Brad Van Liew’s Solo Odyssey: Racing the Velux 5 Oceans on an Eco 60

Sailing roughly 30,000 miles around the globe alone on a 60-foot yacht is a formidable undertaking, yet Charleston native Brad Van Liew — the United States’ sole entry in the Velux 5 Oceans Race — embraces it with steady resolve. Van Liew departed Wellington, New Zealand, on Feb. 6 for the race’s third leg to Punta del Este, Uruguay, a passage of about 5,800 nautical miles that typically takes roughly three weeks. By the time you read this, he likely rounded Cape Horn and reached port safely.

After a scheduled stop in Uruguay, Van Liew planned to leave on March 27 for his home port of Charleston — roughly 5,700 nautical miles — before the final sprint back to La Rochelle, France, where the race concludes. He has taken top honors on both the opening leg from La Rochelle to Cape Town and the second leg from Cape Town to Wellington, solidifying his reputation in singlehanded offshore racing.

Van Liew is no newcomer to solo ocean competition. He finished third in the 1998 Around Alone aboard an Open 50 and won the 2002 Around Alone on another Open 50, Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America. Yet this campaign differs in tone and priorities. Family life — wife Meaghan and their children Tate and Wyatt — now plays a central role. The Velux 5 Oceans has become something of a family adventure, with Meaghan and the kids joining him at ports during the event. That support brings comfort but also the weight of missing time at home.

The emotional toll surfaced when the Cape Town start was delayed. Van Liew recalls the difficulty of saying “goodbye and Merry Christmas” to his children on the dock. Missing holidays with family has become more poignant: “I have done 25 percent of the last 10 years at sea for Christmas,” he wrote, noting that being away feels harder now that his children are growing up. Financial constraints also shape the campaign; despite securing several sponsors, the team lacks a major corporate backer, which limits shore support and forces careful decisions about who can travel to which ports.

Those constraints might even mean Meaghan, Tate and Wyatt return to Charleston rather than join him in Uruguay. Still, Van Liew admits the racing routine feels easier than before. He attributes that partly to experience and partly to a shift in perspective: he’s less driven by the single-minded pressure to win and more focused on savoring the offshore experience. He celebrated his 43rd birthday at sea on Valentine’s Day, happy to have a 25-knot reach as a birthday gift from Neptune after crossing the international date line.

The race itself has delivered extremes. After an exhilarating downwind start from La Rochelle, the fleet confronted a deep low-pressure system before the trades. Approaching Cape Town they battled upwind; winds swung from 40 knots to calm in a matter of hours. Departing Cape Town again involved hard upwind work in 25–35 knots, only to encounter near-calm conditions a day later. Christmas brought a run downwind in northwesterlies, but early January saw another violent low with big seas followed by an extended, light-air high stretching from Australia to New Zealand. The third leg tested crews with leftover seas from tropical cyclone Zaca and stretches through the Roaring Forties. At one point in mid-February Van Liew reported being well positioned, holding a lead over his nearest rival.

Van Liew’s Le Pingouin is an Eco 60 — a conscious choice reflecting the race sponsor Velux’s emphasis on sustainability. Class rules favor older Open 60s with limited modifications and recognize teams that develop innovative, low-carbon solutions for onboard power. Van Liew aims to sail the race without relying on fossil fuels, using two prototype hydrogenerators to charge batteries for electronics and self-steering. He has encountered technical challenges, including battery failures that required replacements after earlier trans-Atlantic legs, but his long experience with this type of generator — including pre-race sea trials and transits — gives him confidence in the system.

Compared with a competitor who runs a cruising version of the generators, Van Liew’s prototype setup is designed for higher racing speeds. The cruising generators reliably produce 30 to 40 amps at 7–8 knots, while racing speeds commonly range from 12 to 20+ knots; despite the differences, Van Liew appreciates the quiet and sustainability benefits of generating power under sail. “It’s nice to sail with no engine noise,” he says.

His time at sea has also made him acutely aware of environmental change. Van Liew sailed deliberately farther north than in prior Southern Ocean voyages because the Antarctic convergence — the transition zone that marks colder waters and rich marine life — is now located hundreds of miles farther north than when he first sailed the Southern Ocean in 1998. He notes dramatically fewer seabirds and worrying declines in whale sightings, observations that underscore the fragile state of the oceans.

“The human body is something like 60 to 80 percent water,” he observes. “We better start taking care of our oceans or they aren’t going to be here to take care of us.” That sentiment informs both his choice of an Eco 60 and his broader outlook on racing: competitive intensity combined with responsibility to the environment and to family.

This article originally appeared in the Mid-Atlantic Home Waters section of the April 2011 issue.