Growing up, Nova Scotia-born Glenn Doncaster had to build his own boat if he wanted to be on the water. “We built homemade dinghies, my brothers and I did, and my grandfather helped us with the mast by taking us to a neighbor farmer’s wood lot where we picked out a tree and cut down our mast,” he says with a chuckle. “That farmer had horses, but no tractor, so I remember that day well.” Mom cut and sewed the sails, and her boys learned to sail in Halifax harbor.
Doncaster moved to North Carolina and settled down there, sailing with his wife and two daughters on Kerr Lake, first on a McGregor 26 and later on a Hunter 41. As their daughters grew up, Doncaster and his wife Linda started setting goals for more extensive cruising.
In 2008 they bought the Sabre 426 Nanuq with plans of cruising the Chesapeake into New England and finally Doncaster’s home waters of Nova Scotia.
The boat has a deep keel and drafts almost seven feet, but also boats creature comforts like air conditioning and a full galley. It was fully set up for going offshore. But then, life changed.
In 2009, Linda was diagnosed with colon cancer, and she passed early in 2010. “My life changed,” says Doncaster. “My wife was gone, and I tended to work less and sail more.” But instead of cruising, he started racing Nanuq. Southern Bay Race Week was first up, in 2010, and Nanuq placed fourth in the non-spinnaker division. He wasted no time signing up for the 2011 Marblehead to Halifax race, which he finished in less than 48 hours. “It was a record-breaking year,” he says. “My brother and I were on deck, flying the spinnaker as we came into Halifax Harbor near where I grew up and where our father would take us to watch the Marblehead boats come in. Then we blew the spinnaker up.” Doncaster admits that he was pushing it with the kite, but he simply didn’t want to take it down.
Since then, Doncaster’s calendar has been chock full of distance races. In 2011 he took Nanuq down to Florida and participated in the Fort Lauderdale to Key West race, earning second in PHRF A. In 2013, he raced the boat from Annapolis to Newport. “That was the biggest blunder of all time, that race,” he says. “We were in the top three boats, but then went to the west of Block Island and ended up seventh. So there are a few of us who would like to redeem ourselves in 2015.” Nanuq raced ‘Round Long Island and Martha’s Vineyard, and he started seriously thinking about the Newport to Bermuda race. “I don’t have a bucket list, and my rear view mirror is full. But Bermuda has to be on everybody’s bucket list,” he says. And not one to wait around, Doncaster signed Nanuq up for the Newport to Bermuda race in 2014.
Celebrating their arrival at Royal Bermuda YC, wet, tired, and happy. Front row left to right: Glenn Doncaster, Greg Dupier, Jimmy Cobb. Back row: Clifton Massey, Jerry Latell, Alex O'Toole, and Matthew Newborn. Back row: Bob Fleck
“Jerry Latell (of Ullman Sails Virginia) made us a couple of new sails, adjusting our Number One and giving us a light air, asymmetrical kite that was a workhorse. The boat was well prepared, and we had all the horsepower we needed in the crew.”
If he had any expectations of grandeur, Doncaster almost lost them at the beginning. “We were all gawking at all the other beautiful boats on the course, and so we were late to the start,” he says. “We wrapped the spinnaker and totally botched the start, but in 600-plus miles, the start is something you might get away with botching.”
“I was on shift on deck one morning with Jimmy Cobb, and Jimmy said ‘I think I see square-topped sails in the distance.’ And I knew then that we were doing pretty good, because they should have been finished and packed and having a glass of rum at that time,” he says.
Nanuq finished with a corrected time of 84 hours, six minutes, and 29 seconds, good enough to win Class Three in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division.
“On the boat, I always want it to be fun,” says Doncaster. “I’m competitive, I always want to do well, but the boat is the relaxation and fun part of my life.” That Nanuq has been successful (and had fun) over the last four seasons is only a testament to Doncaster’s perseverance, his ability to commit to the long haul despite tragedy threatening to derail his plans.
“She and I were planning on doing some cruising in New England, so I’m still doing what she and I planned on doing, but in a different way.”
