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Of the boats competing in the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race, Tapio Lehtinen was stunned that it was his Gaia 36 Asteria which sank. Yet that’s what happened 460 nautical miles SE from Port Elizabeth, in South Africa.
Lehtinen was successfully rescued, but remains at a loss for what failed on Asteria which was profiled in this report by Yachting World:
Sparkman and Stephens aficionado Tapio Lehtinen believes his Gaia 36 Asteria is the perfect vessel for the rigors of the Golden Globe Race, despite being the oldest yacht in the fleet having been built in 1965. Lehtinen completed the 2018 edition, the first ‘re-running’ of the famous solo non-stop race, in 5th place in the same boat, after being hampered by ineffective anti-fouling that resulted in massive underwater growth.
However, a bigger refit than anticipated meant Lehtinen was not able to fully realize his vision for the boat last time. He bought her in 2017 in Italy, but it was only after sailing home to Finland that significant delamination was discovered in the deck. Eventually the entire deck and coach roof was sliced off and used as a male mould for its replacement.
At the same time, the hull was stripped right back to a shell, with all furniture and bulkheads removed. Even the gelcoat and top 1mm of the hull laminate was ground away and then relaminated with Kevlar to improve impact resistance against collision with floating objects…
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