OUR TEAM

Meet Our Skipper

Scott Shawyer didn’t follow the traditional path into offshore racing. He built a successful engineering company, raised a family, and spent decades leading teams, solving complex problems, and building something the world would call “enough.” But during the 2020 lockdown, while watching the Vendée Globe unfold from his desk, he realised something had shifted. Comfortable had become boring. The path he was on had slowly started to feel like the only option, when it never was. Watching sailors leave France alone to race around the world reminded him what freedom looked like: the freedom to choose a new direction, to become a beginner again, and to find out what he was truly capable of.

Now, Scott is attempting something no Canadian has ever achieved: completing the solo, nonstop, unassisted race around the world known as the Vendée Globe. But for him, the race itself isn’t the prize. The real challenge is the question underneath it: what happens when you give yourself permission to find out what you’re capable of? Scott approaches ocean racing the same way he approached engineering and business, as an experiment. Every race is a test. Every setback is data. Every day on the water is another chance to learn. He openly embraces being the least experienced person in the room, documenting the steep learning curve, the mistakes, the breakthroughs, and the unglamorous middle that most people never see.

A lifelong sailor who first learned to sail dinghies on Georgian Bay at eight years old, Scott combines an engineer’s mindset with an adventurer’s curiosity and a willingness to start before he feels ready. Through Canada Ocean Racing and the team’s Be Water Positive platform, he is also using the campaign to raise awareness of global freshwater challenges and help create opportunities for the next generation of Canadian sailors. His story isn’t about conquering the ocean. It’s about choosing to get uncomfortable again, running the experiment, and seeing where it leads.

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We are all capable of achieving almost anything we set our minds to, and we can all choose our own adventure. This is mine, what is yours?”