From missionary work to solo sailing: How skipper Christopher Langham is preparing for the 2026 Golden Globe Race

Christopher Langham reflects on his motivations for entering the Golden Globe Race, life at sea, and how his faith has shaped his approach to sailing. Here's how he's preparing to sail around the world solo, non-stop, and unassisted with only traditional navigation techniques.

Christopher Langham is waiting for the ice to melt.

He’s in Hamburg with his OE32, Savoir Vivre Libre. 

At the first available window, they’ll set off for the 4,000 mile shakedown that will act as his qualifying passage for the 2026 Golden Globe Race, in which entrants sail around the world solo, unassisted, and nonstop, using only traditional navigation techniques.

If all goes smoothly, Langham plans to arrive in Les Sables d’Olonne in April.

From there, he’ll pack in a refit and a few more months of work (he’s a marine electrician for the US Navy) to pay for onboard electronics and their installation before the race starts in September.

For now, the ice is putting a wrench in those plans.

‘Where’s global warming when you need it?’ Langham jokes.

While he waits, he’s keeping busy.

This morning, he put up the Coast Guard number on his hull as per race regulations.

He’s waiting on a delivery, and trying to sort out the bank account for the business he recently turned into a non-profit (R.U.N., a play on ‘are you in?’, and a nod to the idea of running for those who can’t run for themselves), and trying to source a gym membership.

Amid the to-do-list whirlwind, we start at the beginning.

Langham hails from the Deep South, he tells me, though the accent needed no clarification.

Throughout his childhood in Mobile, Alabama his grandfather, a lifelong merchant mariner, would take him fishing on the weekends. He credits these experiences as some of his earliest exposure to life on the water.

Already as a child, he was gripped by the dream of circumnavigation. At nap time, his bed was a ship that could carry him across vast oceans, his toy chests dinghies to take him to shore.

‘Even as a small boy I wasn’t one to just want to go on a day trip. I wanted to go the distance,’ he says. ‘The idea of sailing around the world is unshakable to me.’

Langham had already crossed the Atlantic on a catamaran when an encounter with British sailor, Vendee Globe alum, and Yachting Monthly contributor Pete Goss put him onto the Golden Globe boats.

Langham instantly recognised the opportunity.

‘I buy into the human part of it, not the competitive side of it,’ he says.

He views the race a chance to be part of something historic, and to spread a positive message.

‘There’s a lot of people who are completely lost and just don’t know what to do with themselves, young and old alike.’

To them, Langham says, ‘God loves you. He really does, and he’s not mad at you.’

He particularly hopes to connect with young people, ‘before they get to my age of life having made the bad or different choices,’ or ‘barking up the wrong trees.’

‘I have a criminal history. I have drugs and alcohol in my past. You just don’t walk through those things without people mistreating you and treating you with some semblance of skepticism.’

He hopes that his Golden Globe journey can bring ‘a simple message to the world,’ that even with all the ‘nonsense’ and ‘craziness’, ‘There’s some good going on too, and here it is.’

‘There’s no freedom like sailing. There’s no greater freedom I found in this natural world.’

‘Granted, I’ve been scared to death at sea when a squall hit and I lost equipment and I thought it was going to be lights out,’ he admits, recounting the 20 days he spent drifting off of Cape Verde after losing both rudders on his 9m catamaran while crossing the Atlantic.

‘After 20, 22 days of being adrift, I had taken the boom off the mainsail, roped the cabin door to it, stuck it off the back, and tried to use it as a gondolier. I had run out of fuel using the little engine as a means to steer the boat.

I was at my wit’s end, just bawling my eyes out, sitting on the little settee there in the saloon the salon, and I hear this inner voice that says, ‘by this time tomorrow you will be on land’. And it was the most amazing thing, early in the wee hours of that next morning, I was pinging adrift on my VHF, and a boat hailed me.’

They said they would bring him fuel and ended up towing him back to Cape Verde.

Within 24 hours, he was on shore.

At sea, ‘it’s complete and total reliance upon a power greater than myself, which I choose to call God,’ Langham says.

‘When you’re out at sea, it’s a completely different you. I mean, just the inner peace, the joy. I’m not saying I’m a loner, because I’m not. However, I do know how to be content with my relationship with not only myself, but with my higher power.’

Langham’s faith underpins many of his exploits, sailing and otherwise. Before working for the US Navy, he travelled over 50 nations as a missionary.

He has also worked as a school teacher, completed nine marathons, earned a degree in physics, cycled across the United States, and written multiple books, one of which tells the story of his Atlantic crossing from the perspective of his beagle.

The Verge, his most recent title, is about the steps that lead us into life changing adventures.

But why this one? I wonder. Why the GGR?

Langham references an episode off  the coast of Haiti, where his vessel was boarded and ‘torn apart’ by government agencies looking for illegal substances, as well as occasions in which he was repeatedly flown over at low altitude off the coast Florida.

‘You don’t walk away from those things unscathed. Of course, there was nothing to find except a Bible, that tells them God loves them and has a plan for their life.’

Taking part in an organised event with an established, recognisable name, gives him a sense of safety and a recognisable banner to sail under, he says.

This way, ‘People aren’t thinking I’m running, you know, guns or drugs or anything else.’

Langham has another unexpected reason for taking part in the GGR. He plans to take 360 Virtual Reality footage while sailing.

Inspired by an uncle with a disability, ‘We want to put it into an experience so that someone who is either quadriplegic, paraplegic, just plain scared of water, or dealing with their own insecurities can put on a VR headset and see and feel what it’s like to be out on the open water sailing.’

‘If I could offer hope to people in a wheelchair or people that have known what it’s like to be crippled with depression, mental anxiety, and oppression, if I can offer someone else that glimmer of hope, and to share the message that God loves them, it’s worth every penny.

It’s worth every sacrifice, including my own seasickness. Because I do get seasick.’

So far, the preparations have been intensive. Langham only got to working on his GGR boat in January of this year.

Last year, Langham got off a six month stint as a merchant marine and started travelling to look for a suitable vessel.

That search took him to Denmark, Germany, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey, and California, where he was offered a Hans Christian (Gunnar Christensen will sail on a HC).

He had to turn it down when he couldn’t find anyone willing to help him move it.

He finally found his OE32, Savoir Vivre Libre, in Germany in June of 2025.

Entrants Daniel Alfredsson, Oleg Schmidt (Mootje), Arsène Ledertheil, and Isa Rosli will also be on OE32s.

‘I prayed and fasted about it. God led me to it,’ he says.

He had a single weekend off of work to move it out of its yacht club home.

He still needs to change the rigging, replace the seacocks, do the bottom paint, replace the electronics, all while finding support for his venture.

‘You only see businesses getting involved, but I’d like to see the body of Christ get involved in this mission,’ he says.

He’s currently facing his GGR preparation without a sponsor.

His Navy training is helping him prepare, having instilled in him, ‘AB seamanship’ and the importance of, ‘Not going at it alone, asking for help. And the 6 P’s. Proper planning prevents piss poor performance.’

Still, he reflects, ‘I’m not exactly sure what to do in uber heavy seas, as I’ve never been in them.’

His plan is to cover his heavy weather basics: ‘Rope, drought, vane, and reefed sails.’

‘I did ride out a Category 1 hurricane once, alone, and the number one tactic I used was to stay vigilant, stay hydrated, rest, and not allow my fears to run away from me. Best case is and was to remain calm even when it felt like the boat was going to tip over.’

After the race, he hopes to return to full time missionary work. He means to slow boat from place to place doing humanitarian aid, teaching, and ministry preaching.

Until then, he’s trusting the process.

‘A mind made up is a battle won, and I’ve made up my mind that this is where we’re going until we just can’t go anymore. And I’m believing that’s going to be at the finish line.’

‘There’s a lot that’s out of my control. But the trust and the belief is there. In sobriety, I have learned that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, that wins the race.’

Quick facts: Christopher Langham / Savoir Vivre Libre

Sail Plan? 

Slow and steady. As comfortable as possible.

Furler or hank on?

I haven’t used a hank on before. I’ve only used a Furler and furling jib, so I’ll have to tell you later on that. But from what I’ve seen so far, I love my stay sail…

Self-steering set up?

Windpilot, as the boat came with it.

Antifouling?

Hopefully Seacote, but I won’t know until I see what’s available to me in Les Sables d’Olonne.

Three unexpected items you’ll take onboard: 

1. A Bible, a lot of prayers, and support from the body of Christ at large
2. Bottled Coca Cola and a few Red Bulls
3. Framed pictures from my time with daughter and her children this past Christmas

 

 

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The post From missionary work to solo sailing: How skipper Christopher Langham is preparing for the 2026 Golden Globe Race appeared first on Yachting Monthly.