Ertan Beskardes, GGR and MGR Competitor

Ertan Beskardes is a lifelong sailor entered in the 2026 Golden Gobe Race. He recently completed the Mini Globe Race, in which he circumnavigated in a 19' Class Globe 5.80 sailboat. He started both the 2018 and 2022 Golden Globe Races, but retired in each. His GGR boat is a Rustler 36, formerly Matmut, Jean Luc Van Den Heede's winning boat form the 2018 GGR. He also sails a Jenneau Sun Odyssey 33. 

We talk about the difficulty of being suddenly disconnected from all communication with family in the Golden Globe Race, learing through experience,  an electrical fire, the Mini Globe Race, Starlink, beautiful moments, getting into harbors with inadequate motors, the new one-way broadcast-only Starlink in the coming GGR, cameraderie in the MGR, buying Matmut, propellers, windvanes, single-line reefing, his qualifying passage, a transmission coupling problem, sailing by compass vs chartplotter, heavy weather, running with a storm under bare poles, comparing the MGR and the GGR, what makes the suffering worthwhile, his love for boats unsuitable for the job, and more.

Photos and links are on the podcast shownotes page

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