2026 Golden Globe Race campaign

Around-n-Over will support the 2026 Golden Globe Race campaign of Erden Eruc. This is a solo nonstop retro sailing race with historic significance which will start and end at Les Sables d'Olonne on the Atlantic coast of France after sailing south on the Atlantic Ocean and rounding Antarctica eastbound.

As an unsupported race, entrants typically complete it in about 230 to 250 days. Being a retro race, only pre-1988 full keel standard production yachts of 32-36 feet in length are allowed. The use of coastal navigation and celestial navigation methods emphasize traditional seamanship, there is no GPS or chart plotter allowed. Modern conveniences like satellite phones, desalinators or exotic materials like dyneema or carbon fiber are forbidden. "Sailing like it's 1968" is the race slogan with a nod to the Golden Age of Sailing.

The race will start on 6 September 2026. Erden already purchased a competitive vessel which earned line honors in the 2022 GGR. There is enough time until race start to train on this vessel to ensure best performance. The training will also reveal what needs replacing or improving before the race start.

USE OF FUNDS

We are actively seeking corporate sponsorships to underwrite this project. The ultimate goal will be to cover the GGR campaign costs using sponsorships. The stated target of 150,000USD for this fundraiser is half the estimated GGR campaign budget which will complement any sponsorships.

The campaign proceeds after expenses will benefit equally (a) ILKYAR Foundation focused on boarding students in primary schools in rural Turkey and (b) Ocean Recovery Alliance, an organization registered in California and Hong Kong with a mission to fight plastic pollution in The Ocean. Ideally enough sponsors will join our cause such that all contributions to this fundraiser can be released to benefit these two worthy causes.

The expenses leading up to the start include vessel purchase, refit, sail inventory renewal, boatyard storage, marina access, travel and lodging for training passages. There are costs to race registration, to safety requirements such as liferaft service and to victuals for training and for the eight months of racing. The time between race completion in April 2027, if all goes well, and the award ceremonies in late June 2027 will be spent waiting at Les Sables d'Olonne with additional costs.

WHY THIS PROJECT?

We established Around-n-Over to educate and inspire especially children based on stories gathered during human powered journeys. Over the last two decades since establishing Around-n-Over in 2003, Erden Eruc remained true to his promise, raised and applied over 100,000USD toward educational projects while completing a circumnavigation by human power which registered 15 Guinness World Records in the process.

By now Guinness has registered 18 total records in his name and inducted him into the Guinness Hall of Fame in 2024. The last record that Guinness registered was "the first person to row across the Pacific Ocean from North America to Asia."

During that crossing, Erden strove to serve an educational mission by reaching classrooms, to pursue an environmental cause to advocate against plastic pollution of The Ocean in partnership with Ocean Recovery Alliance, and to execute a scientific mission to collect sound data helping survey Beaked Whales. The data were used in a scientific article published in Journal of Aquatic Mammals: "Acoustic Detections of Cetaceans from a Towed Recording System on a Trans-Pacific Rowing Expedition."

Erden intends to leverage the promotional value of his GGR participation to continue to raise awareness about plastic pollution and to share his story with classrooms. As such, this unique race with a sustainability message giving a new life to old vessels for a noble cause, will provide a powerful educational platform.