Believe in Ghosts? Because Gweilo is back

The Who’s Who of Sailing

On the top end of the big boat racing scene, there’s not much left to the imagination. Magazine covers, videos going viral on socials of boats ripping at 30 knots. The sailing industry isn’t huge, and everyone knows someone who ‘knows a guy’. So when, after three years away, news broke that the Australian Gweilo team was making a comeback, it was worth calling in ‘that guy’ to get us the inside scoop.

CYCA members Matthew Donald and long-time sailing mate Chris Townsend have bought themselves a Volvo 70. Not just any Volvo 70, either.

First built as Telefonica to race in the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race, then transformed to Black Jackin 2013, raced hard as Roy Disney’s Pyewacket, and now rebranded under as Gweilo 70

The name Gweilo isn’t new to this partnership. Matt and Chris previously campaigned a TP52 called Gweilo, a program that was highly competitive in the fleet before going quiet three years ago while life, geography (Chris in Europe, Matt in Australia) and the search for the right next boat got sorted out. Now the duo are back, although on a much bigger, faster, and considerably more turbocharged platform.

Not Your Average Volvo 70

If you know your Volvo 70s, you’ll know they don’t need much help going fast. This one didn’t get the memo on restraint. Compared to a standard boat in the class, Gweilo carries a taller rig, a keel roughly a metre deeper, a longer bowsprit and hydraulic winch systems, the kind of specs that could leave other Volvo 70s quietly in their wake.

How much of a difference does that make? Enough that the team is already finding ways to depower the boat rather than push it harder. Against sister program Willow (IRC rating around 1.61), Gweilo currently sits around 1.72, a gap large enough that, in the team’s own words, they’d expect to beat comparable boats over the line on the water but not necessarily on handicap.

Boat captain Tom Fountain shared: “To put the larger rig into perspective, the top of our forestay is the same height as Willow’s mast itself. It’s a huge difference. The change was made to turbocharge an already powerful platform, which has made this boat pretty unique.”

Job one for year one is a clear one: bring the IRC rating down. Expect a smaller, more considered sail wardrobe from North Sails (three new sails already commissioned) rather than any structural changes. The boat, by all accounts, arrived close to ready to race as-is, described as a genuinely turnkey purchase with the kind of spares inventory only a program with Roy Disney’s backing accumulates.

The Crew: Old Mates from Old Programs

This isn’t a program built from scratch. Nearly every name on the crew list has sailed either the previous Gweilo or Whisper, the boat Matt, Chris and co-skipper David Griffith campaigned together at the Middle Sea Race, a partnership successful enough that the trio wanted to keep it going on the new platform.

David Griffith was originally meant to be a third owner before circumstances shifted; instead he joins as co-skipper, bringing what the team is happy to call some serious ocean-racing pedigree along with him. Tom Fountain has taken the reins as boat captain, a role the rest of the crew are already jokingly blaming him for anything that goes wrong.

Every sailor aboard is a CYCA member, and the boat will fly the Club’s burgee at the transom alongside RORC’s, even while racing out of Southampton.

Europe, the States, and a 2029 Homecoming

The program, currently berthed in Southampton, departs at the end of October for a training passage to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, a casual 1,500 nautical mile delivery, serving double duty as both a shakedown and the qualifying passage required before the crew can start to race in their first offshore challenge (crews need a set proportion of qualifying miles logged as a team before the Transatlantic).

From there, the early race calendar reads like a greatest-hits list of European offshore classics: a Transatlantic crossing, the RORC Caribbean 600, Antigua’s Nelson’s Cup, the Rolex Fastnet Race, then a heavy season in the Mediterranean including the Giraglia Rolex Cup and full circle, the Middle Sea Race, the same event that first proved the Matt/Chris/David combination worked on Whisper.

The long-term plan points Gweilo 70 home. After several seasons racing in Europe and a stint in the US, the boat is currently plotted to make the Transpacific Race in 2029, timed to bring it back to Australia in time for the 2029 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Australian Maxi Championship. As owner, Matthew Donald put it: there’s no great rush to bounce the boat back and forth across oceans more than necessary, so 2029 is the target.

It’s a long way off, but while the team gets a grip on their new yacht, we’ll put a pin on our calendars for 27 December 2029, to watch Gweilo 70 tear through Bass Strait.