What if the Truman Show was set on the High Seas? The new ‘GGR Window’ will offer 24/7 one-way access to the solo round-the-world adventure

Viveka Herzum

In a first for solo around-the-world racing, the GGR Window will bring viewers into the race with a 24/7, one-way YouTube livestream

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In the latest from the Golden Globe Race, a livestreamed ‘GGR Window’ is set to give a voyeuristic spin to the gruelling voyage.

In a first for solo around-the-world racing, the wider public will be able to get onboard with GGR entrants as they race around the world solo, nonstop, and unassisted using only old school technology.

How?

A 24/7, one-way digital window into the action.

‘This is a game changer for the GGR, with absolutely zero entrant impact on the 1968 ethos […] The reason we invest in adventure, even without major partners, is to inspire people.

This will shoot the numbers through the roof for mums and dads and sailors alike, inspiring many more than we ever have in the past,’ says Don McIntyre, GGR Founder and Race Director.

ggr window

Golden Globe Race entrants at the 2025 Skipper Meetup in Les Sables d’Olonne. Photo by Golden Globe Race

How does the GGR Window work?

Following a daily rota of two to three hour slots, participating skippers will select one of three possible cameras and go live on YouTube with the push of a button.

The resulting livestream will share live footage from onboard and select navigational data and biometrics including skipper heart rate, yacht pitch and roll, apparent wind speed and direction, and speed and course over the ground.

A scrolling news footer will also publish updates about the rest of the fleet.

True to the retro racing spirit, sailors will not have access to this data or to the live footage, nor gain any additional avenues for communication with their shore team or race organisers.

Even as they sail into the Southern Ocean, access to the GGR boats will remain completely one way.

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The proposed GGR Live Window skipper control board, designed to protect 1968 ethos of the GGR. The sailor has only simple ON/OFF controls to transmit live video during their scheduled window, with no data readout, no incoming info and no communication function. Photo by TriPeak / GGR2026

The GGR window is just the latest technological advance designed to make yacht racing faster, smarter, and easier to watch.

To make the GGR Window possible, McIntyre Adventures developed custom-built electronics, circuit boards, hardware and management software with Swedish technology company TriPeak.

The result is a compact, marine-ready black box designed to use minimal power (around 4 amps on average) that can survive an eight-month ocean adventure.

Who will you be able to watch?

Seven of the 23 entrants currently set to take part in the Golden Globe Race will be equipped with live transmission technology:

‘This live window isn’t just a wild way of showing what’s actually going on inside the GGR,’ says entrant and social media personality says Mara Løvenskiold, who has previously livestreamed her Atlantic crossing.

‘It also motivates me to keep pushing on through the hard times.’ 

ggr window

Although entrant Mara has previously live-streamed her Atlantic crossing, her setup required computers, iPads, iPhones and other equipment, all banned in GGR. Here she tests her SSB HF radio while her chart table is temporarily taken over by live transmission gear. Photo by Mara Kveseth

Next up for the GGR Window

A three-day live test of the GGR Window will begin on August 16, 2026 during the SITraN Challenge Prologue Race from Les Sables d’Olonne.

A camera will also stream live from the McIntyre GGR office to take followers behind the scenes with race operations.

Following its implementation in the Golden Globe Race, the 2027 McIntyre Ocean Globe Race is expected to adopt the same setup.

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