First training camp in Lorient

Navigating in the dark through rural Brittany to a grid reference based on a bit of a guess was interesting but eventually we found the house, my mum’s  holiday cottage, right in the middle of nowhere. Staying in a real house, albeit without internet access was a lot more civilized than sleeping in a small twin room and being forced to eat in restaurants every night. Plus we had the benefit of mini sailing hero Pip Hare staying with us for a few nights giving me and Sam a little respite from each others sole company, and regaling us with some war stories from the mini transat.

After a few good days working through all the little jobs on our boats and getting the lie of the land we met up with the rest of the Figaro sailors we will be sailing with for the next few months. Our little training group of seven boats, of which I was by far the least experienced being the only rookie, were very friendly and open. We stared off feigning a knowledge of French and having a good stab at picking up the discussion but once things get heated and the talk speeds up I was quickly lost. Luckily the coach Yann Elies and a few of the sailors were kind enough to translate the main points for us. Hopefully as time goes on my French skills will improve, having spent a bit more time here in the past year Sam has made impressive progress in the “language of the Figaro.”

These training sessions in Lorient are all planned to last three days in the middle of the week, the thinking being that there is plenty of time to get boats and kit ready and then have three intense sailing days where no time is wasted. After some general boat handling drills and a few short races on the first two days we planned a longer race on the Thursday. A 70 mile triangle around the Ile de Groix, starting off with a long beat into a building 18knots and some good waves reminded us of why we chose to train here and not the med. We got a full range of conditions with towering thunder clouds giving us hail, big gusts and a shifty breeze. I delayed changing down to the small jib, partly because its a miserable, wet cold process up on the bow, and ended up with quiet a bit of separation from the fleet. This coincided perfectly with a big shift in the wind direction in my favor and put me in the lead by nearly half a mile. Here is a little clip from the inevitable downwind fun that followed the long beat. Shortly after this the wind disappeared and the race was abandonment before midnight .

This week is a bit of a break, chance to catch up on some admin, see family and get some hours in the gym at home. Next week it’s back to Lorient for two more weeks on the water before heading out to do the RORC Caribbean 600 race aboard a very comfy looking Swan 62

Journey to the center of the earth

Although slightly tenuous I think the Jules Verne reference  in the title is a little bit relevant to my recent trip to Lorient. For a start the first thing on the horizon when we got near the dock was the towering mast of the Jules Verne record holding maxi tri Banque Populaire, there are a lot of big boats in the harbor, but this thing is just huge. Secondly Lorient IS the center of the of the earth for two young aspiring solo offshore sailors. Our walk down to the boats from the hotel takes us past the offices of every company that makes any of the important bits of our boats, all the big anonymous looking sheds or WW2 U-boat bunkers are full of Open 60′s or Figaro’s getting a winter tickle and the one bar within reach on foot is the regular watering hole of most of our offshore sailing heroes on a Friday night.

Getting here has certainly been a trial. After lots of early interest, finding delivery crew willing to spend two days at sea, midweek, in deepest darkest January proved too hard. In the end Sam and myself opted to take on the bonus solo practice and do the trip alone. Although the route involved crossing plenty of shipping and navigating the rocky NW French coast line we did manage to get a reasonable amount of sleep thanks to AIS and a ‘watch system’ involving regular radio chat and alternate half hour naps down below with the other one watching out for ships getting too close. The two worst things about this trip were the bone chilling cold on the first night and the nights lasting longer than days. The best things were, good stars, regular dolphin visits and finishing up in Lorient.

Since our arrival last week we have spent most of our time trying to get ahead on all the little boat jobs that make things work better or help in terms of reliability. We start training on Tuesday with a small but experienced group of French sailors and coach Yann Eillies and things will get hectic pretty quickly. Having everything perfect before we line up against these guys will hopefully give us a better chance of making a good impression.

Exciting times ahead

Usually at this time of year I’ve got about five or six different programs all overlapping in my calendar with very little certainty about what sailing I’m going to be doing in a few months time. The uncertainties of obtaining entries to match racing events or getting asked to race on fully crewed boats make planning for a full season pretty hard and as a result it’s not easy to feel like you’ve put 100% into any one thing. This is why the Artemis Offshore Academy confirming last week that they are backing me to race in the AG2R across the Atlantic and the Solitare around France in June is such a welcome relief. It’s easy to find the motivation to be at the gym when it opens at 7am, or stay up late looking at weather forecasts and sponsorship proposals when you can say for sure that it’s definitely going to make a difference in a major race.

Whilst I haven’t been sailing at all in the last  27 days there has been plenty to do off the water. Working in East Cowes tickling up #77 with the help of Tom Dawson, tasting every freeze dried meal available from RTW food, working with ‘ologists’ Pete Cunningham and Neil Weston on physical and mental preparation, not to mention all the planning and logistics needed to make sure we get to and from all the different training venues and regattas in one piece. Whilst the rest of the squad are down in La Grande Motte myself and Sam Goodchild will doing all of our preseason sailing based out of Lorient. The benefits of this being that it’s right in the center of the course for the Solitaire in the summer and also a bit cheaper than trucking the boats down south. The draw back of our plan though will come when we have to chip ice off the decks to go sailing. This is something we’ll most likely find out about as we sail down to Lorient on the west coast of France from Cowes on Monday!

Mistral time

Yesterday we got our first taste of the Mistral wind this season down in La Grande Motte and after the last two week session when we had almost nothing but very light airs this was quite a major event. The Mistral is well known to anyone who has sailed in the north west Mediterranean as it gives rise to one of two outcomes: an excellent day’s sailing or an excellent day spent holidaymaking as sailing is blown off. Rumoured to blow in either three, six or nine day lots the Mistral is said to drive inhabitants of the coastline mad in large doses and apparently on the eight successive day it becomes legal to murder your wife according to some local customs.

Unfortunate for us this time we only got one day 30 knot fun on the water as the conditions needed to drive the wind were only fleeting. In the picture above you see a ridge of high pressure labelled H to the north of La Grande Motte (circled in black) and a low pressure, labelled L, to our south and east. The wind is driven from high pressure to low pressure and accelerates into the Golf de Lion as it passes over and around the alps as shown by the purple barbs on this forecast. Our precise location is important as we are sheltered from the strongest forces of the Mistral which often blows at around 50knots in Marseilles just 80 miles down the coast. As it is sailing is very rarely blown off in La Grande Motte for too much wind…

Some winter TLC

Coming back to the UK after two weeks in the med reminded me why La Grande Motte is such a good place to train. Getting on the water for all of the nine days I’d planned would be a big ask in the English channel in November, plus there’s the cold to shorten the amount of hours that can be done in one hit. That said it is nice to be back in Cowes this week spending some quality time with boat 77, my steed for the season. She has a long list of repairs and upgrades to get her ready to race next season and getting ahead on the jobs now will mean less to do once things get busy.

One of many hills we ran up AND down

The only only thing holding me back today are two very very sore legs. Running just over 35 miles up and down some muddy hills in a time of 7:45 on Saturday has taken its toll. I’m currently hobbling around in agony, relying on pain killers and hand rails to get anywhere. All jobs that involve climbing the rig, or a ladder, have been delayed until further notice.

Back to the beach

Coming back down the La Grande Motte in November means several things, escaping the grey and the cold in Southampton for the eternal blue skies and the beautiful sandy beach,  endless handshaking/triple cheek kissing and ‘bonjour monsoir-ing’  every morning with French coach Frank Citeau, all the French Figaro sailors and anyone else who happens to be within a 500 meter radius of the club and lastly the smell of horses in our stable residence. This year we have been treated to a very civilised warm up down here with light winds, flat water and only a few locals to race against. Perfect to iron out any boat transport gremlins get our bearings before things kick off in earnest with the full group after the Paris boat show.

For year two there have been a few changes to our setup within the Artemis academy. Rather than the group of nine sailors and 6 boats that started out last year we are a much leaner squad of four and three at the moment. The benefit of this is that we each get our own room although things are a bit quieter after sailing in the evenings. The other big change in our day to day routine is the lack of 40ft container to use as a workshop and general dumping ground. Instead we are using a long wheelbase Ford Transit van to store all our sails, spares and tools. At the moment this is just about going ok although I predict that within weeks or more likely days of team manager John Thorn’s departure this weekend the ordered racks will become scattered heaps of burning debris.

Cold winter ahead

After nearly of solid month in the yard in East Cowes working on refitting the fleet of five Figaros and getting three ready for the journey down to La Grande Motte it has been nice to get out on the water a few times in the last couple of weeks. Training with the new academy recruits was both refreshing and encouraging. Refreshing to see the excitement and enthusiasm the guys have brought to the squad and encouraging as I was able to show them a thing or two about getting a Figaro around a small course alone. Getting out for a couple of sessions on my own this week has reminded me of the pleasures of sailing alone, the freedom and the physicality of the boat.

Although it is still 2011 the focus at the moment is very much on next year’s season with the Olympic Games causing the Solitaire to be moved earlier than usual resulting in a very compressed calendar. In order to get to know the race area around the north and west coast of France, and line up with some of the top guys, myself and Sam Goodchild are planning to do most of our training over the winter in Brittany not the warmer climes of the med. Hopefully the short icy days and frost bitten fingers will be rewarded by a sense of familiarity with the rocky French coast and confidence in our boat speed in Atlantic waves and weather.

In the short term I have a training session back down in la Grande Motte for three weeks before Christmas with the rest of the time being divided between planning next year, searching for sponsorship and fitness. Partly in order to build up my endurance for solo racing and partly because I happen to like it I have rather foolishly entered a 33 mile ultra marathon around Weymouth in two weeks time. Although I have managed a couple of runs over 20 miles my training has not been what I would have liked so I think I am in for a good deal of pain come race day!