On 10th September of this year, 23-year-old Club Member India Syms is setting sail on an eight-month, 27,000nm retro circumnavigation taking part in the Ocean Globe Race 2023. Marking the 50th Anniversary of the original Whitbread Race, the event will be sailed in a similar spirit stripping back modern sailing to its roots in yachts of a pre-1988 design. GPS, modern electronics, and even mobile phones(!!) have no place in this event - teams will be navigating by the sun, stars and planets with paper charts and sextants alone. The event is broken into four separate legs with the start and finish port being the Ocean Village Southampton with stopovers in Cape Town SA, Auckland NZ and Punta Del Este Uruguay.
India has joined the Australian team ‘Spirit of Adelaide’ aboard S/V ‘Outlaw’. Outlaw is a Baltic DP 55 cutter rigged sloop of fibre-reinforced, end-grain balsa-cored, plastic construction with fin keel and spade rudder. Designed by Doug Peterson, built by Baltic Yachts at boat yards in Bosund, Finland, Outlaw was launched in 1984 as “Equity and Law”. She was commissioned specifically for the 1985-1986 Whitbread Round The World Race (WRTWR) with a team of amateur sailors, the son of one of the original crew members competing on the team for this anniversary event. Now, Spirit of Adelaide comprises of eleven crew members, British, Australian, American, Dutch & French, ten of which are sailing the entirety of the voyage with one berth reserved for leggers. Each member of the team (completing the entirety of the voyage) have formed a syndicate owning 10% each of the yacht with the aim to sell the boat on completion of the race.
Having spent the last decade out of the water, Outlaw has undergone many months in an extensive refit programme in the US at Scarano Boat Builders in Albany, NY. This terminated with the crew sailing her down the Hudson River followed by sea trials in Long Island Sound and heading over to the UK in May. The team will be conducting a busy training and maintenance schedule based out of Hamble Point over the summer, hoping to visit the RLYC in July where they look forward to meeting club members and all other interested parties.
India grew up sailing on the South Coast and as a youngster took part in the Wednesday afternoon school sailing here at the club. Her love for the water strengthened over time and after leaving school in 2018 she qualified as an RYA Dinghy Instructor, then spent a year travelling and working as a DI in Sydney Australia, the Chesapeake US as well as back in the UK, including volunteering for the same Wednesday afternoon school sailing she partook in as a child.
Throughout this time India also volunteered as a Watch Leader for the Tall Ships Youth Trust and in 2019 celebrated her 19th birthday mid Atlantic, delivering one of TSYT’s Challengers from Antigua back to the UK via the Azores. This was the trip that truly ignited her love for ocean sailing where she knew she would return at some stage in the future.
Having recently completed a three-year long Merchant Navy cadetship with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary qualifying as a Deck Officer of the Watch with an unlimited Certificate of Competency, India’s training has seen her involved in numerous operations around the world enabling her to prepare for various challenges the Ocean Globe Race has in store, including conducting a celestial navigation passage from Bahrain back to the UK in May of 2022. Now for the Ocean Globe Race, India is excited to be holding the roles of Navigator and Safety Officer onboard, ready to put her work training to the test in a slightly different environment.
India is delighted to be taking part in the OGR23 but couldn’t be doing it without the incredible support of her sponsors JS Group and Forelle Estates, as well as from family and friends at home. If you wish to follow along with the team’s progress then be sure to check out the team and India’s various social media channels – Instagram: @spirit.of.adelaide and @indiarose.ocean, Tiktok: @indiarose.ocean. To track the vessels during the event the Ocean Globe Race organisation will be using an app launching on 1st August – more information about this will be posted on the OGR website closer to the time.