Andrea Lodolo is two weeks out from setting off to sail around the world solo, nonstop, and unassisted for the Golden Globe Race.

Days out from the start, he reports, ‘a very positive environment. Everybody’s very happy, very collaborative.

We’re all busy with our own things, putting our stickers on the sails and on the hull, but here to help each other if needed.’

He arrived in August from Port-la-Forêt, Brittany, where he’s been training for the upcoming offshore adventure and preparing his Rustler 36, Bibi. 

‘I’ve worked hard for three years now, and I want to enjoy every single moment as much as I can,’ he reflects. ‘I’m excited to just be out there in the Biscay, be with my boat, and find my rhythm.

This is how I see it: the sacrifice is the prep, and the joy is the journey. It’s like a cake, or a prize giving, to even have the opportunity to do this. I’m very blessed.’

Sailing on sabbatical

Lodolo started sailing as a child on Lake Como, Italy. He slowly moved seawards, undertaking double-handed races in the Mediterranean.

His sailing horizons refocused on the Solent during university in the UK, and soon a successful career in private equity kept him away from anything more than leisure sailing.

At the first opportunity, he took a sabbatical to sail alone along an Atlantic loop on a Hallberg-Rassy 43.

With his next career break took on an even bigger project: Lodolo was admitted to the prestigious Warsash Maritime School, where he became the first Italian to complete the full cadet scheme.

The sea cadet turned solo sailor

‘I was 40 at the time, and most of the crowd was in their 20s,’ Lodolo recalls. Looking back, ‘It was a great experience, being surrounded by real seafararers.’

He found the academy markedly different from the maritime environments he’d been in so far.

‘Sailing environments are all leisure or competition, but merchant navy training is designed to build you up to transition an entire industry.’

For the lecturers and pupils alike, ‘It’s an enormous challenge,’ he says. ‘They have to lay the foundations for the officers of the future.

The people that are on deck today need to deal with both the old school stuff and newer technology. They need a skillset that ranges from autonomous shipping to rope splicing.’

Over a three year period, Lodolo gained experience on jackup vessels, square rigs, container vessels, and more before jumping right back into his career in high finance.

He only stopped working again in 2023 to be ‘fit for duty on September 6, 2026,’ the start of the third edition of the revived Golden Globe Race.

A new leaf in Brittany

After hitting pause on his career again, Lodolo relocated to Brittany throw himself headfirst into offshore training.

‘I believe in dedication,’ he says of his all-in approach. ‘In whatever we do in life, dedication is the assumption to succeed.’

In Brittany, he was welcomed by a small community of offshore sailors.

‘I am very grateful to them. I learned a lot over the course of those few years, and I think I became not only a better sailor, but a better person,’ he reflects.

‘I’ve trained to the best of my ability, or at least to be proud of how I show up at the start line.’

Of his dramatic lifestyle change over the past couple of years, he says, ‘I find it really beautiful to be able to undertake a new project at a mature stage in life.

Being able to let go of all your safety nets, your social placement, and to restart with the mindset of a learner, even as a senior gentleman, that’s the real beauty of where I am now.

The work I was doing before was dealing with people, with numbers. And the more you progress in your the career, the more you play with the delegation of authority.

Now, it’s back to basics. It’s doing everything yourself, from sanding a deck to pulling a rope.’

A tribute to mariners past

‘I always had this dream to do a single-ended around the world journey,’ Lodolo says of undertaking the GGR.

‘Like many others, I was inspired by by Bernard Moitessier. Having the opportunity to do the same event in a different moment in history, it’s just great.’

He sees the GGR as ‘a tribute to the mariners of the past,’ and has opted not to ask for any exclusions from the GGR’s extensive Notice of Race.

‘To me, following the rules is an act of respect for the experience of those who created the race, and entered it before me.’

The old school sailing style, not to mention the race’s strict technological limitations, comes with the territory.

‘Old school is good. It’s engaging. You are much more within the environment.

I do think that spending a few months without the filter of neural networks, algorithms, and  recommendations, and just making decisions based on what I see will make me more aware when I come back.

These days there is an abuse of technology in anything in life, from finding a restroom to deciding which sail to put up. It reduces our awareness of what’s going on,’ he reflects.

‘We have many examples in the shipping industry where people just look at the monitors and not outside the window, and they crash.’

Still, he takes a positive view of technological innovation when used responsibly.

‘A good use of technology makes us more informed, sometimes safer, and helps us make better use of our time.’

Particularly when sailing, ‘instruments equals safety, especially in coastal cruising. They are a source of information.’

A man with a method

Lodolo’s disciplined approach to the GGR Notice of Race extends to his sailing style, and to life onboard.

‘I like my boat clean all the time,’ he explains. ‘Staying in a clean environment keeps my mind clear.

Staying in a dirty, confused environment makes my mind disorganised, so it’s a matter of mental order, and of safety. As they say in the merchant navy, ‘shipshape’.’

His penchant for a structured approach also ties into his wider philosophy when solo sailing.

‘On the one hand, time is a convention,’ Lodolo explains. ‘The Greek used to call it Chronos. On the other hand, it’s also a perception.

I believe that if we maintain our regular habits, time stops. And where time stops, you begin to live a constant present.’

To access that constant present, he says the body needs to enter a rhythm. To find his, he chose not to take alcohol or caffeine on board during the race, and stopped smoking ahead of time.

‘I love to smoke, but the nicotine is excitement. Similarly, if I have caffeine, then it’s difficult to sleep the right way. You break the rhythm,’ he says.

Lodolo has already reaped the benefits of his lifestyle changes in the lead up to the race.

‘I’ve been a little bit a monastic in my way of preparing. I’m very quiet. I don’t party much. I go to bed early, I wake up early. I train.

It may be a boring life for many, but for me, starting this journey was very healthy. I already feel enriched just by the experience so far.’

Andrea Lodolo’s Golden Globe Race boat

Like fellow entrants Damien Guillou, Pär Nyman, and Ertan Beskardes, Lodolo will sail a Rustler 36.

Rustlers swept the podium in 2018 (1: Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, 2: Mark Slats, 3: Uku Randmaa), and placed second in the 2022 edition (Abhilash Tomy).

‘I saw the Rustler’s performance in different events, starting with (unfortunately) the infamous Fastnet, and then in the last edition of the GGR. Much was thanks to the mariner, but I think also to the hull design,’ Lodolo says.

He found a promising boat in Scotland, with a keel stepped mast and a hull in good condition.

After a GGR-minded refit, ‘It’s a very simple and hopefully efficient boat. All is manual, there’s just the electric bilge pumps as per race rules.’

He has already sailed Bibi fully loaded up with provisions (food, clothing, spares), ‘just to see how it feels, and how she handles.’

Over the phone, Lodolo walks me through her current layout.

Imagine the boat with three compartments, he says.

‘An external compartment where I put all my sails and some spares. We basically laid the deck bare, and then repainted it so there would be no infiltrations, and I added a dedicated sail locker that is accessible just from the deck.

Then I have internal compartment with a proper workshop where the bed was before. I put all my materials where the sitting room was, and I sleep in the pilot bunk.

Then I took the opportunity that the notice of race gave us to make a wider watertight compartment, so I actually have no heads onboard.

I also designed two places where I can sit and standby, or sit and sleep and rest with some very comfortable cushions. One to port and one to starboard, depending on the heel of the boat.

Then from the bow to the ‘smart room’, in order, I’ve got provisions, then the small place where I live, so my pilot bunk, chart table, those two seats, and the galley.’

He also designed a custom dodger.

‘We’re not allowed to have a larger one like Damien’s or others anymore, so we’ve built a very small one on rails. It took a lot of effort to make it work, especially to make sure it doesn’t go off track in strong wind.’

A private affair

With few exceptions, Lodolo has been quiet about his Golden Globe Race journey.

‘I think it’s great that many other people share their journey to inspire other people, and maybe one day I will tell my story,’ he says. ‘But for me, distraction is the killer of any project. Preparation needs silence.’

Yet once the race sets off, Bibi will one of seven boats equipped with the live GGR Window.

The wider public will soon have immediate access not only to the action onboard, but also to Lodolo’s more personal reflections.

For now, ‘I share this with my loved ones, and I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by people who really want the success of my dreams, whatever they have been or will be. And I like to share with them the results.’

The result he’s expecting from the Golden Globe Race?

‘A better man, a better person. A better sailor for sure, but mostly a better man.’

Quick facts: Andrea Lodolo / Bibi (Rustler 36)

Sail Plan? 

In total it’s nine sails, as per race rules.

In terms of rigging, I’ll have a removable forestay where I can fly a Gennaker, a second Genoa or a Storm Jib, and then a trichetta, a G1 on furler, plus two symmetric spinnakers (S1, S2) and two asymmetric (A3, A2, A3).

Self steering? 

I have two hydrovanes. One is installed, and one is on board.

Antifouling?

Copper coat. I’ve never had problems, even in long passages.

And I’ll have the equipment to go down and clean the hull if needed. Once we’re out of the doldrums, it might need some cleaning but the water will be colder and colder.

Three unexpected items you’ll take onboard: 

1. A list of exactly 27 books. It took me 8 months and many people to put it together. Two are poetry, one Japanese and one English. Poetry is very good because you can read a few sentences and then think for a while. I think poetry is good for the synapse.
2. Haribos! I’ve done a mixture. I think Haribos are an addiction, so I’ve done a mixture of four each, and I have 200 of those in small sachets as my small treats. I have the Coca-Cola fizz, the round ones, and the liquorice. They’re bad for you, but sometimes you need just a treat.
3. Cassette tapes. I like Hip Hop and rap. I think freestyle is the new form of poetry.
4. A Rubix cube. As a kid I did some competitions.

 

 

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