Globe 5.80 Transat: Viivi Moisio races the boat she built

Finnish sailor Viivi Moisio has already been around the world as crew, Cape Horn included, and she is only 24. On 31 October 2026 she set out on her first solo race, the Globe 5.80 Transat, aboard Flow, the 5.8 metre plywood yacht she built herself.

The youngest skipper in the six-boat fleet starts with a 600 nautical mile qualifier from Lagos in Portugal to Lanzarote, followed by roughly 3,000 miles to Antigua from 14 November.

A sailor in a pink cap in the cockpit of Flow, with a Finnish flag flying from the stern rail, off Lagos — Aboard Flow off Lagos during the 31 October 2026 qualifier start. The Transat is Viivi Moisio's first solo ocean race. | Photo: G580T 2026

From Optimists to the Southern Ocean

She started in Optimists at eight and raced dinghies up to international championship level before bigger boats and longer passages took hold. When Tapio Lehtinen went looking for crew for the 2023 McIntyre Ocean Globe Race, the retro round-the-world race sailed in the spirit of the first Whitbread, Viivi applied with very little big-boat experience and no real expectation of being chosen.

Lehtinen took her on. From the 2020 crew selection to the 2023 start, her life revolved around Galiana WithSecure, a 1970 Sparkman & Stephens Swan 55 yawl the young crew refitted largely by hand. When Yachting Monthly visited the team in Helsinki, Viivi was 19, working as the boat's sailmaker and one of three women in the crew. Galiana went on to finish eighth overall.

She came home an experienced offshore sailor and celestial navigator. Since then she has raced offshore in Finland and abroad, and her summers go on a classic 6 Metre.

Building Flow

The ALMA Class Globe 5.80 first caught her eye while Galiana was still being readied for the race. She bought a set of plans and got building. Hull 195, Flow, is the result, and the race organisers describe her as one of the finest 5.80s ever built. The full boat tour is on the class YouTube channel.

Polish naval architect Janusz Maderski drew the 5.80 as a one-design an amateur could build at home: plywood, epoxy and glass, self-righting and strong enough to cross oceans. More than 300 sets of plans have been sold in 40 countries and territories.

After a crewed lap of the planet, Viivi wanted a campaign that was entirely her own. Every decision, repair and watch would be hers, and she wanted to find out how far her own seamanship could take her.

Flow heeled over and sailing upwind under mainsail and jib off the Portuguese coast — Flow (195) powering upwind off Lagos as the Globe 5.80 Transat fleet set out for Lanzarote on 31 October 2026. | Photo: G580T 2026

Two rules she would change

Given the chance to change two things about the race, Viivi would pick her own sailmaker and be allowed to carry lithium batteries.

She expects the best moment to be crossing the finish line knowing she has pushed past her limits, and the hardest to be dealing with a major setback on her own. On Galiana there was always a crewmate to help solve a problem. On Flow she will have to solve it alone.