It is a major achievement for the solo sailor who has now been ocean racing for more 20 years, successively completing two stopping round the world races in 2004 and 2007 during which his primary objective was to continue the legacy of his mentor, pioneering Japanese former taxi driver Yukoh Tadah who Koji was apprenticed too after falling in love with the idea of sailing the world’s oceans.
Koji’s 2016-2107 Vendée Globe finished prematurely when he had to retire into Cape Town when the top of the mast of Spirit of Yukoh snapped off. Completing the 2020-21 race in 16th position came after he had to spend five days repairing his mainsail which tore at the level of the second reef when he broached violently in big winds on the edge of storm Theta.
He fixed the main and the battens and sought only to finish the race whilst limited to sailing with a reef in the main for the remainder of the course. But in so doing he finally became the first Asian sailor to finish the race, a particular source of pride being the Vendée Globe was one of the goals of the late Tada who had been invited to race in the first edition.
With only very light winds and flat, smooth seas after the start, the North Atlantic on this Vendée Globe proved to be an entirely new experience for Shiraishi as it was the very first time he can remember ever settling into an ocean race without suffering from debilitating sea sickness.
But even so Koji was almost immediately into repair mode, first needing to fix his watermaker and then deal with hydrogenator issues which compromised his early attack. Not making the best of strategic choices in the light, fitful winds he crossed the Equator in 32nd place, celebrating with a small Sake/
But the highly experienced, charismatic skipper of DMG MORI Global One caught up in the South Atlantic. But not long after passing the Cape of Good Hope he broached, his IMOCA made two involuntary gybes which broke 5 battens of his mainsail. There was a certain unfortunate air of déjà vu as it took two days to repair and get back on track but having sailed up north to find smoother conditions it was here he lost touch with the main group he was racing with and ended up a weather system behind. Pain and discomfort from mouth ulcers make his life unpleasant, he hangs in there, his luminous smile never and humble appreciation for the life he has forged are almost always apparent. He makes better progress in the Pacific and by Cape Horn, he is 25th rounding only 20 minutes behind Guirec Soudée.
But the South Atlantic is a big, big challenge and as for Guirec at the same time, at the Falklands, Kojiro Shiraishi hits a storm which he describes as "the most hellish conditions" since the start of this Vendée Globe!
But after the storm there is a persistent calm and he spends many days trying to break through the high pressure. But by the Azores he is racing closely with and enjoying the rivalry with a group comprising Violette Dorange (DeVenir) Antoine Cornic (Fives-Lantanta Environnement) and Seb Marsset (Foussier), describing himself somewhat self deprecatingly as the ‘venerable old gentleman’ of the group.
