{"id":74827,"date":"2023-01-24T13:43:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=74827"},"modified":"2023-05-07T00:03:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T04:03:55","slug":"simpson-spreads-sparrows-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/simpson-spreads-sparrows-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Simpson Spreads Sparrow’s Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Ronnie <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Ronnie Simpson\u2019s mission is entry into the Vend\u00e9e Globe, but he must first complete a circumnavigation and secure financing to procure an IMOCA 60.<\/span>\n Jon Whittle<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Ronnie Simpson\u2014brimmed hat \u00adbackward, eyes forward, a light touch on the tiller extension of his borrowed Open 50 Sparrow<\/em>\u2014is in his element. It\u2019s a radiant September day with a pumping south\u00adwesterly raking Rhode Island Sound, and I\u2019ve joined a pickup crew for a shakedown sail aboard the spartan 50-footer that he is just starting to get a feel for. \u201cLearning,\u201d he says repeatedly. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here today. Learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sparrow <\/em>is the latest handle for the well-traveled 50-footer, which began life as Newcastle Australia <\/em>when Aussie Alan Nebauer commissioned it for the 1994\u201195 BOC Challenge; it was rechristened Balance Bar<\/em> after American Brad Van Liew took it for a second around-the-world spin in the Around Alone race four years later; it became Pegasus <\/em>when tech mogul and sailing enthusiast Philippe Kahn took command shortly thereafter; and, ultimately, it was dubbed Sparrow <\/em>after Simpson\u2019s friend Whitall Stokes acquired it. Stokes still owns it, but he has basically given the keys to Simpson; the pair met while competing in the 2012 edition of the Singlehanded Transpac Race from San Francisco to Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Stokes\u2019 blessing, Simpson has launched a bid to race Sparrow <\/em>in the upcoming Global Solo Challenge, an eclectic, nonstop, singlehanded around-the-world contest scheduled to begin from A Coru\u00f1a, Spain, in September 2023. For Simpson, however, racing in the GSC is hardly the point of the exercise\u2014far from it. No, he is very clear this is a steppingstone to a much larger goal: to fulfill his longtime dream of nailing significant sponsorship for a full-on Vend\u00e9e Globe<\/a> campaign on a competitive IMOCA 60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m being honest, I\u2019m in way over my head financially,\u201d Simpson tells me before we set sail. \u201cI\u2019m rolling the dice in a really huge manner. If doing (the GSC) on an Open 50 was the endgame, I probably wouldn\u2019t be here. I consider this my shot for the Vend\u00e9e. I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m so driven to do that race, but I wake up every day and I want to do it, and I go to sleep every night and I want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sparrow <\/em>has a long and well-traveled history, but it pales to Simpson\u2019s personal odyssey. Now 37, he has sailed more than 130,000 nautical miles and worked professionally as a racing sailor, delivery captain, charter captain, sailboat rigger and race-boat preparateur<\/em>. Which is saying something, since he admits, \u201cI never sailed a boat a day in my life until I was 23.\u201d Which may never have happened had he not joined the Marine Corps and been nearly blown to bits in the Iraq War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which, indirectly, is how and why I met the man. A talented writer, long after his service he began submitting sailing articles to the magazine I was then working for, Cruising World<\/em>, and I became his editor. His early submissions were pretty straightforward voyaging yarns, but his first major feature was a blockbuster, flagged on the publication\u2019s November 2015 cover with this title: \u201cFrom Fallujah to Fiji: An Iraq Veteran\u2019s Odyssey of Redemption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A summary: Caught up in the patriotic fervor following 9\/11, nine days after graduating from high school in Atlanta, Georgia, Simpson enlisted in the Corps, and on June 30, 2004, he was riding in a Humvee outside Fallujah when it came under heavy fire and a rocket-propelled grenade detonated just yards away. Simpson sustained major impact injuries to his body, brain and eyes, and inhaled enough of the explosion\u2019s rapidly expanding gas to shred his left lung. He was put into a medically induced coma and woke up 18 days later\u2014in San Antonio, Texas. He spent the next three years there, more or less recovering, but also feeling aimless and \u201cunfulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was rolling the dice in ways they should not be rolled,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThen one night, I discovered sailing on the internet. Within 90 days, I\u2019d dropped out of college, quit my job, sold my house and, for $30,000, bought a 41-foot bluewater cruising boat in San Diego and moved aboard. I\u2019d never before set foot on a sailboat, but I was resolved to sail around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2008, he set forth by \u00adhimself, bound for Hawaii. A little over a week later, he was rolled by Hurricane Norbert. He abandoned the boat and was picked up by a freighter that deposited him in the Chinese port of Shanghai. (\u201cTwenty-one days across the Pacific!\u201d he said.) He was out a boat, but he was also outward-bound on a cleansing adventure, which continued over the next seven months on a 9,000-mile bike trip through nine countries in Southeast Asia. For much of it, all he thought about was the Vend\u00e9e Globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2009, he flew back to California with $500 in his pocket and a single obsession in his mind: to race across oceans alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For $1,000, Simpson found a Cal 25 for the 2010 Singlehanded Transpac. Fatefully, a Vietnam veteran named Don Gray, who ran a nonprofit for wounded vets called Hope for the Warriors, offered him the use of his Mount Gay 30 for the race, which Simpson gratefully accepted. A repeat arrangement on a second boat called Warrior\u2019s Wish<\/em>, this time a Moore 24, was procured for the 2012 race (where he met Sparrow<\/em>\u2019s Stokes, then sailing a Tartan 10), aboard which Simpson won his class by a mere 90 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, he wrangled a writing assignment to cover that year\u2019s start of the Vend\u00e9e, and afterward traveled to Switzerland in hopes of making contacts to at least score a used Open 60 for the event\u2019s next running. But he realized for the time being that raising the funds was a bridge too far, and he was itching to keep sailing. Returning to Hawaii, he landed a gig delivering a cruising boat back to the mainland, and then plonked down four of the five grand for a Cal 2-27 he found in Seattle that he named Mongo. <\/em>He slapped on a solar panel and wind vane, and pointed the engineless 27-footer into the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Simpson <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Simpson\u2019s Open 50, Sparrow<\/i>, was built for the 1994 BOC and will require an extensive refit before next fall\u2019s Global Solo Challenge.<\/span>\n Jon Whittle<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

On his approach to Fiji in that summer of 2014, he notched an important anniversary. Precisely 10 years earlier, he had nearly lost his life in the desert. From Fallujah to Fiji indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the next several years, Simpson used both Fiji and Hawaii as bases of operation, surfing as much as possible. He upgraded his ride to a Peterson 34 called Quiver <\/em>and continued to cruise the Pacific. Using the GI Bill, he earned his undergraduate degree in multimedia from Hawaii Pacific University. He handled press duties for events like the Pacific Cup and Transpac, and continued delivering yachts and racing offshore. Most importantly, he launched a business in Fiji running day charters and offering other watersports for the tourist set, which looked like a long-term plan for funding a Vend\u00e9e campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until COVID-19 hit, and that scheme came to a sudden, crashing halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simpson\u2019s one tangible asset was Quiver<\/em>, which he described as \u201call my eggs in one basket.\u201d There was, however, no possible way to sell it in Fiji during a pandemic, so he hopped aboard, sheeted everything home, and spent 29 days hard on the trade winds to reach Honolulu, where he sold the 34-footer for $30,000. After yet another delivery to the mainland and a stint back in Hawaii running charters and earning his captain\u2019s ticket, he flew to Los Angeles. There, he purchased a Peterson-designed Serendipity 43 cruising boat and signed up for the Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally from San Diego to Mexico. His new plan was ultimately to return to Fiji and employ his new boat to relaunch his charter business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then he got that fateful call from his old mate, Whitall Stokes, and everything flew out the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stokes had spent a good stretch of the COVID-19 years on his own excellent solo adventure, sailing Sparrow <\/em>from the Pacific to the Atlantic via Cape Horn, a 17,000-\u00adnautical mile voyage that concluded in Portland, Maine, at the Maine Yacht Center, a boatyard well-known in shorthanded circles for its exceptional refits and maintenance work. Stokes then put the boat up for sale. But finding scant interest, he decided to see if one of his mates might be interested in campaigning it. His first call was to Ryan Finn, fresh off a record-setting trip from New York to San Francisco on his proa, but he was already involved in another project. The second call was to Simpson, who did not need to be asked twice. \u201cI immediately just said, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m into it,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hasta la vista, Ha-Ha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right off the bat, Simpson sold the Serendipity 43 and launched a GoFundMe page that raised nearly $15,000 in a matter of hours, money that went directly into promotion and a website (ronnie\u200bsimpson\u200bracing.com). He sailed to Newport, where we spent that epic afternoon putting Sparrow <\/em>through the ringer, and then on to Annapolis, Maryland, for the US Sailboat Show, where he again put the boat on display. He scored some important sponsorships with New England Ropes, Ronstan and Wichard. He caught a plane to Amsterdam for the gigantic Marine Equipment Trade Show, the necessary hustle now in full flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next? On to the Caribbean for a fully crewed entry in the Caribbean 600, then a qualifying Transatlantic sail to France, and the GSC in September, a unique event with a rolling start over 11 weeks for singlehanded boats from 32 to 55 feet. Hopefully, a tremendous race result attracts the notice of a deep-pocketed sponsor wishing to back a tenacious American competitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to really try making this into a professional campaign,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI want to take everything I\u2019ve learned from the French professionals and try to emulate that. I\u2019m so incredibly grateful to Whitall for giving me this opportunity. Sometimes I curse him because it\u2019s so stressful, but I\u2019m just joking around. I\u2019m so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could certainly say, in this latest chapter of what\u2019s already a remarkable life story, Ronnie Simpson has hit the ground running. But the truth of the matter is, from the moment he landed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune as a raw teenage recruit, he\u2019s never, ever stopped pounding the pavement. That is a good thing because he has now stepped off on the ultramarathon of his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Determined American sailor Ronnie Simpson has his heart and mind set on a Vendee Globe lap and is ready for the long haul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":74828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"159","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Herb McCormick profiles American ocean racer Ronnie Simpson as he starts a campaign toward a future around the world racing campaign.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[159],"tags":[307,744,250,2889,177,227],"class_list":["post-74827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-circumnavigation","tag-offshore","tag-offshore-racing","tag-print-winter-2023","tag-racing","tag-vendee-globe"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}