Join host Buttons Padin on the 25th episode of the Lessons Learned Podcast by UK Sailmakers, where he sits down with solo circumnavigator Istvan Kopar, a sailor whose life story reads like a masterclass in seamanship, resilience, and going your own way.
Kopar grew up in Hungary, learning to sail on Lake Balaton behind the Iron Curtain before eventually joining the Hungarian merchant marine for 13 years, an experience that pointed him firmly toward the open ocean. After personal hardship and years running a pioneering sailing school and charter business, he set out to fulfill a childhood dream, completing a solo one-stop circumnavigation between 1990 and 1991 aboard a 31-foot sloop with no electronics.
Nearly three decades later, he returned to the world stage as a competitor in the 2018–19 Golden Globe Race, finishing aboard his Trade Wind 35, Puffin, as the only American across both editions of that race to date to complete the course. For Kopar, the race embodied everything he values: self-sufficiency, traditional navigation, and what he calls “true solo” sailing.
Now, approaching his 73rd birthday, Kopar is preparing for his fourth circumnavigation, and this one may be his most ambitious yet. Dubbed the Anniversary Challenge, it’s a solo, non-stop, westbound circumnavigation timed to honor the 250th anniversary of the United States. He plans to depart at the same time as the 2026 Golden Globe Race fleet on September 6 from Les Sables d’Olonne, but while that fleet of up to 30 boats heads east, riding the tradewinds and Southern Ocean westerlies, Kopar will turn west and sail directly into them. Only eight sailors in history have completed a solo non-stop westbound circumnavigation, none of them American, and all on significantly larger boats.
His vessel is a thoroughly refitted 2006 Valiant 42, which he sailed 9,000 nautical miles from Seattle to South Florida via the Panama Canal as a proving voyage before the refit began in earnest. The current preparation phase has focused on durability over speed, with reinforced standing rigging, optimized storm canvas, and reliable self-steering for an estimated 200 to 220 days at sea. Kopar’s new sail inventory comes from UK Sailmakers Miami, including bluewater-ready Dacron sails built for the sustained upwind punishment of a westabout passage.
Buttons and Istvan cover all of this and more, from Iron Curtain sailing culture to the philosophy of ocean voyaging without electronics, and what it means to sail opposite the world at 73. Tune in for a conversation that will stay with you long after the last mile.
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You can follow Istvan’s journey through UK Sailmakers’ social channels as well as his website, koparsailing.com and Facebook page.
