User:SusanaSailor/sandbox

= Rich Wilson =

=== Successful Educator and Sailor, Rich Wilson is the only American to have finished two Vendée Globe Races: in 2008-9 he finished 9th of 11 finishers of 30 starters; and in 2016-17, he finished 13th of 18 finishers of 29 starters. The Vendée Globe is often called "The Everest of the Seas" and is considered the hardest sailboat race in the world at 28,000 nautical miles long, non-stop and solo, in 60' racing sailboats. ===

Rich Wilson became known in 1980 as the youngest winning skipper in the famed Newport-Bermuda Race, aboard his family's 42' double-ended ketch Holger Danske, in a fleet of 162 boats. A former math teacher in the Boston Public Schools, in 1990, he decided to use sailing as an educational tool. He would excite and engage schoolchildren with the adventure, risk, and uncertain outcome of a long ocean voyage. The students, once engaged, would more easily receive and learn the science, geography and mathematics, that is naturally embedded in such an adventure and voyage, and thus help teachers to solve their biggest problem: how do you get their schoolchildren to pay attention? When he attempted to break the San Francisco-Boston clipper record sailing double-handed (two sailors) aboard Great American, a 60-foot trimaran, he capsized off Cape Horn in an enormous storm on Thanksgiving Day 1990; an hour later, the trimaran was re-righted by a wave, deemed a first in maritime history. 17 hours after that, the crew of two were rescued by New Zealand Pacific, at the time the largest refrigerated containership in the world. But Rich Wilson gave it another go on he same course three years later, sailing Great American II, a 50' trimaran. The second attempt was successful at sea by finishing the course in 69 days and 20 hears versus the clipper Northern Light's record of 1849 of 76 days 6 hours. The voyage was followed by 300,000 children in the United States, both by the early online network Prodigy, but also by a series published by 12 major market newspapers. Thus was born sitesALIVE! that would go on to create 76 live, interactive, curriculum-based, standards-correlated, programs from other adventures, field research stations, or events worldwide.

In 2001 and 2003, he set two new records between New York and Melbourne (the Australian Gold Rush record; and then Hong Kong-New York (the China Tea Trade record). He finished second in the Transatlantic Race in 2004. Each of these voyages had as their primary goal a broad sitesALIVE school program.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest competitor in the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe. Aboard an older boat, launched ten years before the race, he persevered through broken ribs, a gash over his eye, a neck crunching fall on his head, and 7 gales in the Indian Ocean. He reached Les Sables d'Olonne after 121 days of sailing, once again having shared his race experience with as many people as he could. In 2016-17, he became the oldest competitor ever to either start or finish the Vendée Globe.

He returned to race in 2016-2017 Vendée Globe to continue the development of his educational programs.

ACHIEVEMENTS

 * 1980 – Newport-Bermuda, Holger Danske, Overall Winner.


 * 1988 – Carlsberg Singlehanded TransAtlantic Race (C-STAR), Curtana – Class V Multihulls – 1st.


 * 1990 – San Francisco-Boston, Great American capsizes off Cape Horn.


 * 1993 – World Record: San Francisco-Boston,Great American II vs. Clipper Northern Light, with Bill Biewenga, 69 days.


 * 2001 – World Record: New York-Melbourne,Great American II vs. Clipper Mandarin, with Bill Biewenga, 68 days.


 * 2003 – World Record: Hong Kong-New York,Great American II vs. Clipper Sea Witch, with Rich du Moulin, 72 days.


 * 2004 – The Transat: Plymouth-Boston, Great American II; Class 2 Multihulls, 2nd place, 15 days, solo.


 * 2008 - 2009 – Vendee Globe: Great American III; finished 9th of 11 finishers of 30 starters, 121 days.


 * 2016 - 2017 – Vendee Globe: Great American IV; finished 13th of 18 finishers of 29 starters, 107 days.

AWARDS

 * 2011, US Senate Tribute to Rich Wilson by Senator John Kerry.


 * 2011, Rich Wilson received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy citing his: “global voyages and global efforts in K12 education”.


 * 2005, Rich Wilson received the prestigious Blue Water Medal from the  Cruising Club of America.


 * 2001, Rich Wilson and sitesALIVE! received the Newspaper Innovators in Education Award, with the Wichita Eagle, after the latter published 5 complete semesters of sitesALIVE programs.


 * 1994, Rich Wilson and Bill Biewenga were certified as world-record holders by the Guinness World Book of Records for their 69-day 20-hour voyage from San Francisco to Boston by way of Cape Horn.


 * 1997, The book “Racing a Ghost Ship” by Rich Wilson received Scientific American’s Young Reader’s Book Award.