An update from technical director, Joff Brown
Pip has had a great race so far and it’s worth remembering that she is in the second oldest boat in the fleet and arguably the second slowest boat in the fleet. Didac, who Pip has been sparring with, has the other boat built for the 2000 Vendee Globe, but his boat, the ex Kingfisher of Ellen MacArthur was a huge step change in design at the time and really of the next generation. So for Pip to be in 21st/22nd position is an amazing achievement. Some good tactics early on and Pip's amazing work ethic are really paying off.
It’s not been particularly plain sailing, with more gremlins and maintenance tasks than I’d really like, but with the volume of improvements and modifications we were able to carry out on the boat after Medallia came on board this year, it was almost inevitable there would be some bugs to iron out. You really need 6 months of training type sailing to validate decisions and ideally a transatlantic to test them thoroughly. On the plus side the improvements in the boat’s performance are there to see.
The sailors conduct some form of boat checks most days, either pre-planned or as part of just moving around the boat, whilst on the way to changing a sail or putting the Hydros down at the back. They have to use all of their senses to monitor the boat, but hearing something strange is a very common way of knowing you have a problem. They are cavernous carbon structures and as such you hear everything, water moving under the boat, crashing into the sides, the wind whistling, but if something comes loose, vibrates, bangs, often hearing an abnormal sound will be the first sign of trouble. You also find that your eyes become drawn to trouble. When you spend a lot of time on the same boat either working on it in my case, or sailing it in Pips, you get used to what you’re looking at, but occasionally your eyes are very strangely drawn from the quick scan you’re conducting, to something that’s not quite right, a problem or something that's about to be a problem. It's just familiarity I guess, but you quite often wonder what made you look at it and you’re always grateful that you did.
The switch in the ownership of the technical management of the boat is always a weird one. Pre-race the technical team take care of the vast majority of the jobs on the boat and the responsibility for that work and the preparation of the boat rests with me. This has been a difficult aspect for Pip this year, as she's not had a team before and has been used to doing the jobs herself, or managing friends and family helping her. As a result she knew exactly what was going on. Relinquishing responsibility to me was not easy, but with the amount of work we’ve undertaken and the increase in the size of the campaign, the hands-on skipper approach is not viable. Now the boat has left the dock, the responsibility and jobs list are back on Pip. I am now the one a bit lost. With the boat on the dock you can fix anything, you have control, a great team and any materials or tools you need are a click away. Now all I have is WhatsApp and some encouraging words. The tools, repair materials and spare parts were decided by us, weeks ago and fixed the moment Pip crossed the start line. That is it, Pip has to fix whatever problems come up, with those items we decided on before the race, not knowing what problems lie ahead.
One interesting aspect of this is that despite the switch in responsibility changing really in a matter of minutes at the start, the sailors take immediate ownership of the boat and all its problems. A testament to what it takes to sail the Vendee Globe no doubt, but I can't remember once in five round the world races any skipper ever looking to lay blame; why wasn’t that job done? Why has this happened? Why haven’t I got this spare or tool onboard? Bearing in mind they are permanently tired, the boat’s heeling over, damp, it takes about four times as long to do a simple job and importantly takes the sailors focus away from the race, I find it incredible, that that is the case.