Meet 52 year old Scott Shawyer, the former CEO of JMP Solutions for 20+ years, mechanical engineer, and now professional sailor. 

In late May 2024, Scott is competing in a unique race called the New York Vendee. This is a single-handed (one person), 3,600 mile route that starts in New York City and finishes in Les Sables-d’Olonne, Vendée Region, France. You touch land, receive any help, boat breaks down etc – you are automatically disqualified! Scott is the only North American racing amongst 30 competitors.. 

He is racing on Be Water Positive, a $2 million dollar vessel designed by Owen Clarke and built for speed. His first solo race and his first solo Transatlantic race. Scott is predicting he will finish the race in 13-14 days.

New York Vendee: With just a few months to go before the Vendée Globe, 30 round-the-world contenders will be competing against each other for the very last time, in a single-handed transatlantic race, without assistance non-stop transatlantic race. After an exhibition race at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, the Vendée Liberty Show, which promises breathtaking images, the sailors involved will leave New York on 29 May to head for Les Sables d’Olonne d’Olonne, in the Vendée.
The first New York Vendée raced in 2016 was won by Jérémie Beyou. This 2nd edition, the first organized by the Vendée Globe teams, is shaping up to be a major event, attracting a huge sporting enthusiasm. As well as being the last qualifying race for the Vendée Globe, it is also the last race in which the skippers log miles. And this one counts more than all the others: for every mile sailed, the sailors clock up 1.5!

At the end of this race, the line-up for the Vendée Globe 2024 will be known.

Who is Scott Shawyer

• Scott isn’t quite like most other ocean racing skippers – he didn’t grow up in the offshore sailing scene and he hasn’t sailed a Mini, a Figaro, or a Class 40 like many of his competitors. 
• What he HAS done is quickly turned a budding passion for sailing into a win in the double-handed monohull class in the RORC Transat and a 10^th place finish in his first ever IMOCA class race, the Guayder Bermudes Race – in his first year at the helm. 
• First race on the boat was trans Atlantic – Canary Islands to Granada – double handed – set course record. 9.5 days. 
• For 26 years, he served as the CEO of JMP Solutions, an industrial technology company providing engineering services and turnkey solutions. 
• He took the initiative to design a fan (V4C) to combat the spread of COVID-19. In addition to his professional and sporting activities, Scott is committed to several associations and foundations, particularly with Canadian schools and universities. 
• He co-authored a book, “Go Outside Activity Challenge Book,” to encourage children to reconnect with the outdoors and outdoor activities.

Scott’s Life On-Board

• Scott basically sleeps when he can as he is entirely responsible for, at once, the direction the boat is heading in, the choice of the sail, the on-board computer, weather monitoring and his routing. If the wind is shifty or the boat needs a lot of attention or something is broken and needs to be fixed or there is a change in the weather coming or there is a lot of traffic around, sleep is minimal. When the boat is happy, the weather is stable and there is no traffic around. he can sleep in longer chunks, up to about 90 minutes.
• He sleeps on a pipe-cot with a microfiber blanket as a pillow and two to cover him up or in a race-car seat. The boat is usually pretty bouncy in all directions so he usually wedges the blankets around his head and body to keep him a bit more stable. It’s also really noisy so he wears earplugs.
• There is no bathroom on-board the yacht, he uses a carbon fiber bucket with a bio degradable bag.
• Scott has a limited daily supply of fresh water which is generated by an on-board water-maker, converting seawater into safe drinking water. He uses this to mix up packets of freeze-dried food and also brings snacks like nuts and chocolate
• Meals are carefully weighed, packed into a couple of bags and rationed with the boat’s performance and race strategy in mind; a light wind for a couple of days can lead to make what little food he has available last for even longer. 

Photo: Alex Thomson Racing Be Water Positive ATR © BWP Photographed by James Tomlinson