Tapio Lehtinen will return for the OGR 2027 with his classic S&S Swan 55 yawl, Galiana, marking his fifth round-the-world race. Prior to the 2023 race, Galiana underwent a major refit that included a complete rebuild of her interior to ensure functionality for ocean racing while preserving her classic S&S appearance.

Galiana was leading the 2023 race on handicap during the third and fourth legs but suffered from disastrous bad luck, becoming stuck in high pressure alongside other smaller yachts in the fleet—providing a compelling reason to have another go!

Last winter, Galiana received significant repairs in her skeg area to avoid issues encountered by other vessels. With a rock-solid build, optimisation for the race, and possibly the most experienced skipper, she should be a competitive contender in the 2027 OGR.

As a warm-up for the OGR, Galiana embarked on an 11-month voyage around the North Atlantic two weeks ago. She is currently en route to the Canaries for the ARC, where she will spend the winter in the Caribbean and the Bahamas. In June, she will participate in the Bermuda Race and return home via Greenland and Iceland to undergo further preparations for the OGR.

Want to join Galiana? Visit www.tapiolehtinensailing.fi. You can also follow Galiana’s voyage on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tapiolehtinensailing.

2023 Edition

Tapio Lehtinen will be sailing with his young Finnish team on Swan 55 Galiana WithSecure.

In addition to highlighting solutions for saving the climate and oceans, Tapio wants to make sure that the Finnish ocean sailing legacy, dating back to the times of Erikson square riggers, will be taken further by coming generations.

Tapio is an ex-Whitbread veteran and long time proponent of youth sailing and will sail the Ocean Globe Race with one of the youngest teams.

Crew

Skipper

Tapio Lehtinen is a sailor born in 1958 with a life long experience of sailing a wide variety of boats. Starting with an Optimist dinghy in 1965 his sailing career has included racing in dinghies and especially with his classic six metre built in 1936. In offshore sailing his CV includes the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1982, Round Britain, Twostar, AZAB, Bermuda Race in addition to the various Gotland Runt and other races in the Baltic Sea. During the 2018 Golden Globe Race, Tapio was disappointed to see the dramatically diminished numbers of birds, whales and other sea mammals in the oceans. This has lead him to use the media visibility of the coming races to increase the awareness of the different solutions for the environmental challenges which are being offered. Tapio is also a long time proponent of youth sailing and will sail the OGR with one of the youngest teams.

First Mate

Ville Norra is a 51 year old, six-metre racing friend and one of Tapio’s trusted adults onboard Galiana WithSecure. He has sailing background from a variety of keelboats and offshore boats. Ville is both a very agile seaman when afloat and at the same time technically able to keep the systems of Galiana WithSecure running. When the going gets tough, he’s the first one up in the rig and when it gets easy, he gets his guitar out.

No.	Name, Nationality	Sex, Age
1	Tapio Lehtinen, Skipper, FIN	M, 65
2	Ville Norra, First Mate, FIN	M, 51
3	Alexander von Flittner, FIN	M, 27
4	Anton Eklund, FIN	M, 26
5	Elia Koski, FIN	M, 27
6	Juho Sattanen, FIN	M, 28
7	Kaisla Jacoby, FIN	F, 20
8	Lassi Liimatainen, FIN	M, 29
9	Mauri De Meulder, FIN	M, 26
10	Mikko Hongell, FIN	M, 33
11	Pia Grönblom, FIN	F, 50
12	Viivi Moisio, FIN	F, 21

Galiana WithSecure

Galiana WithSecure, a 1970 Sparkman & Stephens designed Swan 55 yawl. In addition to being an early S&S Swan, she is probably the last design under RORC/CCA rules in the 40 years long lineage of Olin Stephens designed ocean racing yawls dating back to his breakthrough design Dorade in 1929. So, in our opinion she is as classy and classic as you can get. There is a major refit going on, the rig, sails, engine, electrics will be changed and the interior layout will be optimised for safe and comfortable sailing in the Southern Ocean.