Charlie Enright, victorious in his third consecutive challenge for The Ocean Race last July, has since been winding down that project while taking some time to find the next thing. The “next thing” just happens to be on the Gunboat 68 Convexity2 owned by Don Wilson, participating in the 2024 BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since finishing up The Ocean Race on 11th Hour, there’s a lot of follow up – you just don’t flip a switch and wind down something like that overnight,” said Enright. “I am still dealing with that as I speak, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
“Next up, I’m not sure, I’m more focused on what’s right rather than what’s next. I’m exploring a bunch of different opportunities – pursuing a few things that aren’t concrete right now and seeing what else shakes from the tree.”
Charlie last raced BVI Spring Regatta seven years ago, on a C&C 30 program Don’t Panic. Looking back over those past seven years as a sailing professional, he’s had huge opportunities to build his skill set, notably with the shift in The Ocean Race from the VO65 to the IMOCA.
“That change challenged us in a lot of different ways – never before had we designed our own boat, built our own boat, and managed a team big enough to do all of those things,” Enright commented.
“From the sailing standpoint, the fewer and fewer people there were on the boat, the more I became personally responsible for, and I don’t mean just from an accountability standpoint, but physically hands-on-actually-doing-the-work. It was a great challenge, although rewarding as well, and, in some ways, I think I have grown a lot more in the past five years than I have in the fifteen prior to that.” – Read on
