Curt Morlock: The format is extremely exciting, I can't wait to get started
by Mathieu Houllière 18 May 2023 06:57 PDT
Curt Morlock © Curt Morlock
American Curt Morlock will be on the starting line of the first edition of the Global Solo Challenge, with the first start scheduled for next August in A Coruña, Spain, followed by a sequence of staggered starts according to boat performance.
Aboard his Open 60 (ex-IMOCA) 6 Lazy K, he will be one of the last to set off and will try to catch up with those who left up to three months earlier.
Reading the description of the Global Solo Challenge for the first time, I was immediately struck by the reference to Jean de la Fontaine's fable "The Hare and the Tortoise", one of my favourite stories when I was younger. Indeed, with its innovative format and staggered starts over nearly three months, depending on the boat category, the GSC reminds me of the famous children's story.
And if there are indeed "tortoises" who will set off next August/September from the port of A Coruña, there are also some "hares". Curt Morlock will be one of them.
At 64, Curt Morlock indeed has one of the fastest and most efficient boats in this first edition of the Global Solo Challenge. His sailboat, 6 Lazy K, is an Open 60 (ex-IMOCA), Nivelt design, built in 1999 by Thierry Dubois and skippered by him during the Vendée Globe 2000 and the Around Alone 2002 (Solidaires).
It participated in the Vendée Globe 2004 under the name of VM Materiaux with Patrice Carpentier (DNF, broken boom) and finished 9th in the Vendée Globe 2008-2009 under the name of Great American III, skippered by Rich Wilson, the oldest participant in that edition.
It also finished 3rd in the Velux 5 Oceans 2011 under the name of ActiveHouse with Derek Hatfield as skipper. A proven sailboat with an impressive track record, making Curt one of the last participants in the GSC to set off.
"The format is extremely exciting; I can't wait to get started. The first ones will run away, and the others will be in pursuit. Nobody will get bored!", he says with a lot of enthusiasm.
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