Barcelona World Race – Lessons for other races

by IMOCA Ocean Masters on 18 Apr 2015 There has been a succession of boats crossing the line in Barcelona since Cheminées Poujoulat’s triumph, and from conversations with the sailors and their press conference messages, it would appear that double-handed sailing requires somewhat different qualities to that of singlehanded sailing. We get the low-down on the sailors’ feedback…

The skippers have all been eager to highlight the specificities of double-handed racing, with a notable emphasis on the need for complementarity between skipper and co-skipper in order to fulfil the mutual objective: performance.

The division of roles
Each crew adopted its own way of working, but we have found two main scenarios:

Both skippers are equal: This was the case with Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam, two sailors boasting exceptional track records. In a case like theirs, you have to be in tune with each other and set common goals. The Cheminées Poujoulat crew had set itself a simple point of reference: were the solutions put forward by either one of them geared towards better boat performance? Both Bernard and Jean were able to put their respective egos to one side well before the race even began. They understood that that was a prerequisite for success.

Aboard GAES Centros Auditivos, there was no established hierarchy either. However, Anna Corbella and Gerard Marin had the advantage of having done a lot of training together. Before setting sail, this duo already knew each other well and knew what the stumbling blocks might be.

One of the two skippers benefits from greater experience: This was clearly the case aboard Neutrogena. José Muñoz, co-skipper to Guillermo Altadill, fully assumed his role as a perfect ‘crew member’ with a sailor who clearly had substantially more offshore racing experience.

Eating, sleeping
Everyone said as much: in double-handed racing, you can really sleep. It bears no relation to singlehanded sailing. Whilst one is in the bunk, the other is on watch and can perform minor actions alone or even sound the alarm if necessary. In fact this is a recurring image: on round the world race, which is a long-term event, fatigue is not etched so deeply in the faces of the double-handed racers as those in singlehanded.

Some seem slender at the finish, others rather honed. In double-handed sailing - somewhat paradoxically - the meal doesn’t have the same importance as singlehanded, where it can serve as a psychological comfort. Here, it’s primarily about getting sustenance, often with a base of freeze-dried meals, and although huge progress has been made in this field, they still have precious little to do with gastronomy. There are many initiatives, like that of those Catalan chefs who concentrated particularly on taste for their new freeze-dried meals, but certain sailors still have a preference for cooked foods, even at the expenses of added weight aboard. Some skippers shared some of their meals (GAES Centros Auditivos and We Are Water) whilst others like Cheminées Poujoulat opted for completely separate rations according to their dietary habits. Conrad Colman, who is a vegetarian, also had to find a suitable formula to ensure his daily food intake contained all the essential dietary supplements.

Facing up
How many crews competing in the race would have finished if a) the event had taken place in solo and b) if a stopover had not been permitted? The Barcelona World Race regulations authorise a technical pit stop, which enabled several crews to effect repairs and confidently head back out to sea. There is nothing to suggest that any of these crews would have otherwise retired, but in a double-handed race, where you tend to push the boat harder, it’s a valuable guarantee.

A number of the skippers said so: singlehanded, we couldn’t have imagined taking this adventure the whole way. Aboard Cheminées Poujoulat, Bernard Stamm had to climb to the top of the mast countless times. On GAES Centros Auditivos, Anna Corbella’s fall could have had more dramatic consequences without the presence of Gerard Marin, who took charge of handling the boat. Singlehanded, would the crew of Renault Captur have been able to head back out to sea from New Zealand? Everyone shared the sentiment that this year the southern ocean had been particularly hard.

Learning
Finally, one of the greatest riches of the Barcelona World Race is to allow solo sailors to embark on a double-handed adventure and learn about themselves and their chance companion. Let’s give the final word to the winners of this edition.

Bernard Stamm: “Together with Jean, I’ve learnt that sometimes there is no point in wanting to go fast the whole time. What counts is the average, the consistency. In this way, you conserve the boat and the skipper.”

Jean Le Cam: “Together with Bernard, I’ve discovered that you can push these IMOCA machines far beyond what I imagined.”

So there’s two skippers who should be able to make use of this experience in their upcoming solo races… or indeed double-handed races, because you get a taste for it!