A major asset in any Race Direction team is someone who has sailed the hard miles, who has participated in many, many races and record attempts and has accumulated decades . On most of the major ocean races there is usually at least one, if not more, on a multi talented team. On this Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe, French based Miranda Merron is pretty much peerless. She has sailed on all the world’s major races including completing the 2020-21 Vendée Globe. She has raced three Route du Rhums since 2002 and while she is on the Race Direction team this time, she is quietly contemplating returning to race again. Merron is English but lives most of her time in France and her French-English bilingual skills are the most accomplished in the world of offshore sailing.
What has been your race direction experience so far? This is my third transatlantic race that I'm working on including last year’s Transat Cafe L'Or and I worked on the Globe 40 round the world race.
What is it you like about this job? I like, it's an interesting job, it's pretty varied. The very best watch is when boats are at sea is a watch where nothing happens at all. And for me when I was racing especially in big races like this Route du Rhum it's really important who the race director is, who is going to be answering the phone when the shit hits the fan. That is so important. That's a feeling I had and so I think my experience is important. And the fact that I'm bilingual, I come from an ocean racing background so I I can immediately understand what the problem is, when somebody calls, you know, what's going on, of what the thinking is and possibly how to deal with it. The other thing is that should we have to deal with an MRCC that is outside of France, or French jurisdiction, the chances are the language is English. And that's where I'm useful. For example, when Thimoté Polet broke his hand when he dismasted the Transat CIC, I ended up taking over the coordination between Boston and the team, simply because it was a language issue.
What is your role at the moment, pre-start? There is lot to do. And given the weather that we've just had, there's been a lot of reorganising of the harbour and so on. But my role at the moment is the boats ae inspected and their satellite communication systems have to be tested. So I have taken on the role of... It's not just me, but it's mostly me, because there is so much going on. Right now I am testing all the skippers phones and making sure that the numbers are registered correctly. They have to call me first and then tell me who they are, which phone it is. Then I call them back. There are 115 skippers and that is two calls each.
And on start day?
On start day some of us will be behind a computer, some will be on the water. Because race direction is actually in with the French Sailing Federation. There are responsibilities like on the water safety are all the safety ribs. On the water marshalling, areas and of course organising that with the authorities.
And during the race how do you all divide your time? We take it in turns to be on watch. And in a classic Route du Rhum situation we would expect to be having some pretty fruity weather, if that at the start but soon after. So generally we will be two on watch at any time. So that if something happens. Two people are always much better than one. And in terms who is on when we haven't got an idea yet it tends to be fluid as it depends on what's going on. We might need to be three or four in a crisis and then usually if there is a crisis there is another one not far away. And so the watch system is very fluid. It depends what's going on, how busy it is, how the weather conditions are and who needs to sleep. And it always depends on weather conditions, who needs to sleep. In my three years of experience I have never been on a fixed programme. You have to be fluid and on call 24 hours a day. Effectively we're the guardian angels of the fleet. And we are also. And if there is an issue that needs to go to the jury or the technical committee or the race committee. We're also the interface between the boats. And those people. They can't contact the boats directly. And we just basically keep an eye on the fleet.
What's your preferred watch? Other than one which is perfectly quiet. My preferred watch is dawn watch. it's quiet at the end of the night. I mean depending on what's going on in the water. But it is just a nice time of day. It's just a lovely time of day, wheen you're at sea too.
And do you have FOMO, do you really wish you were going racing? I do at times and I am sure I will on race day when everyone is setting off, because it looks like the weather is going to be quite nice, for a November transatlantic race. I try and do one good race a year. But I've done my race this year, Round Britain and Ireland. On a Class 40. On a Scow. I've done the route you run three times. It's pretty lucky to have already done it three times. My first one was in 2002, an epic edition. I was on an IMOCA and it was the year when only three out of eighteen ORMA 60s sixties. It was pretty windy. I don't know how much wind there was. Because I lost my masthead wind wand.