No Racing Today
All the adrenaline has finally drained away and I am sitting in the subdued atmosphere of the press centre in Le Havre, surrounded by the slumped shoulders and tired faces of other IMOCA teams.
At 0700 this morning, I was suited and booted onboard Medallia, I had my second coffee in hand and was running the high-resolution routing for our exit of the English Channel later today. The boat felt strong, I was nervous but in great spirits. I could see the first part of the race was going to be challenging but I was ready to race. Nick sent me a message at 0740, saying he was on the way down to the boat. By the time he had climbed onboard I knew we would not be racing.
The race committee made the decision at 0745 not to start the IMOCA class with the rest of the fleet. This was not in response to the blustery conditions today, but because there is a huge low-pressure system on its way across the Atlantic now, which will land in the Biscay overnight on Tuesday, bringing with it winds in excess of 50 knots and 10m seas. It was feared that the entire IMOCA fleet would not make it safely past cape Finisterre ahead of this system therefore the race committee decided not to start out fleet.
This decision had already been taken for the Class 40s and Ocean Fifties, who were allowed to take the start today, but will race a first leg of around 36hrs to Lorient, where they will shelter from the coming storm then restart on a second leg next weekend. There are no other ports between Ushant and Finisterre which would be big enough or able to host 39 IMOCA class boats, therefore we were not allowed to take the start.
It's an understandable decision the conditions look truly dreadful, but to have this decision made for us just five hours before the start of the race, rather pulls the rug out from under me. I was accepting in the moment because there is little else that can be done. But when I joined the English-speaking start commentary team and sat watching and commenting on the rest of the fleet start in challenging but beautiful conditions, I felt so disappointed. Now the race village is half empty and we are waiting to understand what our race will look like.
This is not the first postponement we have managed as a team. Last year, at the same time, the Route du Rhum was postponed for three days due to poor weather. But to split the fleet like this is quite disappointing for us. The Ultime trimarans will be the only class to continue with the course originally advertised as they will already be a long way south of the Biscay before the storm hits land.
We are currently in a holding pattern waiting for more information. For all teams and the organisers there is a lot to consider. For us – a British based team the challenge is great, as logistics to put our team on the road for a race start are carefully planned months in advance. The team now have to rework a plan, with unconfirmed dates and at the last minute. It is a huge amount of work and takes the shine off what had been an incredibly well planned and executed race start.
Right now, I do not know what will happen. I predict that we will not be able to make another start for at least one week. The mega storm comes up the English Channel on Thursday (batten down your hatches South East England) but the strong winds do not seem to abate for another few days. For sure our course will be shortened – we will race directly from Le Havre to Martinique without having to dip south of the equator on the way. This will shorten the race by about a week to allow us to arrive at roughly the same time. We have a briefing from the race committee at 6pm this evening to hear more.
The boat was ready, Nick and I were ready. We have closed the doors for now and pressed pause. When we do race again it will be sweet. I do feel deflated right now but also proud of what great shape we were in. My team have worked unbelievably hard over the last ten days in wet and windy conditions. They have worked long hours, had no time off and methodically and carefully prepared our boat for the worst conditions. The comms team have shared the race village, given our followers a great window into the pre-race world, collecting media, editing, posting, always there to see the action as it unfolds and get a peek behind the scenes. Our logistics and operations have been on location, planning the next move, getting the team out to our turnaround in Martinique, then the finish of the Return to Base in Lorient in December. The wheels never stop turning and no matter what gets thrown at us, we must react, adapt and we cannot get off the rollercoaster.
We will keep you updated with the latest news as it unfolds. I am sorry not to be racing but glad not to risk damage to the boat and us. Hold tight folks. We will be back at it soon.