An interview with Tim Kent about the 2027-2028 Global Solo Challenge
by David Schmidt 4 Aug 16:00 BST
August 4, 2026
Tim Kent - Kent Racing - Express 40 (Owen Clarke Design) Class40 © 2026 Jamie Ayaka
Back in December 2000, Tim Kent and some singlehanded sailing friends were at the Milwaukee Yacht Club at a Toys for Tots event, when Kent deployed an interesting conversation-starting query. Namely, he asked his friends, "If you could do anything at all—no restrictions from work, spouse, children, time or money—what would it be?" While the answers he received were solid, things took an interesting turn when someone turned the question back on its asker.
Kent started talking to his friends about the upcoming 2002-2003 Around Alone Race, its history, the kinds of boats suitable for the course, and the associated costs.
A few days later he received an email from the person who spun the question on its head at the MYC. Her message contained a spreadsheet detailing the work list that needed to happen, as well as the names of the people who had volunteered to help with different aspects of the project.
At the bottom, she included three powerful words: "It's your call."
Kent, who was a 48-year-old book salesman at the time, was an established Great Lakes sailor, and had completed several singlehanded Chicago to Mackinaw races, but he had little experience sailing fast boats alone across big oceans.
This didn't stop him, and—with the help of his friends and family—Kent successfully crossed the starting line of the 2002-2003 Around Alone Race aboard Everest Horizontal, (née Convergence) his Jim Antrim-designed Open 50.
Despite his relative lack of offshore sailing compared to his rivals, Kent ultimately finished the race second in his class.
While this was a big success, what came next was much harder business.
Kent entered Everest Horizontal in the 2003 Bermuda One-Two, which is a singlehanded race to Bermuda, followed by a double-handed return race to Newport. The singlehanded leg went fine, but, while racing back to the USA with his good friend and One-Two co-skipper Rick McKenna, Everest Horizontal's 4,200-pound bulb separated from its keel strut, and Everest Horizontal capsized.
The two were rescued, and Kent eventually salvaged Everest Horizontal and brought the boat back to Bermuda, but then Hurricane Fabian racked the island nation.
The boat was destroyed.
While this was a gutting, life-altering experience, Kent had at least completed his circumnavigation dream, and he also got steeped in the Southern Ocean's powerful winds and seas.
This latter experience clearly left a deep, deep impression.
"Someday I hope to step off a beach and merge my boat-shaped mind once again with the man-shaped soul of another boat and race off," wrote Kent in his self-published account of his adventure, A Boat Shaped Mind. "Off beyond the equator to the Southern Ocean, deep, deep into the purifying, cold tempest and sail in company with the albatross. Challenge myself and my boat on the limitless ocean for months of heat and cold, storm and calm, exhaustion and beauty. Then to return, changed once more, and step ashore to meet my footprints toe to toe."
Reading these words last spring—when I spent time with Kent's book—left me with the strong impression that the man, now 74, wanted to go back to the sea, back to the frigid South, and to test himself once again. I emailed him asking about his future sailing plans, but I received little confirmation until May 8, when news broke that Kent had entered the nonstop-around-the-world 2027-2028 Global Solo Challenge (GSC) aboard Kent Racing (USA 34), his 2007 Owen Clarke-drawn Express 40 (Class40).
I checked in with Kent, via email, to learn more about his 2027-2028 GSC campaign.
Can you please bring us up to speed on the kinds of offshore sailing that you've been doing since the 2002-2003 Around Alone?
Finishing the Around Alone race was a huge success...finishing second was more than I could have imagined.
And I could never have imagined losing Everest's keel bulb 110 miles north of Bermuda on the doublehanded return leg of the Bermuda One-Two. We were remarkably fortunate - we were rescued by a cruise ship an hour and a half after the capsize. I was single-mindedly focused on recovering the boat, which—on my third attempt—I did. With a remarkable band of pirates, we re-righted her mid-ocean and towed her back to Bermuda.
Then Hurricane Fabian paused in his travels to pummel Bermuda, driving Everest ashore, wrecking her one final, devastating time.
That put paid to big dreams of sailing other solo races, taking her to France and testing myself in that crazy solo scene.
Nothing can prepare you for the end of a campaign. You go from an event that is all gas and no brakes for a year leading up to the race, then the total immersion of the race, then...it's over. No gas, yet no need for brakes.
But the reality was that I had two young daughters who were just 9 and 10. I wanted to be at home with them...I'd been away for a long time. I worked at Harken, then Marinco. I bought a J/35 and raced it on Lake Michigan. The girls went off to college and l moved to Florida and lived on a sailboat while working for a sailmaker. Later, I worked with a friend to bring an ORMA 60 to the US.
I then spent four wonderful years at Oakcliff Sailing, working with young sailors while racing in all of the iconic East Coast distance events—Newport to Bermuda, Marblehead to Halifax and more.
Then I heard about a proposed race around the world for Class 40s—The Race Around. That woke me up—I could possibly afford a Class 40 race around the world. I started searching for the Holy Grail, an affordable race boat. A tip from a friend led me to Class 40 #34, an Owen Clarke Generation 1 boat built to Category 0 specs - it had been built for an earlier race around the world. It was "affordable" - but needed all-new sails, rigging and all the rest for the race. Then The Race Around crumbled in the shadow of the doublehanded Globe 40.
I was working on other people's boats, racing my boat, upgrading it as I could. The Global Solo Challenge was announced, and I helped another sailor prep his boat for that race. The race seemed far off, and I wasn't ready with a platform for funding.
I am now. We have begun fundraising and new sails are already on the boat. We have a year and a half—just barely enough time to raise the money and refit the boat.
The fire to do this never totally went out. The flames were banked and are roaring once again.
There's an old saying that one shouldn't go to sea aboard a boat with fewer feet (LOA) than they have years, yet you're headed to the Southern Ocean aboard a yacht that's 10' shorter than the Class 50 you circumnavigated aboard in the 2002 Around Alone Race. Can you please walk us through your choice of vessel for your next big adventure?
I've heard that old saying, but the equation (LOA × Age) / π × ∞ is too complex for me.
Getting started in offshore sailing at 32 gave me a pretty short runway for staying inside those parameters—my first offshore race was on a 38-footer and the boat I raced around the world when I was 50 was 50 feet long, so I was pushing the edge of that..superstition?...joke?
I bought the [Open] 50 because it was for sale affordable here in the U.S. I loved that boat-it was fast, forgiving (which I needed) and strong as hell. I bought my Class 40 primarily because it was affordable. It was also built to Category 0 (around the world) standards, meaning it would need no additional work to meet the requirements for an around-the-world race.
I'd be much happier with more boat than my Class 40, but Kent Racing, like my [Open] 50, is fast, forgiving and strong as hell. She is a close sistership to Cole Brauer's First Light and David Linger's Koloa Maoli, both of which completed the first Global Solo Challenge, so the design has produced boats that have proven to be good horses for the course.
Both of my boats have been all about the about the money - they were the most I could afford. I plan to add some more cockpit protection, which won't get me closer to [the] LOA I am supposed to honor, but it will make me more comfortable. I really love this boat, so...off we go!
Sailing may be sailing, but the offshore game has changed a lot since 2002, especially in regards to weather-routing and Starlink. How important do you think these new tools will be in the GSC 2027-2028? Also, what are you doing now (or have been doing these last few years) to master these tools?
In 2002 we were using Windows 98. The iPhone was five years in the future. Digital cameras were commonplace, but not digital video. I had an Iridium satphone with which I downloaded weather for my routing program, MaxSea. That was a great program-easy to use and very helpful.
The most common routing program in use today, Expedition, cannot be called easy to use, at least not by an English major like me. To me, it seems like a computer program written by computer programmers for other computer programmers. It is endlessly adaptable and incredibly accurate, but it is anything but intuitive. I struggle with it.
As far as Starlink goes, being able to have an easy connection with advanced weather and tracking information makes all of us better informed and safer. Connection to social media may make pitching potential individual and corporate sponsors a bit easier.
What have I been doing to master these tools? The big tool is Expedition - I continue to use it and am slowly coming to grips with it. I am getting good media advice and will keep improving my Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn presence. During the Around Alone Race, I sent an email off of the boat almost every day, and we had thousands of followers who got them. In the GSC, I will have at least one camera recording full-time and plan to send at least a short video message from the boat daily. It will at least inspire me to wash my hair more often.
As a follow-up to that last question, how do you think Starlink will change your sense of solitude offshore compared with your last campaign? Also, do you see this change as a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing?
I felt very well connected in 2002 with my now-primitive Iridium/Outlook setup. I never felt isolated. I was working with schoolkids through a loose association with Scholastic magazine and answered a lot of emails from those kids-who were surprised and delighted to hear from someone in the middle of the ocean.
Today, I think the pressure of social media will change things -I am working at being a social-media creator as well as well as a reasonably competent Expedition user. That's a long leadup to an answer to your question: will all of this change my sense of solitude, which is a question I have been asked often. I never felt lonely or bored sailing around the world. I was working on routing, weather, studying the routes of other boats to learn from them, changing sails when necessary, trimming sails often, repairing stuff that gets worn or broken-a full-time job in itself - preparing and eating meals (which I often would forget to do), and catching some sleep. All of that adds up to a more-than-24-hour day.
In the midst of all of that work, I honestly never had the time to feel lonely or develop a negative sense of solitude. Doing this alone is a big part of the challenge, and being comfortable alone is a big part of that.
Is ultimate connectivity a good thing? Starlink - and any disruptive technology - changes things permanently. I love it, and if I groused about it I'd feel like an old guy yelling at kids to get off my lawn. The advantages are clear. My worry is that it has the potential to become a distraction - I don't need to be doomscrolling in the Southern Ocean!
What are your sailing plans with USA 34 in the next year, as you build up to the GSC 2027-2028's start?
Bad question [right now]-sailing doublehanded in the Newport to Bermuda Race and the Bermuda Shorthanded Return were to be the first races of a busy schedule, but my (used) J1 detonated spectacularly ten minutes into the race, sending us back to Newport to regroup.
I am happy to report that some supporters have already stepped up, and we will have a new J1 and J2 as soon as they can be built. The boat is based at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay, New York for the summer and early fall. We will certainly end the season with the Vinyard Race...[and] others as soon as the sails are on board.
This winter we will do as many of the SORC races as we can - but we plan to do the final refit of the boat beginning in October. We will do some early races in 2027 out of Seawanhaka before sailing to Vigo, Spain in the late summer.
I am required to sail a 2,000-mile qualifier for the GSC on the boat on which I will do the race. My strong desire is to complete that qualifier this summer. I do not want to sail to Spain next year as my qualifier...it leaves too much to chance.
Sailing nonstop around the world is obviously a very different challenge than a circumnavigation race with stopovers. What do you see as the bigger challenge—the physical requirements or the mental challenges of sailing nonstop for months? Also, what are you doing to prepare for both the mental and the physical aspects of this challenge?
The great advantage of a race with stopovers is the ability to repair the many, often major, problems with the boat that arise during the race. We had major issues to deal with at three of the four stopovers—issues that would have driven me to port in a non-stop race. I will categorize those as physical challenges - major engine, sail, and rigging issues.
I do not feel [that] the mental challenge is going to be as big of a challenge. Being offshore for many weeks allowed me to get into a routine that worked for me—the stopovers interrupted that routine. There is no question that being alone for four and a half months will be challenging, but the inability to look after the boat is the bigger issue for me.
However, I had very little time to prepare for the Around Alone Race—and I was a rookie and did not know precisely what I was up against. I have more time and more experience in preparing for the demands of the race this time around. The boat will certainly be better prepared—as will the skipper.
How's your fundraising coming along? Also, do you currently have a sufficient war chest to take on the GSC 2027-2028, even if a title sponsor doesn't commit to the project?
I look at the fundraising for this effort like the fundraising for a congressional campaign. There will be some individual donations and some PACs.
In my case, the individual donations will be folks buying or finding the bits we need to build-out the boat e.g., safety gear. My PACs will be a smaller company or two whose owners feel that their company aligns with what I do. Fundraising is coming along, but s-l-o-w-l-y. There are some great discussions under way, and I am optimistic that we will get the funding we need.
Do I have the funds to get to the starting line on my own? No, I don't. But we have knocked off a few big items - for example, three of the most expensive sails - which gives me real confidence that we will get there.
What are your goals for this race? Or, in other words, how are you defining success this time around?
The main goal in 2002 was to finish the race—a not-insignificant task. After finishing, I also wanted the people who supported us - [who] were all small donors—to be proud of what we had accomplished. That was one of the major motivators that drove me...I felt like I was carrying more than my own desire around the world. It takes a massive amount of just dogged determination to do this - you run into setbacks that could make you feel that the world is aligned against you...and it's cold and stormy and just plain hard to do.
I loved the challenge, so my goals this time are the same. First, finish the race. Second, make the people who support me proud of the effort I make with the resources - and hope - with which they have entrusted me. Finally, kick some ass.
There is going to be much more competition in this race. Virtually all of those competitors will be lot younger than I am and most of them are very experienced offshore sailors. I fully intend to race those youngsters hard and be competitive.
Mostly, I want to cross the finish line - as quickly as possible.
You had some really beautiful passages in your book, A Boat Shaped Mind, about wanting to return to the Southern Ocean and surf down those huge seas again. Is the chance to engage in this kind of sailing acting as a kind of singular source of gravity this time, or are there other aspects of around-the-world sailing that are also drawing you back? If so, what are these?
Sailing in the Great South again is the source of gravity for this effort. The wind there is almost chewy it's so heavy. It is bitterly cold, reliably windy and the conditions regularly scare you witless. I want to take what I learned the last time as a foundation and do it better, faster, smarter.
I don't consider myself to be a brave guy, but sailing for weeks in the South is unquestionably why I want to go back. You could reprint the final chapter of my book by way of explaining my motivation to return.
Is there anything about your GSC campaign—or about returning to the Southern Ocean in general—that you'd like to add, for the record?
I really love to be in the arena...doing things rather than watching them. I was fifty before I realized that I could chase massive goals. Sailing is one of the sports in which older people can compete. It's hard, which is part of the attraction. It keeps me in the gym because the physical demands of hauling sails around the boat, and setting and tacking or gybing them is challenging. I am not out to prove anything to anyone but myself.
A lot of people told me that they were inspired by what I had done and how I had communicated that to them. It's humbling to hear that, and it makes me feel responsible to continue to communicate both the difficulty and the joy that attacking a massive goal can provide.
Frank Dick, the legendary track and field coach said it best. "The reason you go into tough arenas in life is to be challenged to perform better. You cannot perform better if you're not challenged.
"Listen, you don't learn to climb mountains in life by going round them or asking somebody for a ladder. You learn to climb mountains by climbing mountains, by seeking out the really tough challenges, because that makes you perform better. When you keep on going at that, one day, you'll be a one and only."
I could not possibly say it better.
Editor's Note: Kent's book, A Boat Shaped Mind, is available on Amazon.