VITAL

Cumhur Gökova, the child of a Circassian family of Caucasian origin, was born in Sakarya in 1950. Influenced by the adventure novels and travelogues he read thanks to the libraries his father, İhsan Gökova, a teacher who graduated from a Village Institute, established in the places where he worked, he began to dream of traveling at a young age.

To avoid the right-left conflicts of the late 1960s, he legally increased his age to enlist in the army. While serving in the air force, Gökova, influenced by his previous silver medal in gymnastics at the Turkish championships, was selected for a special training program to become a commando instructor.

His first trip was a hitchhike to Zurich, Switzerland, immediately after his military service. Thanks to an inheritance from a relative in Egypt, he bought a jeep and embarked on a tour of Europe, eventually extending his journey to Africa. In 1973, he reached Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, becoming the first Turk to cross the Sahara Desert.

Upon his return to Switzerland, he attended navigation courses. Following the course, he bought a boat and, together with a friend, began a journey to the North Pole. Setting sail from Southampton on April 1, 1974, Gökova visited Gdansk, Riga, St. Petersburg, and the Norwegian fjords, reaching Spitsbergen in July 1974 and becoming the first Turk to sail to the North Pole.

After his journey from the North Pole, Gökova continued his travels without interruption, sailing south through Africa via Gibraltar, and in November 1974, he began his Atlantic crossing from Dakar, the capital of Senegal. He completed the Atlantic crossing in 26 days, reaching Barbados and becoming the second Turkish sailor to cross the Atlantic Ocean. During this voyage, which lasted until 1976, Gökova visited many countries, including Brazil, but did not complete a full circumnavigation of the globe.

After his first trip around the world, Gökova lived in Canada for a period, trying his hand at various professions such as underwater photography, skiing, tennis, and firefighting piloting before settling on sailing instruction. He participated in seminars abroad representing Canada, which offered the opportunity to open sailing schools. Returning to Türkiye, he settled in Marmaris and opened the Canadian Yachting Association's (Canadian Sailing Academy) sailing school. Subsequently, he brought other international sailing schools such as the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), International Yacht Training (IYT), International Sailing Schools Association (ISSA), and IYTA (International Yacht Training Academy) to Türkiye.

Along with four friends, he was among the founders of the Marmaris International Yacht Club. While serving as the club's commodore, he worked to make the International Marmaris Race Week one of the world's most prestigious races. With the support of the Naval Forces Command, he organized the 480-mile Marmaris-Israel race, Türkiye's longest race.

She founded the first women's sailing team in Türkiye and brought Türkiye second place in the ARC 2005 sailing competition.[1] In October 2012, with the support and assistance of her trainees, she introduced 103 children from the Mersin, Adana and Tarsus regions to sailing. Having trained more than 14,000 sailing athletes, including Türkiye's first paralympic sailing instructor Hüseyin Akbulut, Gökova became the first person in Türkiye to hold the YY7 certificate, which means "instructor of instructors". Honored by the Turkish National Olympic Committee, Gökova is known as the "teacher of teachers" in the Turkish sailing community.

Gökova, who had his first marriage with Güler Taşyar, had two sons from this marriage, Atilla and Tolga. Both of his sons became sailing instructors and in 2022 they became the owners of the "Turkey Tour" record.[2]

Gökova, who married Maisa on August 1, 2008, his second marriage, currently lives in Marmaris and provides sailing training at the Gökova Sailing Academy, which he founded in 1988.

World tour

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Gökova, together with his wife Mayisarat,[3] started a full round-the-world trip from Marmaris on October 10, 2010, with his boat named "Gökova".[4] He completed the tour in Marmaris on February 1, 2012.[5][6] Following this, busts of himself and his wife were added to the Sadun Boro statue in the Kalamış district of Istanbul. The Gökova boat sank in 2017 after hitting rocks off the coast of Göcek as a result of an accident.[7]

The route Gökova followed during its 2010-2012 world tour was as follows:

Marmaris / Crete / Malta / Marbella / Las Palmas / St. Lucia / St. Vincent / Bonaire / Aruba / San Balas / Panama Canal / Ecuador / Pacific Ocean / Galapagos Islands / Marquesas Islands / Tahiti / Society Islands / Bora Bora / Samoa Islands / Tonga Islands / Fiji / Vanuatu / Australia / Bali / Jakarta / Singapore / Phuket / Sri Lanka / Indian Ocean / Maldives / Yemen / Red Sea / Mediterranean Sea / Marmaris