THUNDER BAY — A city high school teacher who sailed a 5.8-metre boat across the Atlantic Ocean this year is now setting his sights on a much more ambitious undertaking – an around-the-world race.
Dan Turk has signed up to participate in the 2024-2025 Classglobe race, a journey of 26,000 nautical miles that will take over a year to complete.
Once again, he'll be sailing in Little Bea, the handmade boat that he assembled from scratch in his garage during the COVID-19 pandemic, then took on a solo voyage from Halifax to Portugal this summer.
"The challenge of doing something like this is just tremendous," Turk said Monday in an interview. "Physically, mentally, you know, pushing your own boundaries, as well as pushing the boundaries of the boat."
He'll be competing against 25 to 30 other boats, all handmade by their owners in different countries around the world, to the same specifications as Little Bea.
"So there's the camaraderie, the competition side of it as well, which is really cool because, as they say, two boats going in the same direction is a race. This will be a lot of fun."
Turk has to buy new sails for the boat, and acquire certain equipment to comply with safety regulations.
He said he will also have to ensure his body and mind are in the right condition.
"Physically, I need to get into better shape. I need to get myself in top-notch shape to be able to start these races because it's physically demanding as well as mentally demanding. I have to get myself in the right mindset as well."
Turk will compete in a preliminary event late next year that's a qualifier for the global race.
It will take him from Portugal, where Little Bea is currently docked,to Antigua in the Caribbean.
In preparation for that race, he'll take a leave of absence next September from Hammarskjold High School, where he teaches technology and cooperative education.
He said it was a joint decision within his family to enter the global competition, noting "there's a lot of considerations for entering something like this, the time commitment, the financial commitment, all that kind of stuff."
Turk proved earlier this year that he already has the skills to make a transatlantic crossing, but that only took about six weeks, whereas the 2025 race will last up to 14 months.
"Every time we come into a port, whether it's an island or mainland, we have to stay there for at least seven days. It's a minimum stop, and then some of the stops are quite long. Like Panama is 30 days, Tahiti is 15 days, Fiji is 21 days. The reason for that is that the global weather systems in certain parts of the oceans are not great at certain times for sailing. Tropical storms and that kind of thing. That's why some of the delays are pushing us further and further through the calendar."
Turk runs a not-for-profit corporation in Thunder Bay called Sailing into S.T.E.M.
The program uses sailing as a platform to engage youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics during a two-week annual summer camp.
He hopes to attract sponsors to help him use that same model to work with young people in the eleven ports he'll be stopping at around the world.
"The ultimate goal is to extend what I'm doing here locally on an international scale. So that's one of my motivators, too. Let's get kids interested."
Tax receipts will be issued for interested donors, and there's more information available online.
Turk is also seeking in-kind sponsorships for items such as outdoor gear, satellite phone rental, and sailing gear, and hopes to hear from companies interested in having their logos attached to Little Bea.
