| The Amazing Story of Minoru Saito |
Veteran ocean sailboat racer
Minoru Saito has participated three times in the most
prestigious and grueling race in the sailing world, the
single-handed, around-the-globe competition originally
called the BOC Challenge, then Around Alone, and is newly
renamed the 5-Oceans Race which commences in 2006.
On the way, he has become perhaps the most experienced
blue-water yachtsman from Japan with transoceanic voyages
totaling more than 240,000 nautical miles. His upcoming
challenge race, which he has dubbed "Challenge-7" (see
accompanying article) will become the seventh time he has
circled the globe with only the wind and the sea for
companions.
Minoru is quite well known among European and American
sailing enthusiasts, but far less so in Japan where
attention has yet to build for the sport of sailing. In
fact, Saito won special recognition in Charleston, SC as
"The Spirit of Around Alone" at the closing ceremony of
the Sixth Around Alone Race in 1999. Milestones related to
Saito and his often-tested boat - Shuten-Doji II (in
Japanese, "Drunkard's Son") are described in his book
"Kotou" ("Fighting Alone") published by Kadokawa Shoten in
2003.
Already past age 72, he competed and completed, while
other top sailors were forced to retire, three separate
times in around-the-world single-handed races, while
clocking another three circumnavigations as he went to, or
returned from, race starting points. For this dogged
persistence, and his cheerful "why not?" attitude, his
indomitable spirit has been recognized and praised in
yacht racing circles all over the world.
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