Scott Shawyer, shown at the Collingwood Yacht Club last month, hopes to enter the 2028 Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race and become the first Canadian sailor to complete the journey.Neil Davidson/The Globe and Mail/The Globe and Mail
Sweat pours off Scott Shawyer as he cranks the pedestal grinder below deck on the Emira IV, his sleek 60-foot racing yacht.
The bunkerlike cockpit is littered with a tangle of different-coloured ropes, curled around winches that connect to the boat’s seven sails. Nearby a sizable knife is ominously attached to a wall, in case something needs severing.
A series of wall monitors are the brains of the operation on the IMOCA (International Monohull Open Class Association) 60 boat. It’s like a mobile intensive care unit, albeit for monitoring the boat not the skipper.
There are benchlike seats at each end of the ovenlike space, the two at the back near the tiller allowing Shawyer to stick his head out as needed. Two further forward are like gun-berths on a bomber plane, allowing Shawyer to see out of bubblelike protrusions.
The 54-year-old from Collingwood, Ont., is preparing for the 2028 Vendée Globe, a solo round-the-world race billed as the “Everest of sailing.”
Thanks to hydrofoils that lift the boat above the water to reduce drag and increase speed, the IMOCA 60 can reach 40 knots (75 kilometres an hour) with the foil employed. The boat has a top speed of 15 knots (28 km/h) without the foil.
Still it’s a marathon not a sprint. And a dangerous one at that.
Only 32 of the 40 boats finished the last edition of the Vendée Globe in 2024, with times ranging from 64 to 114 days. Belgian skipper Denis Van Weynbergh also made it after 117 days, but his time was some 24 hours past the race time limit so was deemed hors concours – outside of the rankings.
Canadian football coach Micah Brown aims to make an impression at Buccaneers camp
Shawyer is bidding to become the first Canadian to complete the race.
Gerry Roufs disappeared at sea during the 1996-97 edition. In second place at the time, he transmitted his last radio message on Jan. 6, 1997, detailing 15-metre waves and winds in excess of 80 knots.
His boat’s beacon stopped transmitting the next day.
Canadian Derek Hatfield capsized south of Australia in a violent storm that forced him to retire from the 2008-09 race.
Should Shawyer qualify for the 11th edition of the Vendée Globe, he will face an intense and uncomfortable challenge in a boat that has been dubbed a “vomit comet.”
For a yacht that costs €7-million ($11.3-million) to build – Shawyer bought it used for €4-million – there are virtually no creature comforts.
The toilet is a bucket – “if you need to use the bucket, sometimes it’s easier to just not use a bucket,” Shawyer adds.
There is an ocean, after all.
The boat carries a kettle and water desalinator. Shawyer can look forward to months of freeze-dried food, augmented by nuts and chocolate, and warm recycled water on the trip.
Rest can also be hard to come by.
“You can sleep as long as you’re not going to hit something and as long as the boat’s happy,” Shawyer said.
What sleep he gets is in a coffin-like bunk in the bottom of the boat that comes equipped with a rope to help keep it flat. He had to get an extended version to fit in it.
A camera atop the mast, radar alarms and infrared lights warn of nearby boats or other obstacles. Still, solo racing can be demanding even with a state-of-the-art autopilot.
Shawyer set his sleep alarm for 90 minutes during the two-week New York Vendée transatlantic race in 2024. He only reached the 90-minute mark once.
“Ever other time I woke up to an alarm that went off before my sleep alarm, which was to say the boat’s not happy.”
There could be a myriad of reasons for that, from the wind changing direction or speed to a battery needing charging.
Why Canada’s Victor Montagliani is touted as a front-runner to replace Gianni Infantino
On a nice day, Shawyer might venture up top to check things, albeit clipped to a safety line. But most of the time, he runs the boat from below.
At 6 foot 3, it’s a tight fit.
“That boat was built for someone who’s 5 [foot] 6,” he lamented.
During the transatlantic race, Shawyer was in constant race mode.
“There’s no bedtime, there’s no wake time, there’s no eating time,” he said. “You’re just constantly trying to grab sleep when you can, grab food when you can – whether it’s day or night, doesn’t matter. You just end up at the end of the race.”
He expects the Vendée Globe to be a different proposition, however.
“There’s a lot more time to think – introspection and fear and all kinds of stuff,” he added.
Shawyer is working with both a psychologist and a mental coach, who once rowed 230 days from Hawaii to Australia, in preparing for the many challenges the race might throw up.
And while Shawyer will have access to loved ones and his support team via satellite phone, he says such contact can be a double-edged sword.
“It gives you some joy and connection but the most deafening quiet you ever hear is when you hang up the phone,” he said.
Sea sickness, which Shawyer previously had never experienced, is another new, unwanted complication.
“These boats are something else. You’re completely enclosed down below. You have to try really hard to see outside and the motion of the boat is so fast and violent that it’s very easy to get sick.”
The violent motion can affect sailors with the most cast-iron stomachs. Two of the crew who brought the boat over from Europe recently got sick for the first time.
In a bid to avoid getting sick, Shawyer switched medications and spent time on a swing set wearing VR goggles. He has changed tack in recent months, using a balance board to get used to such motion.
“It’s progressing. It takes a lot [to get sick now],” he said. “So it’s not gone, I know that. But it’s a work in progress.”
Cathal Kelly: Getting rid of Infantino won’t quell the urge to monetize sports
Shawyer, who started sailing on Lake Huron at age 8, decided to target the Vendée Globe after watching the race during the pandemic.
While Shawyer has since competed in solo transatlantic and other long-distance events, he is still learning the ins and outs of ocean racing. On a recent training run with crew members, his to-do list ran 51 items long.
His boat, a 2020 generation design that finished third in the 2024 Vendée Globe under the name of Groupe Dubreuil with France’s Sébastien Simon as skipper, is named after Shawyer’s children Emma and Keira.
It sports the No. 80, representing the birth year of Scott’s wife.
Danger aside, the Vendée Globe is a money pit. Shawyer estimates the annual budget of his Canada Ocean Racing outfit at some €2.5-million, mostly due to maintenance.
So why put himself through this?
Part of it is wanting to prove wrong those who don’t believe a Canadian can do it. And as someone who grew up sailing, has both engineering and psychology degrees and deep pockets having recently sold his company, he is well positioned to give it a try.
Plus he likes challenging himself.
“I’ve always thought if someone else can do, why can’t I?” he said.
Then there’s how home feels after a lengthy ocean journey.
“When you come back from that boat, everything else is so amazing.”
Things like family, a proper bed, a fridge stocked with fresh food and a cold bottle of mineral water.
Sports bettors lead the online mob of harassment that WTA players face
Shawyer plans to compete in five transatlantic races, four of which are solo events, ahead of the Vendée Globe. The goal is to finish in the top 40 of the cumulative standings and qualify for the big race with the Vendée field to be confirmed six months ahead of the November, 2028, start date.
The Vendée Globe will see sailors leave France, heading down the Atlantic, around Antarctica, and passing the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn before returning north through the Atlantic back to France.
It’s the fastest way to get around the world based on wind and current, according to Shawyer.
Skippers can stop for repairs, as long as they do them themselves.
“You can’t go to an official harbour, tie up, go get something from the hardware store,” Shawyer said wistfully.
He will carry spares for critical items, weight permitting.
Up first is the solo Route de Rhum, which starts Nov. 1. Held every four years, it covers some 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 kilometres) from Saint-Malo, France, to Guadeloupe.
The boat, which Shawyer brought back this summer so he could train in Georgian Bay, is slated to start the return trip to Europe on Saturday wending its way through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Welland Canal en route.
On land, Shawyer served as CEO of JMP Solutions, which helped companies automate their production processes, before selling his share and starting Collingwood Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
But he is focused on racing these days.
Shawyer has embraced the cause, partnering with Quebec-based sponsor H2O Innovation in a campaign called “Be Water Positive” – aimed at protecting and managing watersheds and rivers, reusing and recycling water.
“Especially in Canada, we’re fortunate with the great lakes here,” he said. “And we take a lot of it for granted. I still see we treat it pretty badly.
“It’s such a precious resource. … I don’t think we realize how scarce water is for a lot of the earth. But you’re out on the ocean and you realize pretty quickly that this water is not usable to me unless I do something to it.”