Ronnie Simpson Acquires Class 40 for Next Global Solo Challenge

Former California resident and offshore sailor Ronnie Simpson is launching a new campaign for the 2027 Global Solo Challenge race.

The event is a singlehanded, nonstop around-the-world race that begins and ends in Vigo, Spain, in 2027. After sailing close to 80% of the 2023–24 edition in third place out of 16 yachts, Ronnie dismasted far off the coast of Argentina and was unable to finish. Undeterred, Ronnie, who now lives in Portland, Maine, has acquired the Class 40 racing yacht Koloa Maoli from Dave Linger of Seattle and launched a new campaign for the 2027–28 edition of the race. Launching Koloa Maoli at Maine Yacht Center in late June, Ronnie and his team have conducted a successful round of sea trials off Portland during the first weeks of July.

A 40-year-old professional sailor who has sailed more than 175,000 miles at sea, Ronnie aims to become the first American to win a singlehanded, nonstop, around-the-world race. In the 2023–24 edition of the Global Solo Challenge, he sailed the Open 50 racing yacht Shipyard Brewing more than 20,000 miles, rounding all three of the great capes, including Cape Horn, before dismasting some 700 miles offshore of Argentina. He was forced to retire after 106 days at sea, having covered about 80% of the course. A combat-wounded and retired US Marine who served in Iraq, Ronnie is determined to finish what he started and make another attempt to win the Global Solo Challenge race.

David Linger sailed Koloa Maoli in the last Global Solo Challenge, and Ronnie knows it’s a good platform upon which to base a competitive campaign for the next one. “I feel really good about the boat, and how she has performed during our first sea trials over the course of the past week and a half,” Ronnie said. “Koloa Maoli is a really special and unique boat that is well prepared, very strong, and still in great shape, having just raced around the world in the last Global Solo Challenge. I’m really grateful to be able to base the boat at Maine Yacht Center, and to have such a great partner in preparing a boat like this for the Global Solo Challenge.”

Ronnie joins Bruce Schwab as another former California-based singlehander who is now basing his sailing life out of Maine.

Ronnie is keeping himself busy preparing for the race but also working as a yacht broker for Lyman-Morse yachts out of Camden, Maine, and as a professional captain in the Portland, Maine, area. He also runs a small company specializing in sustainability and energy efficiency, including selling Remoran hydrogenerators.

You can attempt to keep up with Ronnie here.