The Race
"Bollocks to boring modern yachts with their auto-pilots and comfy cabins. For a proper ocean adventure vessel you need to go back a few hundred years. Take a dugout canoe made from a mango tree, add a bamboo mast, a sail and a couple of outriggers and you have the Ngalawa - the ultimate sailing machine. Line up against a fleet of like-minded idiots and point it towards the Indian Ocean racecourse of spice islands, deserted beaches and sand banks off the coast of Tanzania. Welcome to the world's greatest sailing race."
WHAT IS THE NGALAWA?
A tree chunk, a bed-sheet and some strings – what could go wrong ?
The Ngalawa is the crocodile of the sailing world: there's been no need to change the design for hundreds of years because it is a thing of ancient seafaring genius. Locals use them for fishing and short trips making it the obvious choice for a long-distance race between islands off the coast of Tanzania.
WHY ?
Because proper adventure can only be found when you ditch the technology and you're forced to rely on your wits and your cunning.
WHERE ?
The race covers nearly the whole length of the Tanzanian coast snaking around the Zanzibar Archipelago. Some of the best sailing in the Indian Ocean. In July the race starts in Kilwa and finishes on Zanzibar Island.
WHEN?
July 2017
