Good food, good thoughts? The GGR fleet

With 30,000 miles of circumnavigation ahead of each GGR skipper setting off this Sunday 6th September, their yachts are stocked up with food and drink ready for more than 200 days at sea.

While food might seem like a secondary factor in Golden Globe success, it can play a huge role in the psychological wellbeing of each competitor. During Damien Guillou's preparatory mile-building, he found food a cause for stress as his manager, Sebastien, explained.

“[Damien] discovered he had a sweet tooth, especially at night, which caused him stress knowing he would run out [of desserts].”

Following his mile building, Damien ensured he had enough desserts to get around the world - 800 individual desserts in fact, enough for two at each meal: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Using food as a psychologically positive tool can be found across the fleet - all the GGR competitors recognise its importance.

Isa Rosli's chocolate-chip cookies are the ‘sweet-treat’ propelling him around the globe.

“I have a thousand-plus cookies onboard!

“What I learned from my qualifying is, you know, I underestimated how many cookies I needed. And, seriously, it was a panic moment, when I discovered at around day 30, I'm like, ‘oh, okay, I need to start rationing my cookies!’ So I was eating one cookie per meal.”

While it sounds silly, it is the smallest moments of joy - such as that of a couple of cookies at the end of the day - which can make or break legs on the Golden Globe Race. 

“It goes a long way. We spent the most time in the cookie aisle!” explained Isa’s manager and life partner, Wendy.

It isn’t just cookies and desserts which skippers have concentrated on to ensure positive meal times. Matt Woodside explained his food plan aboard Tipi Haere, his Cape George 36.

“I have a lot of excellent freeze-dried Indian food, and you need to have a beer with your Indian food. So I probably have four or five months of beer on board, as one does!”

Apart from sweet treats and beer though, GGR skippers also have to ensure they have balanced meals. Isa Rosli explained his meal plan, which will change depending on the conditions he faces on his OE32, the smallest yacht in the GGR fleet.

“We figured out that 65% is wet food ready to cook and then 25% is dry food, which needs to be cooked, and I'm pretty sure I'll eat that when it's calmer and I can cook properly, and then the other 15% would be dehydrated food.”

Jean-Luc Van Den Heed, winner of the 2018 GGR, explained similarly to Isa how he planned food while circumnavigating.

“I took 240 days of food. And I have a list, and each day I take this or I take that. I do not prepare every day. You know, it depends what I want, what I need, what I prefer, and I prefer to choose really on each day as it comes.”

While it may seem obvious then that food is important for circumnavigations of this type (duh!), it’s fascinating to see the approaches of individual skippers as they complete their final preparations ahead of departure this Sunday 6th September.