There are many, many top level international sailors who are in Saint Malo carrying out essential roles supporting teams and skippers. Among them there are a number who have the experience and skill to be not just racing the Route du Rhum but with the potential to do well. Brits Will Harris and Alan Roberts are, or have been IMOCA co-skippers or round the world crew members. Harris is Boris Herrmann’s long time co-skipper on Malizia as well as being Francesca Clapcich’s co-skipper when the duo took second on 11th Hour Racing on last year’s two-handed race to Martinique. Roberts raced round the world on Biotherm and was Clarisse Cremer’s and Scott Shawyer’s co-skipper. And Dee Caffari is on hand helping her friend and Trophee Jules Verne skipper Alexia Barrier
Naval architect Roberts worked last year with Anthony ‘Antho’ Marchand on the Actual Ultim 3 and this year he has a more formalised, key role on the Actual Ultim 4, the former Gitana 17 which won this race in 2022. Now as well as helping sail the boat his main job is drilling down into the performance data and helping Marchand in his day to day management. He explains:
"This year it's been a big push on the performance, so I've been brought on board to do a lot of sailing and, more importantly, manage the kind of performance element for Antho himself, so to help him structure his time, his training and so on, but also for the team to help develop and advance the boat. This year we invested in new mast and so it has been learning how to set up the platform and the whole boat and how to sail it. So my role involves everything from helping him manage his time, going on the water, doing live testing, analysing on shore, understanding the philosophy of how you sail the boat, so I've been doing that alongside Pascal Bidégorry. So there's been the two of us,
The other thing is, you know, these projects grow arms and legs pretty quickly and all of a sudden Anto found himself the only sailor on the team and when it is a team of 25 the sailing side is not heard as much as it should be, so having more sailors in the project kind of gives a bit more strength behind the sailing team. Overall it's just really given a boost in terms of sailing performance to the project."
" Before I did a bit of prep before the races and that was it. Now this really is a dive deep into the performance, into understanding, working with the design team to analyse the platform and the elements that we've got and the data that we have. To get something useful out of a data analysis, you need to know what you're looking for and what you're trying to achieve and that's where my role really is. I’m that link between the design team, the designers, the theory and the practise, because, my background is naval architect, so I can speak their language and translate, it's kind of a pivotal link technical side of the project and the sporting side of the project."
"What I want to be doing more than anything is be on the start line of races"
" What I want to be doing more than anything is be on the start line of races and racing single-handed, because that's what I love doing, that's what drives me. But equally I know that with my skill set, my naval architecture, my engineering background, my analytical skills. There's so many elements to be on top of, it's more than one person's job and you need people that can tie different things together."
And as the Ultim skippers are supported by on shore routing teams, Roberts is a key membe of the meteo routing team for Marchand.
Will Harris, virtual co-skipper
No outside assistance is allowed any classes other than the Ultim and the Ocean Fifty. And so part of Will Harris’ role is to be kind of ‘virtual co-skipper’ that is to say that before the start he provides a whole host of information which unrolls down the course all the way to Guadeloupe. This roadbook might detail possible local weather effects, small scale navigation information or simple reminders. But, whereas he is happy with his role, he’d much rather be taking the start gun himself.
Harris explains, “This will be the second Route du Rhum that I've accompanied Boris with before. I also did it in 2022. And the final few weeks before the race, you know, essentially what I do is I prepare for the race as if I was going to take the start myself. I'm trying to unload the shoulders of Boris, the skipper, as much as possible so that he can be mentally and physically rested before the start. Skippers have so many obligations. When you're doing solo you hear them say this all the time, it's almost like they relax once they take the start because they've had to do interviews, they've had to make sure their bags are good, they've had to see the family, they've had to speak with sponsors, deal with the team, make sure the boats are right. I try to take as much and also, you know, prepare for the race themselves in terms of weather routing and understanding the boat. My job is really just to take as much of that off him as possible. Mostly it's in the race preparation side that I can do that. I've been preparing the roadbooks, preparing all the navigation stuff on the computers, working with the tech team.”
He explains what the roadbooks are……“It's like taking notes on a chart so that you're basically adding additions and thoughts to what's sort of publicly available. So it might be an insight into the weather, how the wind's going to bend around a corner, where he needs to be out. You know, we're looking on websites to see if there's any extra marks, any surveys, things like that, that's going on out there that he needs to be, have a little note saying
look out for this, for things shipping lanes, mammals. In total, actual drawings and annotations, there's probably about 600 to 800, I would say. We can look back on the races previously. It’s things like there's random buoys in the middle of the ocean. And if you're not zoomed in on the map, (like happened in the Indian Ocean in 2014 Ocean Race), if you're not zoomed in on the map, you might not see it. It is very easy to not be zoomed in.”
“When It comes down to the weather type, it's more navigational type road books. They are drawn on the navigational software on the PC because we obviously can't give him information when he’s going. Before the start and probably in the days before the start, they'll already have this on the, on the digital chart. He'll have this road book before this information plus the last few days we'll have had the strategy. So a lot of strategy road book of if the wind does this, we should go here And maybe it will say this is where he needs to make a decision. This is where he should eat, sleep, um, things like that. My job ramps up in the days before the start. The idea is that basically the first few days of the race, hopefully Boris can just sleep, eat, look out for the boat, make sure he doesn't have any big collisions, deal with any problems. And he doesn't have to worry too much about the strategy because we've got a good, good insight as to really what's to each needs to make the boat go fast. That’s the important part.”
“One thing about this role is you've got to understand the boat and what it means to sail it solo as well. It is almost like you're trying to put yourself on the boat while it's happening and think about what's exactly going to happen. You’re giving advice which is actually very relevant. You've got to think what does it mean to sail this boat solo? And, and that's actually a really, that's a hard part from that. That takes spending a lot of time on the boat, sailing it yourself before to figure out what that means.”
Dee Caffari's experience helps Alexia
Dee Caffari just completed her seventh circumnavigation under sail with Alexia Barrier on the Ultim The Famous Project. As Barrier prepares to set off solo Dee is at Alexia's side almost all the time. She has no specific brief but, like her compatriots Roberts and Harris, it is about using her experience to help protect Alexia from as much 'noise' as possible and lt her focus on optimising her time and energy as much as possible.
" I think I am here mainly for support. It allows her to off load some things to me so that she can focus on other things.
I know the boat and Alexia, so I can help the shore team with some of the boat set up. I have helped with the safety gear and the security checks. But really the shore team have done a great job in getting the boat ready. Now, I am just keeping Alexia company, allowing her to talk through things on her mind and running errands that lighten her load. We have set up weather briefings with her routing team, and this is all building her confidence for Sunday’s start line.
I am super proud of her and can be her biggest fan, to remind her of the difference she is making. Showing what can be possible with a little self belief.