Photos Facebook / Whale Discoveries

The around the world, Golden Globe Yacht Race in 2018 will be sailed under the burgee (flag) of a recently established Royal Nomuka Yacht Club in Ha'apai, with Crown Prince Tupouto’a ‘Ulukalala as patron.

The founder of the race, an Australian adventurer and solo sailor Don McIntyre, has a long time connection with Tonga. He is the new Commodore of the Nomuka Royal Yacht Club, which was founded on October 22 this year. The club is part of a joint initiative between the Crown Prince and McIntyre to establish a sailing base and adventure centre on the deserted island of Nomuka Iki, to encourage Tongan youths to take up sailing as a sport and cultural activity.

Crown Prince Tupouto'a said for Nomuka and Tonga to be involved in the Golden Globe race is exciting as Tonga was once a great sailing nation.

Thirty competitors have paid the AUD$3,000 entry fee for the Race in 2018, including French champion Eric Loizeau and Estonian solo circumnavigator Uka Randmaa and others from around the world.

Race

The global race will start and finish in Falmouth, England where Sir Robin Knox Johnston set out and completed his pioneering voyage back in 1968-69.

It will start on June 14, 2018 offering a prize of £75,000 for the first yacht to finish before April 22, 2019. Sailors are expected to spend around 300 days at sea. Competing yachts will be based in Pendennis Marina and the race will be started by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. Like the original Sunday Times event, which was the first round-the-world yacht race, the race is very simple. It will be a non-stop around the world via five Great Capes and return to Falmouth. Entrants are limited to use the same type of yachts and equipment that were available to Robin Knox Johnston in the first race, which means sailing without modern technology or benefit of satellite based on navigation aids. Competitors must sail in production boats between 32ft and 36ft overall, designed prior to 1988, and having a full length keel and rudder attached to its training edge.

Adventurer

Don McIntyre is known for his sailing adventures in the Pacific Islands. In 2012, he led a four-man re-enactment of the Mutiny of the Bounty voyage from Tonga to West Timor, in a similar boat with the same limited supplies available to Captain Bligh over some 200 years ago.

Recently he has been diving and hunting for shipwrecks in Ha'apai, according to his blog, Macintyre Adventure. "A small team of volunteer divers join me each season and we work with locals under a government permit hunting ship wrecks. In 2013 we established our Blue Base camp on Nomuka Iki and fell in love. It is an island paradise. It became the perfect logistic base to survey wreck sites close by." he wrote on November 1.

"A few weeks ago while meeting with HRH to update him on plans, I made a spur of the moment, half fun, off the cuff comment about forming a yacht club on the island and entering my 2018 Golden Globe Race, solo around the world entry from it. It would help to promote Nomuka. He lit up! He is passionate in support of the Nomuka community.

"With an initial agreement for the next 25 years, I am now the Commodore of the Royal Nomuka Yacht Club formed with Royal Assent from HRH the Crown Prince who is Patron and opened in his presence on October 22nd . Next year my Rear Commodore and project manager Paul Brown with the help of a small team of volunteers will build a traditional Tongan Club House. We have an ambitious plan to build up to 12 Vakas ( 6.5mtr double voyaging canoes with twin Fishtail sails) in the next four years and train Young Tongans 16-25 to sail and voyage in them. There will be an annual Tonga Vaka Festival with races and in 2020 there will be the first ever Tonga Vaka Raid, a 250km adventure voyaging race through the islands open to 20 international entries.

"We will establish a Marine Discovery Centre with opportunities for senior high school and junior university students to gain valuable field experience and observe humpback whales. The Mcintyre Adventure Eco Retreat  will be right on the beach. It will be a life sanctuary for up to ten people to cleanse their souls. I hope to hold an annual Mcintyre Adventure Conference here with special guest presenters for a “live in” week of inspiration, documentaries and fun. Later there will be a Bligh Museum to recognise the significance of this place in the history of the Mutiny...often overlooked,” Mcintrye wrote on his blog.