Last night Simon Rowell came to the club to give a talk about his last trip across the Pacific. Having won the 2002 Clipper race, he had moved into the Race Management team but was called upon at a weeks notice to Skipper one of the yachts across the Pacific.
His entertaining talk brought to life some of the ups & downs of such a passage. It also reinforced that sometimes the end result is much more than where you came in a race. Getting onto a boat with a dispirited crew who had come last on the previous leg & now had a change in Skipper, his goal was simple - not to come last on this next leg. In fact they did - but in the process they had a series of experiences that transformed them.
Throughout the talk, Simon stressed a couple of key learnings he had:
- always do maintenance as soon as you see an issue. Deciding to gybe before lowering the mainsail to repair it, meant that they went from a 2 foot tear to a rip stretching from leech to luff. A job that would have taken a couple of hours now took days.
- Put the number for Falmouth Coastguard into your satellite phone.
These guys did an amazing job helping advise on medical treatment for a crew member & then co-ordinating with various international organisations to arrange a medivac in the mid Pacific.
- Always ensure there are sufficient tea bags on-board.
Cultural diversity meant that the chief victualler (French) ensured a sufficient supply of excellent coffee but insufficient tea. Fortunately as part of the medivac, more tea in the form of RNLI tea bags were obtained.
Thanks once again to Simon for coming out & giving such an entertaining & informative talk. Anyone interested in attending his weather course with SeaRegs in Plymouth can find more details at http://searegs.co.uk/other-courses/
