At age 52, former CEO Scott Shawyer awoke at some point in the course of the COVID lockdown in 2020 and realized he was prepared for a giant profession change. One of the best half was, he didn’t even know that he was in search of one, not to mention so near residence.
“I live in a town in Ontario with a mountain in the backyard and a lake in the front yard,” Shawyer says. “Now we have some nice ski paths and sail on the water and I hadn’t been outdoors in weeks.
Subsequent up for Scott Shawyer might be on Might 29, as he competes within the one individual, 3,600 mile New York Vendee. The route begins in New York Metropolis and finishes in Les Sables-d’Olonne, Vendée Area, France.
“I was just dying at my desk and I started watching this race that happens every four years called the Vendée Globe, he says. “:I was watching these skippers around the docks, crowded people all wearing masks and when they got to the end of the docks, they took off their masks, jumped on their sailboats and went to set sail around the world. I was just comparing that to where I was: Strapped to my desk, hadn’t been outside, on the phone dying by Zoom calls and these guys are out sailing around the world. I was like, ‘Holy cow.’ I just turned 50 and I was like, ‘I’ve got to do something different.’”
Shawyer discovered himself so impressed that he nearly instantly stop his job—he served as CEO of commercial know-how firm JMP Options—and jumped in toes first to learn to be his personal skipper. He caught on shortly, however realized he had rather a lot to be taught.
“There’s a lot of preparation,” Shawyer says. “Physically, mentally, skill wise, there’s a lot of preparation and needing diet and nutrition, what you eat while you’re at sea. That’s what I like about this sport. It’s so multidimensional.”
From CEO to Skipper
Scott Shawyer discovered shortly and set sail fairly actually on his new journey into the second half of his life. In contrast to most of his rivals, Shawyer didn’t develop up within the offshore crusing scene and he hasn’t sailed a Mini, a Figaro, or a Class 40. In just some brief years, he’s achieved a win within the double-handed monohull class within the RORC Transatlantic and a tenth place end in his first-ever IMOCA class race, the Guayder Bermudes Race. He was amazed how his new path made him calmer than the demanding days at his desk job ever did and has discovered to belief himself.
“I’ve never had anxiety or any real form of anxiety until probably four or five years ago,” Shawyer says. “I just started feeling anxious for no reason and then I got anxious about feeling anxious and then it just became all consuming.”
Shawyer—now the skipper and president of Canada Ocean Racing—then turned to mindfulness to ease his restlessness.
“I really learned, practiced meditation and a bunch of different strategies on how to kind of not let intrusive thoughts come and go. That’s the same thing with sailing. You can be out in the middle of the ocean and if you start thinking about, ‘Is the mast gonna stay up? Am I gonna hit something? Am I gonna get a hole in the boat and sink?’ It’s not good thinking. The first step for me is to stop the thought and the second part is doing something else so you don’t have the thought. Especially when you’re trying to sleep and you can’t sleep, you start to get sleep deprived.”
A Entire New Sort of Coaching
There’s been different changes, too. He’s traded fancy inns and loos for biodegradable luggage and buckets as a way to relieve himself and main board room conferences with rooms stuffed with colleagues to spending time alone on his boat with Mom Nature. Scott Shawyer additionally needed to adapt to a strict health routine to remain in a distinct type of form than he ever was in earlier than.
“I do a mix between pure strength training and then more sport specific strength training,” says Shawyer. Deadlifts, squats, pull-ups, bench press, various things which might be extra energy targeted. I’m not almost in pretty much as good of cardio form as I’ve been for triathlons, however I believe by way of energy and with the ability to deal with the calls for of this boat, it’s a bit totally different. I believe it’s extra sport particular and I believe I’m in an incredible place for that, a lot better than ever earlier than, for positive.
Shawyer’s total objective is turning into the primary Canadian to compete within the Vendée Globe. The 23,000 mile, 3 month race will happen in 2028, so he has a while. It’s a single-handed, continuous, non-assisted round-the-world crusing race that takes place solely each 4 years. The journey begins on the tip of France and ends on the tip of France. Ought to Shawyer have the ability to compete, he’ll achieve this at age 56.
Along with getting in crusing form, he additionally has to familiarize himself with a number of the new guidelines of the New York Vendee. Shawyer needs to be cautious because it’s straightforward to turn into disqualified– Particularly on accident. If he touches land, receives any form of assist or his boat breaks down, he might be out. Shawyer can even be the one North American racing and might be on board with Be Water Constructive, a $2 million greenback vessel designed and constructed for velocity. The journey will make this Shawyer’s first solo, Transatlantic race and he’s predicting he’ll end between 13 and 14 days. Regardless of the sound of it, Shawyer is assured in his plan.
“I’m a risk taker, adventure seeker, but I’m not crazy. You make sure you have safety systems in place, make sure there are kind of lifelines available, too. There are definitely things I wouldn’t do.”
