Tapio Lehtinen: About racing

For me, racing is the most fun way of sailing. In my youth, the saying went: "You only become a good sailor by racing". There is some truth to that. Having someone next to you or knowing that there are other boats out there trying to sail as fast as they can makes you keep the right sails hoisted, keep them optimally trimmed, and plan and execute your maneuvers smoothly. Another old adage says goes "In order to win, you need to finish". That leads to proper seamanship and safe sailing. You need to sail in a way that you don't break the boat or hurt the people. But having the pressure of a race on helps everyone stay active, alert, and do their best. And the best part of it is that attending a race unites the group on the boat into a team, everybody helping each other, giving support, but also room for others, drawing their straw to the stack to keep the spirits high, enduring the disappointments, and celebrating the, even small, successes.

When I was younger, the start cannon signalled changed values - before crossing the finish line, there was nothing as important in life as keeping the boat moving at maximum speed towards the next mark, playing the tactical games, etc. On Galiana, it still is at least partly that way, but on the other hand, we are sailing a classic yacht, often the oldest one in the fleet, we understand our limitations and take pride in sailing the old beautiful lady "comme il faut", doing our best and heing happy whatever the result ends up being. If doing well, we celebrate deservedly, if worse, we do have our bag of excuses and celebrate still - life is too short to take things all too seriously.

But life is also so precious that we don't risk it or anybody’s health and safety in any situation. Even in the heat of the battle, the safety of the team and of the boat is always the number one priority onboard Galiana. In the Ocean Globe Race, our team did not have any serious accidents, not even close calls, and we aim to keep it that way.