Scott isn’t like other ocean racing Skippers. He didn’t grow up in the offshore sailing scene. He hasn’t sailed a Mini, or a Figaro, or a Class 40. In fact, he has spent the last 25 years of his life building an engineering company. And now he is attempting to be the first Canadian to complete one of the most difficult sporting challenges on the planet – the solo, non-stop, unassisted sailing race around the world called The Vendee Globe.
If it sounds like a long putt, that’s because it is. It is a huge putt, like a 100-foot putt across a rolling green in a hailstorm! But to Scott, it is a putt he is confident he can sink.
He has been sailing dinghies since he was a young child and has a love for the wind and the water. He is a mechanical engineer and has been running an engineering company with many mechanical, electrical, systems, and software engineers on staff. He knows about marketing, sales, customers, partners, employees, finances – many of the dimensions that are required to have a successful IMOCA program. He is an adventurer, an athlete, and an entrepreneur.
He says when thinking about the challenge that lies ahead “it’s almost like the various facets of my life, my skills and passions, have all been running in parallel, and now they have come together for my Vendée Globe campaign. It’s such a multi-dimensional project that requires expertise in so many areas and that’s what makes it so exciting for me.”
“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?”