Seattle to the Big Apple-pre-race conversations with Clipper sailors

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 4 May 2016 While investors like to say that wealth begets wealth, for Clipper Round the World Yacht Race sailors, miles have a way of begetting more miles.After all, the fleet of 12 identical, Tony Castro-designed 70-footers that are competing in this year’s Clipper just recently finished a marathon leg that took the fleet from Qingdao, China to Seattle, Washington (USA)—a distance of 5,400-plus nautical miles—but now they are already off again, this time to New York City by way of the Panama Canal.

For most sailors, a passage of 6,185 nautical miles (Seattle to New York) would be the race of a lifetime, but for the skippers and full-ticket crews that are competing in this year’s Clipper, this is just one of eight legs that are longer than 3,000 nautical miles.

As I commonly mention (or lament about) in my Sail-World.com writings, Puget Sound is visually stunning but often lacking in consistent breeze. Because of this, and because of the abundance of fishing vessels and commercial-marine traffic, the fleet motorsailed overnight from Seattle to Tattoosh Island (Washington; just off of Cape Flattery), where the actual start of the race took place. From here, teams race down to Panama, where the clocks are stopped as they transit the Panama Canal, and then racing re-commences on the Atlantic side and takes the fleet to the Big Apple.

I caught up with skipper Daniel Smith (SCT) and crewmember Ali Sholer (USA), of “Derry Londonderry Doire”, after a rainy and cold media daysail here in Seattle aboard “Derry Londonderry Doire”, to get their pulses on the miles that separate the Clipper fleet from its ultimate finishing line in London.

I understand that you’ve won the last three legs, is that right?
Smith: That’s correct, yeah. The team have been doing very well recently. It seems to all be coming together.

Have you had a lot of sailors rotating through, or has that been pretty much the same squad each leg?
Smith: The team or the complete team is about sixty, but in any one team we have about twenty [sailors] on the boat. We’ve had eight of them that have been around the world with us this far, and so there’s a core of eight, and a few others that are doing more than one leg, and the rest of the [sailors] might just be here for one or two legs.

How many new crew do you having coming on board for this leg?
Smith: I’ve got a big change for this leg. About half the team are changing, so that’s a challenge in itself. So getting the new guys up to speed and sailing the boat well, so yeah there’ll be lots of that going on.

What do you think the biggest challenge in the next couple legs are going to be?
Smith: Next leg, I think probably definite challenges, later ones, and probably not such rough conditions [compared to the Qingdao to Seattle leg], but with that concentration becomes key, keeping the boat moving in the [light airs], and then the trip across the Atlantic—that could be another windy and rough trip, so similar challenges to the Pacific again there.

As skipper, do you find the biggest challenge is one of sailing or one of teaching and instructing?
Smith: To begin with [earlier in the race] the big challenge was the teaching and instructing, now that we’ve got a really strong core and a good team, they tend to do a lot of the teaching and the instructing of the new team that come on board, so I do less of that now. My role now is a lot more looking at the weather and making sure that we have the right sails up at any one time.

So you’re sailing from Seattle down to Panama, then Panama to New York, and then New York to Londonderry?
Sholer: Yeah, the last two legs are seven and eight. Seven is Seattle to New York through Panama Canal, then we’ll do a little crew change over but I’ll stay on. Leg eight is actually New York to Londonderry, the sponsor city of our boat…and then finally through the finish line in London.

Fantastic. And you said your reason for getting involved with the Clipper is to learn more about sailing?
Sholer: Yeah, I started sailing about six years ago, but I just wasn’t developing the skill at the pace I wanted, you know that muscle memory where everything becomes intuitive the way it is for life-long sailors. And I thought that the chance to have this immersion would get me where I wanted to be much quicker.

As far as learning more about sailing, what are you most excited about for your voyage?
Sholer: I definitely think going through the Panama Canal will be amazing. It was something that was on my grandfather’s bucket list that he couldn’t do so I’m excited about that. I think pulling into New York via boat versus an airplane—like I normally do—and passing the Statue of Liberty will be awesome. But I think the highlight of all of this [will be] pulling into Londonderry on the Londonderry boat, it’s quite a big deal there. And then of course the finish line in London. Of course, you build a lot of strong lifelong bonds with your crew along the way, but I think that just goes without saying.

Any fears going into this?
Sholer: No, I really am not afraid. Our training is very thorough, I know what I’m supposed to do, we know what we’re supposed to do to stay safe. I won’t call it fear so much, but you know we don’t eat the same [things] that we do at home, and that would be the closest thing to a fear for me is not having all the foods I enjoy.

Seasickness? Nervous about that at all?
Sholer: You know I’ve never had seasickness, even in training when a lot of people did. I do expect it to be part of the journey, but it will be a first time for me, but I’ve got some medicine, I’ve got some psychological techniques, I hope to keep it to a minimum.