The sea programme
Offshore, under sail.
Warrior is in refit. She returns to the water for the Cape Town summer — and the first sails are announced to the list first.
Join the listOf all the wilderness remaining on earth, the open ocean is the greatest.
Serene one moment, intimidating the next
The ocean’s appearance can change in an instant, and its encounters come without warning: a humpback breaching close by, a seabird landing on deck, dolphins lighting up the waves around the boat at night.
Wind and current, nothing else
To cross an ocean under sail is wilderness in its truest form. You work with it rather than against it — a partnership with forces far larger than yourself.
The yachts
Sail plan · Simonis Voogd
Warrior
In refit · returns for summerA genuine offshore racing legend: a 60-foot thoroughbred conceived as a no-compromise blue-water racer, with victories in the Cape to Rio Race and the Mauritius to Durban Race to her name. Below deck she is basic but comfortable — six guests, four professional crew, and everything arranged with one priority: to carry her crew safely and fast across oceans.
New rigging and sails are already aboard. Through 2026 she is in refit, every system being optimised for fast, safe ocean sailing — and she returns to the water for the Cape Town summer.
- Design
- Simonis Voogd
- Built
- Robertson and Caine, 1995
- Length
- 60 feet
- Berths
- 6 guests · 4 crew
- Callsign
- ZR 4885
- MMSI
- 601936000
Sail plan · Sparkman & Stephens
Floortje
A Swan 44 by Sparkman & Stephens, built by Nautor’s Swan in Finland — conceived to win offshore races while remaining safe, strong and comfortable for serious ocean sailing. Many of her sisters have circumnavigated; she is a boat from an era when offshore capability came before luxuries like airconditioning, washing machines and flatscreen TVs.
When you’re out at sea and the going gets tough, there is no boat you’d rather be on.
- Design
- Sparkman & Stephens
- Built
- Nautor's Swan, 1973
- Type
- Swan 44
- Callsign
- PH 8432
- MMSI
- 244723743
Summer 2027/28 · from Cape Town
The first sails back
A day is not a crossing. But it is the same boat, the same crew, the same water — a first taste of the long way. And day crews hear it first when the ocean passages open.
Sunset sails, Table Bay
To the list firstAn evening under sail beneath Table Mountain — on a boat that has won her way across this ocean.
Cape Point, the full day
To the list firstThe peninsula run. A whole day working Warrior properly, the Atlantic under her keel.
Race days
To the list firstCape Town sails its summers. Days aboard around the racing calendar Warrior was built for.
The first crossing · December 2026
Cape Town → Rio de Janeiro
The passage Warrior has raced — and won — opens the programme’s ocean chapter: twenty days across the South Atlantic. No experience required, full participation expected. All meals, professional crew and safety equipment included.
1 – 20 December 2026 · Six berths · €6,900 per person
Book a berthCape Town, down into the trades, and up the long swell to Rio
The crew
Willem van Liemt
Founder & skipper
Growing up on Curaçao, Willem started sailing Optimists at the age of six. Not much has changed since — except that the boats got bigger and the passages longer. In recent years he has logged over 30,000 nautical miles at sea, including three Atlantic crossings, two of them as skipper.
He is experienced in offshore passage-making — planning, watch systems, managing vessel and crew through extended crossings — and comfortable diagnosing and resolving technical issues at sea. From his father he inherited a meticulous, uncompromising approach to maintenance and safety. And while he is a competitive sailor, he values good seamanship above all else: what draws him offshore is the remoteness, and the immersion in the rawest wilderness there is.
RYA Yachtmaster Offshore · SAMSA Skipper's License
STCW · Comprehensive First Aid
Dutch · English
Henry Daniels
Co-skipper
Henry has sailed competitively in everything from Optimists to Supermaxis, representing South Africa at international regattas — with a second at the J22 World Championships and a win at the New York Yacht Club Invitational among the results.
After an Honours degree in Law from Groningen, he moved back to Cape Town to set up a sailing programme introducing young people to the sport. Alongside it he runs Route Africa, which specialises in adventurous trips through the remotest parts of the continent. He has a particular love for racing big yachts in competitive fleets — and he is looking forward to Warrior.
Asenathi Jim
Watch leader
Asenathi's story reads like a novel. He grew up in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape, far from the sea; sailing entered the picture during school holidays in Simonstown, at the Izivungu Sailing School — founded to introduce underprivileged youth to the sport and build their self-esteem. Not yet able to swim, he proved a natural on the water, consistently beating the yacht-club kids of the Western Cape.
Scouted by Ajax Cape Town for football, he chose sailing instead — and within eighteen months was helming South Africa's 470 at the London 2012 Olympics. He returned for Rio 2016, claimed the inaugural African 470 Championship along the way, and was named SAILING Magazine's Sailor of the Year 2013. After leading the national team through the Tokyo campaign as coach, and years of boatbuilding since, he joins the Warrior crew. His story is the long way, lived.
Aboard
Crew, not cargo
Everyone participates in the running of the boat: you trim sails, stand watch at the helm, navigate, and help prepare meals. Life settles into the offshore rhythm — four hours on, four off, day and night. There is no internet aboard; Starlink and the satellite phone are for emergencies only. Dinner is shared: the daily moment to pause and regroup.
Safety, compulsively
As with the boats, we take an almost compulsive approach: EPIRB, personal AIS beacons for every crew member, automatic lifejackets with harnesses and tethers, liferafts for full capacity, man-overboard recovery systems, fire extinguishers, flares and emergency tools, and an offshore medical kit — with 24/7 access to a doctor via satellite. Every passage starts with a full safety briefing before the lines come off. We sail as a team, and look out for one another.
She returns for the Cape Town summer.
The first sails are announced to the list — before anywhere else. Write to Willem, and tell him which one calls to you.
Our pledge
For every nautical mile sailed, The Long Way donates to the African Parks Network — protecting Bazaruto National Park in Mozambique, one of the most important marine sanctuaries on the African coast.
African Parks Network · €0.10 per nautical mile