In just two weeks, on 28 December 2024, a fleet of ALMA Globe 5.80 19ft /5.8mtr plywood home-built yachts will set off from Marina de Lagos, Portugal, for the third Class Globe 5.80 Transat Race, and, as regular Afloat readers know, Ireland has an entry in the form of Jakub Ziemkiewicz from Cork Harbour.
After their ‘warm-up’ leg to Marina Rubicon Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, the fleet will depart bound for Antigua on 11 January.
This transatlantic 3,600-mile race serves as a qualifier for one of the most audacious solo around-the-world races yet conceived, the McIntyre Mini Globe Race.
The route for the 2025 McIntyre Mini Globe Race. Credit: MGR2025
Sailing in the footsteps of John Guzzwell and Trekka the first mini yacht to solo circumnavigate in 1955-1959, the course is west-about from the Antigua National Sailing Academy via Panama, Tahiti, Fiji, the Torres Strait, the Cape of Good Hope and Recife, including a number of other ports along the way. The longest legs may take up to 60 days at sea. The McIntyre MGR starts from Antigua on 23 February 2025 and finishes there in March 2026 a 13-month epic over 28,000 miles that will test the sailors and their tiny yachts to the limit and beyond.
