“We are a proud and adventurous nation and it’s time for Canada to compete again on the world stage in singlehanded offshore sailing.” With those words, Scott Shawyer has laid down a marker for Canadian sailing ambitions that stretches far beyond any single race or campaign.
On Canada Day, Shawyer and the Canada Ocean Racing team reaffirmed their commitment to flying the maple leaf on the most demanding racecourses on the planet, pledging not only to compete but to build a lasting infrastructure for Canadian offshore sailing.
A Nation Built on Maritime Heritage
Canada’s relationship with the ocean runs deep. With the longest coastline in the world — stretching more than 240,000 kilometres across three oceans — the country’s maritime heritage is woven into its national identity. From the Grand Banks fishing fleets of Newfoundland to the Pacific passages of British Columbia, Canadians have long been shaped by the sea.
Yet despite this heritage, Canada has been largely absent from the upper echelons of singlehanded offshore racing in recent decades. While nations like France, Great Britain, and Australia have developed robust pipelines of solo ocean racers, Canada has struggled to maintain a consistent presence in marquee events like the Vendée Globe, the Route du Rhum, and The Ocean Race.
Shawyer and Canada Ocean Racing are determined to change that narrative. The Newfoundland-born skipper has emerged as the most prominent Canadian voice in the IMOCA 60 class, the high-performance foiling monohulls that represent the pinnacle of singlehanded offshore racing.
Building More Than a Campaign
What distinguishes Canada Ocean Racing from a typical solo sailing campaign is the scope of its ambition. Shawyer has been clear that the project is designed to outlast any single race cycle. The team’s stated mission includes creating pathways for the next generation of Canadian offshore sailors, developing sponsorship and partnership models that can sustain long-term Canadian participation, and raising the profile of ocean racing across a country that has historically focused its competitive sailing attention on dinghy classes and inshore keelboat racing.
“Representing Canada on the world stage is a privilege,” Shawyer has said, emphasizing that the campaign is driven by national pride as much as personal ambition. The goal is to prove that world-class offshore campaigns can be conceived, funded, and executed from Canadian soil — a notion that has historically sent aspiring ocean racers to established hubs in France or the United Kingdom.
The Road Ahead
Shawyer’s path into the IMOCA 60 class has been built methodically. Having accumulated thousands of ocean miles and competed in qualifying races across the Atlantic, he has steadily worked his way toward the ultimate prize in solo offshore sailing — the Vendée Globe, the non-stop, unassisted solo circumnavigation that departs from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, every four years.
The IMOCA class itself has undergone a dramatic technological evolution in recent years, with foiling designs pushing speeds to levels that would have been unimaginable a generation ago. Competing at this level requires not only elite seamanship but also access to cutting-edge naval architecture, sophisticated weather routing, and the financial resources to campaign a boat that can cost upward of several million euros.
For Canada Ocean Racing, the challenge is as much logistical and financial as it is athletic. Building a competitive offshore sailing program in a country without an established IMOCA infrastructure demands creativity, resilience, and the kind of pioneering spirit that Shawyer frequently invokes when describing his mission.
A Broader Movement
The timing of Shawyer’s push coincides with a broader resurgence of interest in offshore sailing worldwide. The success of The Ocean Race in attracting new audiences, the growing media profile of the Vendée Globe, and the increasing visibility of solo and short-handed racing have created an environment in which new national campaigns can capture public imagination.
Shawyer’s vision — carrying the maple leaf from coast to coast and out onto the open ocean — is ambitious, but it is grounded in a clear-eyed understanding of what it takes to compete. If Canada Ocean Racing can deliver on its promise, it will not only put a Canadian boat on the start line of the world’s great ocean races but also inspire a generation of sailors who might otherwise never have considered solo offshore sailing as a viable pursuit.
For a nation with more coastline than any other on earth, it is, as Shawyer suggests, simply time.
