Category Archives: Short-Handed sailing

Vendee Globe—Why Francois Gabart?

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Since the Vendee Globe started, 5 days ago, one young skipper has led virtually the whole race, putting some of the best IMOCA skippers in the world in his wake which frankly is saying something. To paraphrase Butch and Sundance—Who is this guy?

More to the point how did a 29 year old get to be at the helm of a brand new IMOCA 60 Sponsored by a major publically traded (on the Paris Bourse) insurance company?

Turns out he pretty much earned the spot. I have found no evidence at all of nepotism.

The following info is all garnered from the Internet, so “Caveat Emptor”

Francois Gabart is of course French. He sailed with his parents as a 7 year old on a circle cruise of the Atlantic so starting in at least 1990, this fellow has been around the water.

By 1997 he was skilled enough to win the French Optimist Championship. Two years later, now 16, He also won the French Moth Championships and came 4th in the Junior European Championships for the Moth, in 2000. All pretty impressive in itself I reckon.

Between 2001 and 2005 his various on line CV’s cite him as “Olympic Tornado Preparation” and winning the Tornado Junior Worlds in 2003 in the process. Certainly sailing a Tornado is excellent practice for sailing an IMOCA 60. By 2006 he had gotten into the Figaro 2 and finished second in the Cap Istanbul race, one of the major events in the Figaro solo series. The Cap Istanbul sails from Toulon to Turkey with several stops: the race is almost as long as the Figaro itself. In 2006, or 7, he was second. He won it in 2010. In the same 2006/7 time he won the Student class in the Tour De France a la Voile. This is a crewed race in the Archambault 34.

Come 2008 he was sailing as the skipper of the Figaro 2 Espoire Region Bretagne, the Brittany Region of France. This is a common proposition among the French maritime districts. It is as though say Rhode Island & Massachusetts had joined forces to promote the region. Years ago I interviewed the late  Paul Vatiene, then skipper of an ORMA 60 foot tri, in New York to set up for a shot at the solo Transat record. His boat was the same idea-Regional promotional except his was promoting the region of Normandy.

This was also when  Gabart won Rookie of the Year in The Figaro that serious training ground for Soloistas.
And somewhere in there he managed to get an engineering degree.

In 2009, it gets really interesting.

In this year he won the “Skipper Macif Selection, for 2010-meaning I imagine that he was to join the Macif Sailing Team for the 2010 season-Goodbye Espoire Region Bretagne. On the Macif Vendee Globe website for Sponsors, there is a very professionally done website covering everything the Macif company is doing in sailing, including sponsoring the IMOCA 60, and two new skippers for the Figaro team-As far as I can read in my limited French.

So in ’09, he joins Macif, is third in a Transatlantic Race from Brittany to Guadeloupe in the Figaro2, singlehanded. He is out of first by about an hour,  two minutes, fifteen seconds…After 3,400 miles or so. The first and second skippers are 4 minutes apart-The winner is 40 year old Gildas Morvan a fixture on the Figaro circuit for FOURTEEN years, with a record including a second and 3 thirds in The Figaro. Second is Erwan Tabarly  (8 years on the Figaro Circuit) & Gabart is third.

He is 23 years old.

Later he wins the French Solo Offshore Racing Championship sailed in the Figaro 2’s….. Wha? Think about this for a minute- he beats out, over a 10 or so race series, over the summer, some of the best names in one design and solo offshore racing, in the world. No wonder Macif hired him. This is in itself an interesting change of events. Used to be solo skippers would go around with their pitch looking for sponsors-I know I have done it. Think also of Mike Plant, Hal Roth, Phil Steggall, Bruce Schwab, Rich Wilson and so on. In France companies are now looking for talent, so successful is sailing as a medium for getting one’s company recognized

Towards the end of 2009, he gets a third with Kito de Pavant, another luminary from the Figaro world in the Transat Jacques Vabre.

In case you thought this was the boost he needed, it was not.

The gist of a quote from Francois, on the Barcelona World Race site for 2010 says “When I learnt Michel Desjoyeaux was building a new boat for the Route du Rhumb then the Barcelona World Race, I sent him a message right after his press conference in Paris making the announcement—“I’m up for it” He did not learn of his new job until May 18th. But Desjoyeaux reports in the same quote that “opting for Francis was practically a done deal in my head in February but I was focused on the boat building and did not want to be distracted”.

Desjoyeaux goes on to say-“I discussed it with Christian Le Pap, the coach at Port-La-Foret and we concluded it was the right choice.” This was an interesting insight too.

Christian Le Pape is the head guy at something called “Pole Finistere, Center of Excellence in the Nation” in essence a training center for French solo sailors. It’s Mission, in my poor French is the training at a high level for sailors in the IMOCA and Figaro class for ocean racing. It appears to be supported by the FFV, and the regions of Brittany and Finisterre, the Town of Port La Foret & the French Ministry of Sport, amongst others.

So our hero is hired onto the Macif program sailing in the Figaro Class up to 2011 with a side gig of a lap around the planet on a new Foncia, Desjoyeaux’s long time sponsor with The Professor as Desjoyeaux is called. Despite this being like learning computers from Bill Gates or Politics from Bill Clinton, Desjoyeaux  says he was impressed by Gabart’s” mindset, different view of things, and being younger, of a different culture. I want Francois to exercise his opinion and free will”, says Desjoyeaux. “Yes men are no good”.

Unfortunately for both Gabart and The Professor, they did not get too far in the Barcelona World race. The mast broke near Cape Town to which they were able to sail with what was left of the spar.

So, Francois Gabart is one very promising young sailor and one cannot but wonder what might happen if he was at the help of an AC 72…..?

And this just in at 1835 EST Thursday  Armel Le Cleac’h has pulled to within striking distance of the “golden Boy” as the VG press site calls him now. Still 5 days into a 90 day race…..

And another OOP’s: -Sam Davies, the sole woman and 1/3rd of the GBR contingent has apparently dropped her rig near Maderia. She is well and the boat is afloat. More to follow.

Vendee Globe on Face Book

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When we are so focused on something, we might tend to think everyone is fascinated by “it” too. When your 6 year old kicks a goal in Soccer, we might wonder, at least for two or three seconds, why such a momentous event is not on CNN.…? So since I am so excited by things like the Vendee Globe, I have to remind myself that the audience for this, world wide, is pretty small. This got me going on the subject of just how big is the Vendee Globe, outside of France anyway. As is normal for the race over a million souls passed through the village in the week before the start last Saturday.

One convenient way to measure how popular something is these days might be the number of Friends on Face Book. This dawned on me when I noticed the race had the ubiquitous Like button on the race’s home page.

At the time, Sunday afternoon, the race had on the order of 33,000 likes. (As of Wednesday afternoon 14 November at 1600 EST, the VG was up to 50,000 & at 1825 that number was up to almost 52,000 Likes).

I wondered how that compared with other sailing events, so I spent some time digging around in Face Book and I offer the following results of my research. The big numbers are in round figures.

The Big Names

America’s Cup: 120,000

Oracle Team USA: 63,000

Emirates Team New Zealand-AC: 11,500

Artemis Racing-AC: 7,500

Volvo Ocean Race: 211,000-(Puma Ocean Racing, 27,000)

Barcelona World Race: 5,266

Mini Transat (the 650 class) 2,421

Global Ocean Race: 1,000

 And for the “lesser” or Normal races:

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia The Hobart Race organizers: 428

RORC: -The rating office-512

Sydney-Hobart Race: 1224

Bermuda Race:  (2012) 872

Trans-Pac Race: 2,365

So then I looked to see what the level of interest in the sailors themselves was.

Alex Thompson Racing: 34,500

Ben Ainslie: his fan page-32,000

Ainslie, the athlete: 4,000

Mike Golding Yacht Racing 4,000

Loick Peyron: 5,400–His brother, Bruno, has a FB page but no Likes.

Coutts: 4,950

Cayard: 3,769

Francois Gabart-29 year old new Wunderkind presently leading the Vendee Globe: 1250

Dennis Connors, actually his shop in San Diego: 986

Samantha Davies: 838-Sole woman in the current VG, from GBR

Paul Elvstrom: 552.

Ken Read: Could not find any page for Ken. (I guess it’s hard to keep up circling the world at 25 knots…)

Sailmakers:

Quantum Sails: 2,700

Quantum Racing: 5,600

North Sails: 36,000

Doyle Sailmakers: 1,800

Ullman Sails: Could not find any page for them

UK Sailmakers: 603

Sailing websites forums and news:

Sailing Anarchy: 26,000

Scuttlebutt: 5,700

Cruising World: 8,800

Sailing world: 8,800-Since they are owned by the same company maybe this is 8800 together….

Sail Magazine: 6,900

Latitude 38: 4,200

Wind check: 800

Wooden Boat 5,500

Compared to:

NASCAR: 3 million

NBA-Basketball: 14.8 Million

NFL-American Foot ball: 6.4 million

FIFA world cup Football 2014: 22,000

Formula One Car racing-On their website there is no Face Book link and yes that seems odd to me too, but there you are.

And compared to Politics:

Pres. Obama: 33 Million

Mitt Romney: 12 million, May be this ratio tells a story too…

What does it all mean? Not sure, but I do find it interesting. When I figure it I’ll post here…

 

Cheers

Coop

 

 

 

 

Vendee Globe-the depth of the human condition

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Last Saturday dawned sunny and mild in Newport. Yet before we had slurped our first sip of coffee, 6 hours to the east, 20 intrepid souls were making their way to sea to start a 3-4 month adventure that makes climbing Mt. Everest look like a nice stroll in the hills.

I refer of course to the Vendee Globe. Not to disparage those who have attained the Summit of Everest, all 3,000 of them, this number according to Rich Wilson, the second all time US finisher in this race in 2008/9 but Wilson further cites 50 as the number of souls who have made non-stop solo circumnavigations.

Engaged and attracted as I am to all the issues that surround sailing alone or short-handed I am following the Vendee pretty closely. As part of my personal “pre game” show I sat with the entry list for a while and contemplated just what the depth of this event is beyond the pictures in the Sailing Magazines and You tube.

Late on Saturday morning I watched 90 minutes of Daily Motion replay of the preparations to the start with commentary by  three time circumnavigatrix Dee Caffari. Her impressive CV includes–once around the “wrong way” crewed, once wrong way, same boat-modified for solo (setting a new record to boot) & once the right way on IMOCA 60 Aviva in the 2008 Vendee Globe. For those of us used to watching solo races start with all the boat’s being late for the start, one measure of just how competitive this race has become was the five boats breaking the start, it looked more  like a J-105 one design start than 20 fire breathing 60 footers with only one person aboard.

As I have mused on elsewhere, the logistics and mechanics of the Vendee Globe are impressive.

A minimum of 3 months physically alone: When was the last time you had 24 hours alone?
A serious lack of sleep perhaps 5 hrs in 24 on a good day

FOOD
Just think for instance of going to the store to buy food for the next three months- Meaning you cannot go to the store until, oh say after Valentine’s day, 2013.

And you do not have a fridge or freezer, no oven, no hot water unless you boil it on your one burner stove.

Several competitors have reported on the physicality of a simple maneuver like hoisting the (450#) mainsail.   Most of the spars are in the 95 foot high range with a 2:1 halyard. Rich Wilson relates in his fascinating book on his completion in the 2008/9 race of simply hoisting the main after shaking out ONE REEF required 175 turns in low gear. So when you are next at a venue where the Harken guys have their mock up grinder pedestal try putting 175 turns on it and see how you feel afterwards.

We live in a world now, at least the first and second worlds, where we are in contact with others all the time almost constantly-I read of people sleeping with their smart phones in their hands……We have 24/7 Customer Service lines, for recreational boaters, especially powerboat operators, there is Sea Tow and related services. If at sea, well the Coasties will always (I suppose) be there.

Much has been made in the last election of the concept of self reliance and responsibility, that we are masters of our destiny. Sailing is one of the last arenas where this is really true and the Vendee Globe is the highest test of this philosophy.   Stop for a minute and contemplate the last time where you were completely responsible for what was going on in your life, totally alone in the middle of nowhere with the likelihood of anyone coming to your assistance pretty thin. Unless we are at sea, this condition is in fact pretty difficult to get into, certainly in the US.

And consider for a moment the simple act of getting to the starting line in this Uber-Maxi-Ultra-Marathon. Even an old, used IMOCA 60, and there are several for sale on the internet boat sales sites for, in many cases, under US$300,000 a number that is I think well within the financial scope of many US yachtsman. But that is just the start.

There is the finding of a couple of competent guys to run the boat, move it around, coordinate with you and the yard and so on-Boat Captains in other words. There is fundraising-For a professional single handed racing event in the US, well that is possibly the only thing harder than the race itself. There is getting the boat to a location, in the US where the artisans skilled in the equipment these boats require are available and in the same time zone as you. Then there is the usual refit. Rod rigging out, Composite in, an interior re-do, updated performance meters, Autopilots, cordage, deck layout systems, Autopilots, safety kit, Sails, the list goes on as anyone who has even bought a used 38 foot cruising boat is intimately familiar with. If I was doing it I would want to have the two guys be a minimum of 50K a year guys who know what they are doing, so right there is $100,000 right at of the bat. You get the idea. The good news is there is in fact a remarkable history of excellent return on investment on these campaigns. The Vendee Globe is arguably better, certainly less cash cost than the Volvo and the Americas Cup.

With the telecommunications available today the sailors never actually sail out of sight over the horizon and reappear 4 months later as was the case from the 1960’s through the late 1980’s.

But at the end of the day, it is what the skipper is made of, to what depths he (and they are almost with few exceptions universally men) can plumb the depths of the will, resourcefulness: the Stuff of Heroes, almost at the Greek Tragedy level.

Single handed sailing, old style

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For those of us of a certain age, or with a passion and interest in long distance ocean-sailing, alone, the name Commander Bill King will trigger a ding in the dark recesses of the mental lazarette. Commander King was among the earliest sailors to attempt and subsequently, after the third attempt, successfully circumnavigate alone.

Picture of Commander King cut from an obituary in the British paper, The Guardian. The image was not attributed.

I remember reading his book “Capsize” as a teenager & being fascinated with the story. He had survived World War two as a submarine commander and apparently, according to various obituaries (he died in September at aged 102) was the only sub-captain to be in command of a sub on the first day of the war and still in command of (his third) sub at its conclusion.

His boat was designed by Angus Primrose, a Junk rigged Schooner, built in cold molded wood and unique, today, in having no life lines. He did have a jack line down the centerline of the boat though.

Galway Blazer was designed by Angus Primrose.  She was Junk Rigged-Image from the Junk Rig Association

I do remember reading, or perhaps surmising from his writings, that the mental toll taken as the Commander of a Submarine for 6 years was a major motivator in his interest in going to sea, on the surface, for a long time, alone. On his first attempt he was capsized in the vicinity Cape Town to which he was towed. He tried again in 1971 but adjourned to Fremantle due to illness. He subsequently tried again but ran into, or was run into by a large sea creature.  He finally left Freo. and made back to Plymouth UK on the third go.

That King is part of the very small pantheon of the pioneers of solo circumnavigation is without doubt but, he seems to have been a private man and did not pop up later  to become a public figure in sailing, or writing about, sailing.

Image of Commander Bill King

King in later life. Image from Yachting Monthly

My memory of King was re-ignited by an email I received last weekend from another circumnavigator, Scott Kuhner.  Scott and his wife, Kitty, have done I think two laps of the Blue Marble, the first in the early 1970’s, right about the time King was at sea of Cape Leeuwin, the SW corner of Australia. Scott is a recipient of my short-handed sailing emails and had sent me an email with a link to a video on King. I watched it and it confirmed my impressions from 40 plus years ago. In the video he makes reference to his reason for going off alone and the look in his face tells me he was reflecting back on what must have been an unbelievable 6 years.

If you think you are having, or have had, a bad-hair day, or even if you are not, watch this video.

Second Single handed sailing event in November

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The second event in November is the start of the Vendee Globe. Without question the Vendee Globe is, hands down, the hardest sporting contest on the planet. It might even rank in the top ten of the hardest things to complete on the planet. “Climbing” Mount Everest is a relative cake walk when viewed alongside the Vendee Globe.
For such a hard thing to do, the rules are simple, rather like the old gag about the simplicity of the rules for the Sydney Harbor 18 footers:

“They’re 18 feet long and they start at two o’clock”.

An open 50-Same idea as the IMOCA boats but 50 feet long

For the Vendee Globe the gag might run:

“The boats are 60 feet long and the start is in November”.

Realistically there are four rules.
•    The Boats: IMOCA 60 footers.
•    Crew: Single handed
•    Course: Around the world, France to France, under the Great Capes, Antarctica to starboard
•    Rules: Non-stop, no assistance.

An Imoca 60 in heavy weather near New Zealand

Simply reading this summary of the race does not do justice to the magnitude of the event.
Consider for a moment the following:

The record for this circumnavigation is 84 days set in the last race in 2008-2009. And that was of course for the winner. The last finisher crossed the line FORTY TWO DAYS after the winner taking 126 days. Another month and a half at sea! This is an average of just over 8 knots or about the time it used to take the fast BOC boats to sail from Newport to Cape Town.

Think about that for a minute.

What are you going to be doing for the next four months beginning 10 November 2012?

•    Will you be doing it by yourself?
•    Will you get, oh, 4-5 hours of sleep per 24, on a good day!
•    Will you be burning through 6,000 to 8,000 calories per day?
•    Will you be burning these calories on a diet largely fueled by freeze dried food?
•    Will you be trying to fix equipment that ranges across the industrial spectrum from chemistry, electricity, hydraulics, electronics, mechanics, composite fabrication, sail repair?
•    Will you have the skills, thinking, the determination to finish have to deal with all alone
•    Will you have to repair yourself in the event of injury?
•    Will you have the courage and skills to beat the record for a 24 hours run of 439 miles set in 2004? An AVERAGE of bit over 18 knots.
•    The 24 hour run record in the last Volvo Ocean Race is 565 miles in 24 hours, on a 70 foot boat with 10 guys…..

I could go on but you get the idea.

The Vendee Globe is much more than a sail boat race. Even after following the race for years, I still find it hard to precisely define what it is. Ultimately it is probably only possible to define it if you have done it. Only two American sailors, Bruce Schwab and Rich Wilson have successfully finished this race. A third, the late Mike Plant, completed the course but was not scored as a finisher because he accepted assistance south of New Zealand.

The blistering pace that defined the 2008 race bears comparison to another bench mark circumnavigation, the Trophy Jules Verne.

In 1992 my wife and I were in France looking at Mini Transat boats. Driving along the Brittany coast one afternoon, we had the car radio on and I heard the words “Commodore Explorer”. My wife had enough French to tell me that it was a interview, live at sea (well it is France after all)  with Bruno Peyron skipper of this  90 foot cat of the same name. The gist of it was they were hours away from completing a circumnavigation of the globe in less than 80 days the basic premise behind the Trophy Jules Verne-Around The World in 80 Days

•    16 years ago
•    10 or so guys
•    90 foot multihull
•    79 days.

By any standard the Vendee Globe is one of the most compelling events ever organized. The depths to which the human spirit needs to be plumed are mind boggling. A fantastic insight into this condition is a first person story of the race by one of the two US Vendee Globe sailors, Rich Wilson, is in his book- “France to France, Antarctica to Starboard”. Wilson, well known for his combining educational programs and sailing activities for school kids finished the 2008 race.

While not the fastest boat around the Big Blue Marble, Rich was:

The lone America, the oldest skipper, sailing one of the oldest boats, with one of the smallest budgets and he suffers from Asthma to boot.

The only thing I can think of that surpasses the Vendee Globe as a test of ones ability to overcome relates to Commander Bill King. Commander King was one of the original sailors to attempt the Grandfather of the Vendee Globe, the Golden Globe race in the late 1960’s. Commander King, a Royal Navy Submarine commander in the Second World War lets us see just a glimpse of the stresses he had to bear in that role, in this brief video on Vimeo.

Thanks to Scott Kuhner for the link.

If you are moved by that which moves the human spirit, watch the Vendee Globe this winter. Millions of Frenchmen and women do.