I don’t know how I’ll be affected by having to livestream so regularly. I might not, eventually.

I do like sharing with other people, but it’s important that I keep doing this for my sake.’

A platform in the middle of the ocean

The livestream may also become a platform for Nyman to talk about something more.

‘In the world of sailing, there’s a lot of focus on technique, technology, and physical stuff. I would love to put the spotlight on our mental and emotional, even spiritual well-being,’ he says.

‘In the GGR, too, we talk a lot about safety, but the only casualty in the history of the race has actually been a mental issue, a suicide, and we don’t really talk about that. It’s so strange.’

The 2026 is dedicated to Donald Crowhurst, who disappeared at sea in a presumed suicide after faking his progress in the race.

While racing himself, Nyman says, ‘It’s going to be so important thing to be aware not only about how many volts there are left in my battery bag, but how many I have left within myself.’

Brain games

Nyman has a particular consideration for the important of mental health, developed both through his work as a doctor and his personal life.

He has previously taken time off from medical work to focus on meditation: ‘It became my main occupation. I was mediating for four hours a day, every day, for months.’

He went on solitary retreats, spending up to 31 days with no connection to the outside world, which he calls ‘extremely rewarding.’

‘I developed a lot, I think. The whole purpose was to let buried, hidden things within me surface, and to sit with them once they came up.

‘I’ve heard from former GGR sailors that it’s very heavy when things start surfacing. They start debating with themselves, what if they really did this and that wrong 10, 20, 30 years ago.

But I don’t think that will happen to me. I’m not afraid of what will show up during this trip.

If anything, he hopes, ‘To get deeply, deeply connected to my deepest self, to talk and speak and live from that part of myself and to be able to stay there when I live stream.

When I’m connected to the part of me that actually felt this calling, I’m just going for it. There’s no fear. There’s just joy.’

Quick facts: Pär Nyman / Lazy Otter (Rustler 36)

Sail Plan? 

I’ll go with something that looks like a twin sail, but it’s two Yankee-style head sails in identical four ounce cloth. For running, and depending on what sail shape they have, I might be able to point fairly well with them.

Then a small staysail, my mainsail, and an all-purpose asymmetric spinnaker that came with the boat. It’s quite big, so that’s also a light wind option.

I also have a symmetrical spinnaker that’s pretty good in light winds. It’s a bit smaller than I expected, but it’s the right size for the boat.

I’ll carry at least at least one old Genoa that I can use for a close haul if I want to. I might get a new Genoa as well.

Self-steering set up?

I have an old hydrovane with at least 30,000 miles under its belt. I got a new rudder blade because it had a lot of play, and the Hydrovane guys suggested changing it.

I also got a new bracket. The joint was moving, even though we’d tightened it a lot.

So I have the Hydrovane and some spare parts, and then a servo pendulum secondary wind vane that is called AutoSteer, which is no longer in production. If it was my only windvane it probably wouldn’t get the ok from the race committee, but as a secondary option it’s ok.

Antifouling?

At first I figured I would just copy what Simon Curwen and Jean-Luc Van Den Heede did, because they did so great and had no growth and no cleaning.

But my boat came with Micron 350, which it turns out (after a fight with ChatGPT, an emergency plan activated, and a panicked call to Don) is actually an SPC as well (self polishing copolymer).

It seemed to work pretty well, there was no growth on it even though it had been lying in France for a year, so I ended up sticking with that. I think I will be happy with it.

I’m doing four layers and a fifth layer on the bow and the front of the keel.

I cut out numbers from a sheet of thick paper, starting on number two, and rolled over it. I’ve got large numbers for each layer, in a different colour, so I can keep track.

Don also said that people were cleaning their hulls right before they left, and ended up cleaning off their antifoul. I don’t think they did, but this way if I see the number, I’ll know it’s a problem.

Storm tactics?

I’m setting up a drogue, and the anchor chain to weigh it down. I’ll also set up a system to stop it chafing.

So that’s my downwind tactics, and then I will practice more heaving to.

I still haven’t found the right balance yet in the boat. I tend to end up with my beam towards the waves, and I don’t want to be there.

But overall, that’s the main things: drogues and heaving to.

Unexpected items you’ll take onboard: 

1. For fun: I’m taking a bunch of cheap harmonicas, and at least one better one. I’m a total newbie, but this way I will learn something.
2. From family: My daughter is writing me a bunch of letters to open along the way.
3. From friends: A friend gave me a bottle of champagne that we didn’t drink at my farewell dinner. So I marked it with Cape Horn, and I’ll think of him then. Another friend let me borrow a big knife that he used on his own adventures. He pitch-poled with his boat, and his wife got caught in the main sheet, and he cut her loose with it. I have a picture of him on his boat when he was young, too.

 

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