Sailing the unknown
As the first month of the Vendee Globe 2020 comes to a close and Pip begins her journey across the Southern Ocean, we catch up with Joff Brown (Pip’s technical director) and Paul Larsen (world sailing speed record holder) to find out what they think of the race so far and to discuss some of the challenges Pip will face in the coming weeks...
We’re in the fourth week of the Vendee Globe, what are your thoughts on the race and Pip’s performance so far?
Paul: “The race has been fascinating from the get go, from the first systems they were dealing with getting out of Biscay that led to tactical decisions to the fleet moving apart and coming together and the light pressure system forming separations where just a few miles made a huge difference… it’s been incredible to watch. The fleet has broken into a few groups, and Pip has managed to make the jump across in the North Atlantic turning a few miles separation from her “pack” into something now approaching 700 miles which is amazing. Pip has now joined around four boats and she has managed to keep pressure on them because of the light downwind conditions that have suited Medallia. South of the Equator, the beam reaching conditions meant that the newer, more powerful boats around her just had to put the pedal to the floor to break away from her and Pip doesn’t have a lot in her arsenal to beat that, you could see her losing miles and it was frustrating to watch but in the trade winds and those conditions there’s only so much she can do with the boat she has. She’s had a great race so far and she’ll have plenty of opportunities to show her strengths.”
Joff: “From a technical point of view we’ve had a few things happen which is what you’d expect at this point, but it’s still always disappointing to see and the knock on effect is that they have to spend too big a portion of their day dealing with them. We had quite a short lead-in time with Medallia and a few things we were quite late in upgrading. While we made lots of upgrades it would have been good to have more time to validate them or have a few months more sailing but for a 20-year-old boat it’s performing really well.”
It’s been a dramatic week and we’ve seen how quickly things can change in the race...
Paul: “What happened to Kevin Escoffier was unbelievable, to have such a catastrophic failure that escalated so quickly to being washed off the deck beside the life raft. We have seen things happen like this before in previous races like the incident with Yann Elies in 2008, it just brings it home that every little decision you make can escalate so quickly. I listened to how Kevin dealt with everything this week such as his decision to always carry a personal locator beacon, and it’s simple, little decisions like that and others (like having a knife in your pocket, charging your head torch) that matter. Kevin was fortunate to have boats so close to him and Jean Le Cam nearby who is such an experienced seaman and he was able to come alongside and pick him up from the life raft without the extra complication of foils; Kevin is hugely experienced too and comes from a big sailing family so if there was ever a guy that could ride out the time in a life raft it is him, but it has been a sobering experience for everyone. I’m sure everyone moved all the safety stuff closer to them this week.
Three other boats ahead of Pip have now been knocked out of the race. Each one by hitting objects in the water with a different appendage, keel, rudder and foil. Such incidents can be very random. At least Medallia is less exposed to this as it is very clean and simple under the water. We’re very aware it’s a reality and fingers remain crossed.”
How has Pip’s boat, Medallia, performed?
Joff: “Tactically Pip has been really strong and she has nailed every decision and sailed the boat to its max. When things happen to other skippers it is natural for us all to be concerned but Pip is on a very different boat which hasn’t changed in terms of its safety and build for over 20 years. All of the boats are different so everyone will have their own safety strategy in place and we all plan for a number of different scenarios. After the incident in 2008 that Paul referred to, a lot of the rules were tightened up including things like having safety gear near the main hatch, moving everything within a metre and a half. It’s a bit like in F1 racing; you learn from incidents, there are briefings from people who share their experiences and lessons learned and we changed a few things following the briefing this year like putting a clip on the EPIRB beacon as opposed to rope so you don’t have to tie a knot.”
Pip is now heading into several weeks in the Southern Ocean, a part of the race that is notoriously difficult and a stretch of sea Pip has never sailed before. Why is it so challenging?
Paul: “The Southern Ocean is really a place that's spoken about with awe, it feels like the sailing equivalent of going to space. It’s a long way away, you’re a long way from help and it’s just you and the boat. It’s also been the playing field for some of the great legends of sailing and now it’s Pip’s turn to go down and write her story on it.
It’s known for its storms, the rescues, the famous stories out of the Vendee Globe that do create this awe about the place. Even with all of Pip’s sailing experience, the fact she has done 19 transatlantics now and crossed big open stretches of water many many times before, down there feels different. You are thousands of miles from land in the middle of nowhere, it’s that remoteness that starts to strike you. When you’re watching the albatross fly around they don’t have a friendly gaze… they look back at you like they’re wondering what you’re doing there, like you don’t belong.
In the North Atlantic there’s shipping everywhere, boats can get to you relatively quickly but in the Southern Ocean you are thousands of miles from anyone. But the exclusion zone means there is a limit to how far south the skippers can go. Right now Pip is still seeing blue skies and wearing light gear but in a day that can all change, we’re going to start seeing more grey cloud and the temperature dropping. In the Southern Ocean it’s also hard to get those beautiful big surfing conditions, so often you get this mixed sea state down there and a slight swell from a different direction can slam you - the waves can be enormous. I’ve been around the Southern Ocean two times and it was just the constant big open majestic nature of it that was the most spectacular thing, fortunately I never saw a monster storm, I might have got a squall in the high 40s but I never saw its real fury but certainly other people have. Their stories command respect.
It’s an amazing place to be and an amazing place to watch from the couch too. Going into something like the Vendee Globe you’re not looking for an easy passage. You’re in the bear cage and you want to tease it, you want to come round that horn and feel like you saw it and you survived to tell the stories. You don’t go there for flat seas. “
Has there been anything specific you’ve focused on in terms of the boat preparation for the Southern Ocean?
Joff: “The boat prep takes into consideration the entire race but we will probably see a shift in the way Pip sails, so I would imagine the A2 spinnaker will be on the back of the boat and strapped down and there will be a change in her thinking. This week we ran through over 30 jobs and a checklist of things that need to get done to make sure everything is covered before the conditions change - Pip was experiencing 25 degrees earlier this week and the end of this week it will drop to below 10 degrees so we want to make sure any jobs that are lingering are covered and everything is ready to go.
The challenges in the Southern Ocean have changed a bit - previously it was the snow on deck and icebergs, but with the ice limit that has now disappeared and made it tactically harder as we’ll now see them gybing along that line as they can’t sail in a straight line anymore and carry on south, so that makes manoeuvres more constrained and means it’s physically harder too.”
Paul: “Yes and the faster boats will have more ability to manoeuvre and make room to avoid some of the stuff they might encounter in this part of the ocean. Once Pip is down south it will also be more challenging for her in terms of the boat as it’s more exposed - many of the boats have indoor/outdoor living capabilities so you don’t have to get into full survival gear each time you’re on deck which makes life easier. Pip doesn’t have that luxury and it’s definitely a disadvantage of her generation of boat. That said, it's something she will live with and Pip won’t be sitting down below letting the boat sort itself out as she’s way too competitive for that.”
What are your hopes for the coming weeks and the next part of Pip’s Vendee Globe race?
Paul: “She’s doing incredibly well and punching out incredible averages, but it’s a long race and we’re only a quarter of the way in. When she’s not sailing hard Pip needs to rest and stay hydrated. When you’re in that routine then you get better sleep and you make better decisions, if she can maintain 90% of her pace now she’ll end up with a fantastic result.”
Joff: “Pip’s current position in her pack and people like Damien Seguin’s near the front, show just how much this race is about the people, not just the boats. I’m confident she can get back in the pack and maybe move ahead. She’s a worker bee and has got the will to do that, but the race we thought she’d have is 600 miles behind her and so far she’s winning that.”