Young Hong Kong sailor races around the world to learn some important life lessons
Faolan Whyte, who grew up in Sai Kung, dealt with isolation, nature and working with others on the Clipper Round The World yacht race
It might have begun only as a search for a challenge after university for Faolan Whyte, but an 11-month journey across some of the most inhospitable and remote oceans quickly became the chance to learn some life skills for the Hong Kong sailor.
Whyte, who completed the Clipper Round The World yacht race last month, was born in Hong Kong to Irish parents Fergal Whyte and Carmel Taylor, neither of whom had never sailed.
The 23-year-old had been thinking of “my next step” after graduation, and merely wanted to take on a challenge before he started looking for a job. Sailing around the world was the “ultimate” one.
“I took on the race because of my love of the outdoors, the mental and physical challenges posed and because so few people circumnavigate the globe by yacht in one go,” Whyte said. “More people climb Mount Everest annually than complete a circumnavigation by yacht.”
The Clipper Round The World yacht race is a biennial endurance challenge in which, as the name suggests, competitors circumnavigate the globe. The most recent edition – in which Whyte competed – was the 14th, departing Portsmouth on the final day of August last year, and returning to the same port in the last week of July.
The 329-day voyage covered 72,420 kilometres (45,000 miles), taking in brief stops in Spain, Uruguay, South Africa, Australia, the Philippines, China, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom for repairs, the restocking of food and any medical needs.