pep Costa looking to the long game

In a super tight fleet in which most observers consider there are ten or eleven boats and skippers able to finish top five, or indeed podium, Catalan Costa is very much among the posse of favourites.

And of course his dream would be to win the division like his Spanish compatiot Alex Pella did in 2014.

Costa and his Spanish co-skipper Pablo Santurde del Arco were in much the same position on last year’s two handed race to Martinique. But just when they looked set to deliver, consistently in the top 3, they had to pitstop into the Azores with a technical issue which left them playing an impossible game of catch up.

But Costa has had a good season, he and his crew won the Round Ireland race, finished runners up on the CIC Channel Race and he is second on the Class40 season rankings.

As has been his mantra since he came into short handed sailing five years ago, fresh out of an American university with a BSc degree in Physics and Maths, ‘seeking to learn and get better all the time’ has underpinned his career so far, and this pinnacle race will be no different. He has put the disappointments of last Autumn behind him, has trained hard solo and sought to bolster his mental game.

Winner of a talent identification search by VSF against 50 other aspiring skippers Costa quietly would like to get on to the Vendée Globe solo race round the world, but he definitely has time on his side. Clever, humble with a warm charisma he considers himself a ‘diesel’ able to keep performing to a high level when he is at his tiredest.

Pep how do you see your preparations this year? Having to stop into the Azores last year was a huge bummer for us, it was very tough, because we didn't expect to break the boat, and we finished the race 20-something, it was super disappointing, but we knew that we worked super hard, so I'm just trying to continue the work we've done in 2025, with Pablo a lot looking to b able to have the most reliable and best performing boat I can, with everything that I have, to race in the Route du Rhum in the best conditions as possible.

Where does your boat fit in the fleet in terms of performance now, in terms of the new boats, or the newer boats? There are newer boats, my boat is 181, and the last boat I think is 216, or something like that, so there's a lot of difference, but my boat is one of the last generation boats. So there's boats that can be a little bit better, but my boat, I think it's reliable, it's strong almost everywhere. I know that I have everything that I need to be able to compete for the good spots

What’s your biggest strength? Solo definitely I feel better and better, the more the race goes on, which definitely I think is a strong point. That I think it comes naturally….I feel better the more that time passes. I am used to feeling exhausted and being able to operate well. When I'm completely locked in and I know that I'm fully racing and all goes well, I've had already one or two days and all the emotions from the start are gone, I feel better. I feel that I'm in kind of a tunnel and I just keep on grinding. And that means that when I'm very tired I think I can be good anyways. I'm a diesel.

Any area of your game concern you, have your worked with a psychologist perhaps? I think it would be the short term after the start. Just the first 24 hours can be a little bit tricky, my head can turn, spin in many ways. So that's what I'm working a lot this year to be able to be focused all the time. I learned something very basic which is ‘one day at a time’. And every day is a whole new day and every day you have to be good every day. But every day is unique so I have to be focused every day letting go of every day as it passes. I run every day from the start what's done in the past 24 hours is done. You just to try to focus on what's essential, to focus on the strategy, to focus on myself, to focus on being as fast as I can every day and accepting that the perfect race sometimes is impossible to do. I need to minimise the mistakes I can do and to be fully focused and locked in what I'm doing at every moment. That first 24, 48 hours are very important, but at the same time they don't determine the whole race. You don't win the race in the first 24 hours. If you were to draw a parallel with cycling if the leg is 180 kilometres, you're not going to win your race in the first 40, but you can easily lose it. You can get burnt out. You can get injured. Emotionally you have to stay flat and to be able to deliver day in, day out without being too distracted. And I don't think too much about others. I think I'm capable of doing a very good result, but I think that so are at least another 10 people. So basically, it will be a race against ourselves, and that's important, but I'm not going to put myself too much pressure like, ‘you have to do a podium….you have to be top five, whatever.

I don't feel myself as a foreign sailor

You have a French sponsor, live in France, how is that life…are you well integrated? I'm super integrated in France, so I don't feel myself as a foreign sailor. I feel that I am very much involved in the French sailing culture, so I don't think people draw a difference between a French guy and me just because I'm not technically French. I hope people just like and know that I work super hard, so I'm just here to deliver as much as I can, and to be able to race against the best, and the best ones are French, so be it.

Have you made upgrades for this race or this season? It is just a lot of reliability, a lot of little systems, a lot of changing, replacing what I think was a little bit tired, to be able to have the perfect boat. But we have not taken risks in anything that we don't know. The risks we took them early of 2025, when we changed the keel and the rudders and the rake of the boat and everything, but after that, we just keep on making the boat more reliable.

6 days ago

5 min read

Armed with an Italian designed and built Musa 40 boat VSF Sports which finished second on the last Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe, 27 year old Brittany based Spanish sailor Pep Costa believes he is in good shape to deliver a solid result on the upcoming solo race from Saint Malo to Guadeloupe.

In a super tight fleet in which most observers consider there are ten or eleven boats and skippers able to finish top five, or indeed podium, Catalan Costa is very much among the posse of favourites.

And of course his dream would be to win the division like his Spanish compatiot Alex Pella did in 2014.

Costa and his Spanish co-skipper Pablo Santurde del Arco were in much the same position on last year’s two handed race to Martinique. But just when they looked set to deliver, consistently in the top 3, they had to pitstop into the Azores with a technical issue which left them playing an impossible game of catch up.

But Costa has had a good season, he and his crew won the Round Ireland race, finished runners up on the CIC Channel Race and he is second on the Class40 season rankings.

As has been his mantra since he came into short handed sailing five years ago, fresh out of an American university with a BSc degree in Physics and Maths, ‘seeking to learn and get better all the time’ has underpinned his career so far, and this pinnacle race will be no different. He has put the disappointments of last Autumn behind him, has trained hard solo and sought to bolster his mental game.

Winner of a talent identification search by VSF against 50 other aspiring skippers Costa quietly would like to get on to the Vendée Globe solo race round the world, but he definitely has time on his side. Clever, humble with a warm charisma he considers himself a ‘diesel’ able to keep performing to a high level when he is at his tiredest.

Pep how do you see your preparations this year? Having to stop into the Azores last year was a huge bummer for us, it was very tough, because we didn't expect to break the boat, and we finished the race 20-something, it was super disappointing, but we knew that we worked super hard, so I'm just trying to continue the work we've done in 2025, with Pablo a lot looking to b able to have the most reliable and best performing boat I can, with everything that I have, to race in the Route du Rhum in the best conditions as possible.

Where does your boat fit in the fleet in terms of performance now, in terms of the new boats, or the newer boats? There are newer boats, my boat is 181, and the last boat I think is 216, or something like that, so there's a lot of difference, but my boat is one of the last generation boats. So there's boats that can be a little bit better, but my boat, I think it's reliable, it's strong almost everywhere. I know that I have everything that I need to be able to compete for the good spots

What’s your biggest strength? Solo definitely I feel better and better, the more the race goes on, which definitely I think is a strong point. That I think it comes naturally….I feel better the more that time passes. I am used to feeling exhausted and being able to operate well. When I'm completely locked in and I know that I'm fully racing and all goes well, I've had already one or two days and all the emotions from the start are gone, I feel better. I feel that I'm in kind of a tunnel and I just keep on grinding. And that means that when I'm very tired I think I can be good anyways. I'm a diesel.

Any area of your game concern you, have your worked with a psychologist perhaps? I think it would be the short term after the start. Just the first 24 hours can be a little bit tricky, my head can turn, spin in many ways. So that's what I'm working a lot this year to be able to be focused all the time. I learned something very basic which is ‘one day at a time’. And every day is a whole new day and every day you have to be good every day. But every day is unique so I have to be focused every day letting go of every day as it passes. I run every day from the start what's done in the past 24 hours is done. You just to try to focus on what's essential, to focus on the strategy, to focus on myself, to focus on being as fast as I can every day and accepting that the perfect race sometimes is impossible to do. I need to minimise the mistakes I can do and to be fully focused and locked in what I'm doing at every moment. That first 24, 48 hours are very important, but at the same time they don't determine the whole race. You don't win the race in the first 24 hours. If you were to draw a parallel with cycling if the leg is 180 kilometres, you're not going to win your race in the first 40, but you can easily lose it. You can get burnt out. You can get injured. Emotionally you have to stay flat and to be able to deliver day in, day out without being too distracted. And I don't think too much about others. I think I'm capable of doing a very good result, but I think that so are at least another 10 people. So basically, it will be a race against ourselves, and that's important, but I'm not going to put myself too much pressure like, ‘you have to do a podium….you have to be top five, whatever.

I don't feel myself as a foreign sailor

You have a French sponsor, live in France, how is that life…are you well integrated? I'm super integrated in France, so I don't feel myself as a foreign sailor. I feel that I am very much involved in the French sailing culture, so I don't think people draw a difference between a French guy and me just because I'm not technically French. I hope people just like and know that I work super hard, so I'm just here to deliver as much as I can, and to be able to race against the best, and the best ones are French, so be it.

Have you made upgrades for this race or this season? It is just a lot of reliability, a lot of little systems, a lot of changing, replacing what I think was a little bit tired, to be able to have the perfect boat. But we have not taken risks in anything that we don't know. The risks we took them early of 2025, when we changed the keel and the rudders and the rake of the boat and everything, but after that, we just keep on making the boat more reliable.