“Quite everything went, what could be put. Now you have to lick your fingers for a while”, Jussi Paavoseppä answers when asked how big a financial investment the Ocean Globe Race round-the-world sailing was for him?
Spirit of Helsinki, skippered by Paavosepä, takes second place in the competition, which is still in progress, when the handicap figure consisting of the boats' waterline and sail area is calculated.
The place is historic. In the corresponding Whitbread competition of 1985–1986, the same boat came third under the then name Fazer Finland.
In the finishing order, Spirit was third after two French boats. Spirit arrived at Cowes, England on April 14. Paavoseppä has already returned to Finland, and Spirit arrives on a transfer sailing to Helsinki for a day off.
On the 3rd of May, the boat's arrival party will be held in Helsinki's Eteläsatama, which is an event open to everyone.
The second Finnish boat in the Ocean Globe Race, Tapio Lehtinen skipper Galiana WithSecure then organizes its own party in time, when the boat first reaches the finish line in Cowes and from there to Helsinki.
“It's a shame that we couldn't organize parties together with Tapio,” says Paavoseppä.
Jussi Paavoseppä says that he is richer in many experiences, even though sailing around the world was a big financial risk.
Open sea sailing the Finnish boats left on September 10, 2023 with completely different setups.
The purpose of Lehtinen's eleven-person team was to map the experience and, through it, pass on the tradition of open sea sailing to the next generation.
In practice, the team trained together for a couple of years. The costs of the boat and the competition were financed by partners.
spongebob, Matti Anttilan and Group Kallion equipped by Spirit of Helsinki was based on the participation fees of those who bought a place on the boat. The boat's team varied by section.
If a team member was involved in each of the four legs, he paid about 75,000 euros for his place with equipment. A single share cost upwards of ten thousand euros.
The amount covered expenses, food and, among other things, expensive and mandatory rescue equipment and rafts, which cost about 200,000 euros in total.
“The budget was exceeded many times over. I haven't even calculated it yet,” says Paavoseppä, who runs a year-round archipelago hotel in Inkoo.
Before the competition, Paavoseppä held financial negotiations with companies, but they did not lead to the desired result.
“Then the idea was that the shipping company [omistajat] gets a boat and other expenses are shared. I also lost a large fortune in the race, hundreds of thousands of extra euros. It's difficult to measure everything in euros, because the experience was memorable and remains on the positive side.”
The participation fee alone was 40,000 euros. At the second stopover in Auckland, Paavoseppä had to pay an additional 32,000 euros in competition fees.
“According to the rules, the participant would have been allowed to pay a maximum of 3,950 euros for his boat berth. Since the amount went well over that, it became a big extra fee to be able to continue.”
“
“I don't like fussing.”
Spirit of Helsinki set off to sail around the world with white sides without commercial sponsors.
Equalization system because of this, Spirit eventually lost the victory to the multinational women's team Maiden in just 17 hours. The remaining time for Maiden was 179 days and one hour, for Spirit 179 days and 18 hours.
“If I were to go again, I would leave out the two spinnakers and take a genoa cut differently [keulapurje]. They would have taken tenths off the handicap figure, more than now there were hours left in Maiden. However, I don't like to sit around,” Paavoseppä says.
Maiden's handicap figure was 1.162, Spirit's 1.196. When they are multiplied by the days at sea, you get a balanced total time. So Spirit was at sea for about 150 days. Galiana's handicap is 1.075.
“
“Maiden's victory can be described with the word guts.”
The multinational women's team Maiden celebrated the victory of the Ocean Globe Race.
For Maiden SpongeBob gives all the credit for the victory, even though it would have suited his team as well.
“Maiden's victory can be described with the word guts. In the last leg they had a lot of technical problems. They sailed for 40 days without electricity, ate cold food and suffered from a severe water shortage,” says Paavoseppä.
On the boats, you could make drinking water from seawater with a water-making machine, which did not work on the Maiden. Spirit made twice a thousand liters of water with its own plane and sailed to transfer the cargo on the open sea to Maiden.
Because the rules forbid outside help, Spirit could not give water, even after asking the race office for permission to do so. Otherwise Maiden would have been rejected.
“They had a terrible time with the water machine. They were able to collect enough water from the holes in the plane's sensor to make it to the finish line. We got an extra bathing day from the water.”
At sea, in the wind and in the sun, dehydration can be fatal. That's what happened to Paavosepä's friend in the Atlantic in 2014, but the doctor on the boat was given a prepared saline solution in the first instance.
Reminded of this experience, Paavoseppä wanted Spirit to have a doctor with him at all times.
“The ship's doctor's wash is important, even though we survived with plasters and burana. Our story was engineeringly boring. We didn't go for a heroic performance, but emphasized safety.”
14 boats started the competition, of which four left the game. The Italian boat Translated 9, which won the first two legs, stopped because of a crack in the hull.
“But sailing is sailing. I'm going to take a sauna here,” Paavoseppä says.
#Sailing #lick #fingers #crew #member #Finnish #boat #paid #tens #thousands #trip #world
