Half her weight is lead, encapsulated in the long keel, with hull, deck, bulkheads and ballast all bonded together; a single-spreader masthead sloop on a short mast, with a long narrow cockpit and a tiller. Her ocean record is long: Clare Francis’s solo Atlantic of 1973, a non-stop Southern Ocean circumnavigation in the Longue Route, and twenty-six thousand single-handed miles by way of the Magellan Strait in a hull of 1964.
In the Golden Globe she was Laaland, a Mark X, sailed by Loïc Lepage in 2018. Laaland stopped at Cape Town low on water and with a radio fault. On 20 Oct 2018, six hundred miles south-west of Perth, a lower aft stay parted, then the running backstay, and the mast broke half a metre above the deck and holed the hull; the race’s investigation found a fractured rigging wire, not a knockdown. The bulk carrier Shiosai took the skipper off, and Laaland was scuttled.
One boat and one start, which ended in the Indian Ocean: what the race has measured of her is thin.
Her one past start: dismasted, about 600 nm south-west of Perth, day 111.
One started: ended early.
Laaland was already in the Chichester class after a stop at Cape Town (8–12 Sep 2018) for fresh water and a single-sideband radio repair. On 20 Oct 2018, about 600 nm south-west of Perth in 25–30 knots, an aft lower shroud fractured, the running backstay followed and the mast broke about 50 cm above the deck; the broken spar holed the hull below the waterline near the keel, the leak settled at about 30–40 litres every twenty minutes behind a water tank Loïc Lepage could not reach, so the skipper set off the emergency position-indicating radio beacon, was taken off by the bulk carrier Shiosai on 23 Oct and opened the seacocks so the boat would sink.
In 8 kt of wind and more, where she and the other designs have twenty legs or more each, her largest gain is reaching in 8–12 kt, +16%, and her largest loss, running in 20–25 kt, −7%.
| Wind | upwind 0–60° | close reach 60–90° | reaching 90–130° | broad reach 130–160° | running 160–180° | Legs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 113 | ||||||
| 126 | ||||||
| 169 | ||||||
| 92 | ||||||
| – | 91 | |||||
| – | – | – | 42 |
What the record and the figures support, point by point, and what they weigh against her.
Ballast 49% of her displacement, 3rd of 17 of the designs that have raced; displacement to length 440, 2nd of 17.
Full sail to a force five, say her reviewers; “well-balanced seakeeping qualities and comfortable motion”.
Three hundred and sixty-nine built, and an owners’ association. Ten listed on Apollo Duck in September 2026, in Britain, Ireland and Spain, from two thousand pounds to just under twenty thousand, two of them sale agreed. Two were of the marks on the race’s list: a Mark X of 1972, and a Mark XI offered at two thousand pounds as a project for refurbishment; the other eight were built between 1964 and 1969.
A solo Atlantic in 1973, a non-stop Southern Ocean circumnavigation in the Longue Route, twenty-six thousand single-handed miles by way of the Magellan Strait. A laminate “strong and easily repaired”, says Practical Boat Owner’s review; “excellent tracking” under a vane, say her owners.
Waterline 7.32 m, 17th of 17; beam 2.82 m, 17th of 17; hull speed 6.6 kt, 17th of 17.
A tendency to roll downwind, a wet ride and a large turning circle, says Practical Boat Owner’s review.
Yet like for like her boats measured −1% against the other designs in the same wind and angle, close to level with longer boats: the sailors are in that figure.
“The defect that I discover most frequently on them is osmosis”, says a surveyor; stanchion sockets moulded into the early decks, gas lockers that drain below the waterline on some, engine access that, in an owner’s words, needs long thin arms and a mirror. Only the Mark X and XI are on the race’s list.
As built she carries forty-five gallons of water, 204 litres by her association’s specification: less than the 260 litres of drinking water the race asks every boat to carry (Notice of Race K.2.1). Laaland put into Cape Town low on water in 2018.
- The Nicholson 32 Association: the specification, the history and the classics (the marks, the number built, the ocean record)
- Yachting Monthly, “Nicholson 32: an ocean-going pedigree that lasts” (2021), and Practical Boat Owner’s review and test sail (2020)
- The race’s skipper page for Loïc Lepage, goldengloberace.com, and Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: Loïc Lepage rescued” (the Cape Town stop, the position, the bulk carrier)
- Scuttlebutt, “Golden Globe: Bothersome barnacles”, 29 Oct 2018 (the date of the dismasting, the stays, the mast, the scuttling)
- Golden Globe Race 2018 dismastings investigation, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, April 2019 (the fractured wire)
- The YBW forums (the owners), and Apollo Duck’s listings of September 2026
- Notice of Race 2026: J.1.2 (the approved designs: the Mark X and XI) and K.2.1 (drinking water)
- The figures: the Nicholson 32 Association's specification (33 ft for the Mark X and XI, 24 ft, 9 ft 3 in, 5 ft 6 in, 6.1 tons, 3.0 tons, 594 sq ft), converted here from its feet and long tons; the years and number built from the association's history. The association's own metric column prints a draught of 1.60 m, 6,211 kg and 3,100 kg of ballast; the race's page for Laaland (Loïc Lepage) prints a draft of 5.60 ft (1.70 m) and 470 sq ft (43.66 m²) of sail. Laaland was a Mark X, the marks the race's list names.
Why her races ended:
- Golden Globe Race, “DAY 111 – Loïc Lepage Dismasted 600 Miles SW of Perth, Australia” (dateline 20 Oct 2018)
- Golden Globe Race, “DAY 112 – Operations Begin to Rescue Loïc Lepage” (dateline 21 Oct 2018)
- Golden Globe Race 2018/19, “Investigation into causes of dismastings” (Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Apr 2019): “caused by a fractured rigging wire not a knock down. Mast released but evidently holed the boat”, PDF via Yachting Monthly
- Scuttlebutt Sailing News, “Golden Globe: Bothersome barnacles” (29 Oct 2018; the skipper’s own letter: lower aft stay, running backstay, mast broke 50 cm above deck, hull struck under the waterline, 30–40 L every twenty minutes, two seawater valves opened)
- Scuttlebutt Sailing News, “Rescue needed in Golden Globe Race” (20 Oct 2018)
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: 10 left as Lepage docks at Cape Town” (Katy Stickland, 11 Sep 2018)
- Golden Globe Race, 2018 GGR timeline (8 Sep 2018: “Loïc Lepage stops in Cape Town 14:00 UTC Saturday”; 12 Sep 2018: “Loïc Lepage resumes in the Chichester class”)
- Yachting Monthly, “Golden Globe Race: Loïc Lepage rescued” (Katy Stickland, 23 Oct 2018)
- The Maritime Executive, “Solo yachtsman rescued off Australia” (23 Oct 2018)
- Golden Globe Race, skipper page Loïc Lepage (Nicholson 32 Mk X, status “out”)
- Wikipedia, 2018 Golden Globe Race (“Retired on 21 October 2018 after dismasting 600 miles south-west of Perth (was already in 'Chichester' class)”)
What the figures mean. Waterline: the longer, the faster a heavy hull can go. Hull speed: 1.34 × √waterline in feet, the old rule of thumb. Displacement to length: above 300 is heavy; every design here is but the OE 32. Sail area to displacement: under 16 is under-canvassed by modern lights. The middle line is the median of the designs that have the figure: seventeen, or fewer where a source does not give it. Lengths are printed to the centimetre and areas to a tenth of a square metre, whatever the source’s own precision, and the ratios are worked from the figures as printed here.
How she is measured. Every 4-hour leg with a model wind on which the boat was moving (0.2 kt and more): this race’s since the start, and each boat’s whole race in 2018 and 2022, to her finish or her retirement (what a boat sailed after she retired is not counted). A leg’s wind is the model wind at its two ends, averaged as vectors, so its speed is that of the mean wind (a few legs of 2018 and 2022 carry the wind at one end only). The past races have no ocean current, so all three are measured alike: speed over the ground, and the wind’s angle off the course made good. Like for like sets each leg against the other designs’ legs of the same race in the same 3 kt of wind and 15° of angle; the heat map and the polar set her median in each wind and angle, over all her legs there, against the other designs’ medians in the races she sailed, each race weighted by her legs in it. Every figure is a median, and each measures the boat as she was sailed: the sailor, her sails and the state of her hull are in it, a hull under barnacles too. More on the Method page.