Austrian sailor Michael Guggenberger aka Captain Gugg finished third in the Golden Globe Race 2022, behind Kirsten Neuschäfer (South Africa) and Commander Abhilash Tomy (India). He is reportedly only the second Austrian to complete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation.
He crossed the finishing line in Les Sables-d’Olonne on the French Atlantic coast at around 1pm IST. And with him sailing up the channel the Golden Globe Race 2022 has ended. Only the Chichester Class participant Jeremy Bagshaw (South Africa) is left in the race.
Just ahead of the finish line, the GGR media team asked Guggenberger what he wanted to eat, and he said: “Coffee on a table that is not wobbling, sitting on a chair that is not wobbling. I would also like a one-hour-long shower!”
His boat, the Nuri, is a Biscay 36 named after the main sponsor, an eponymous Portugal-based company that cans sardines the artisanal way.
As with Neuschäfer and Tomy, Guggenberger, too, was honoured on stage with an albatross pennant by Jean-Luc Van Den Heede—winner of Golden Globe Race 2018—on behalf of the International Association of Cape Horners.
On stage, Tomy quipped that Guggenberger was the reason why he ran his engine so much, as they talked a lot over HF radio, and the batteries needed to be charged. In his typical wry humour, he added that Guggenberger had spent a lot of time in India, while his own connection with Austria was that he had watched The Sound of Music.