The Boat

I have selected a boat called an OE 32. The OE 32 was designed by a Swede called Olle Enderlein in 1971 and between 1973 and 1993, 200 of these beautiful double-enders were built in Sweden and Denmark. My boat’s name is Olleanna. 

Olleanna is no stranger to the Golden Globe Race as she was entered into the Golden Globe Race in 2018 by Norwegian Skipper Are Wiig. Are was doing exceptionally well in the race and was lying in fourth place when he was capsized while lying ahull to make repairs to his wind vane. The mast was lost and Are rigged a jury rig and sailed into Cape Town unassisted. In Cape Town, David Barnes and his team at Action Yachting repaired the damaged deck and coach roof before I purchased her in December 2019. In January 2020, I sailed her around to Simon’s Town to commence a refit and get her race-ready before putting in some serious sea time to get to know her handling characteristics in detail!

Why the OE 32? Well, at the risk of revealing too much to my competitors, I was looking for a boat that would handle the Southern Ocean safely but that was also nimble enough to negotiate the tricky and often light wind conditions either side of the equator which has to be crossed twice. The OE 32, despite being the smallest and lightest boat in the starting lineup, actually has some very compelling measurements that make her competitive on paper according to David Gerr’s theory of hull speed! How she performs on the water will be entirely up to me!