Vendee Globe - Conrad Colman reveals night-time dip off Point Nemo

by Richard Gladwell on 4 Mar 2017 Vendee Globe sailor, Conrad Colman revisited some of the trials and tribulations that have challenged him both before the start of the solo race around the world, and during it.

At a media conference held in Les Sables dÓlonne after he finished the eighth edition of the race, having sailed the last 700nm under jury rig, he said 'I'm a sort of thankful that there was this progression of things falling apart and getting complicated. It allowed me to not be crushed when the mast came down - and I am stronger and better now than when I was when I started.'

'I feel like I moved mountains to achieve what I did. I did the very best with what I had when I started the race.

'But you don't win the race at sea - you lose the race at sea. You win the race in the preparation.'

'I had a very short and complicated preparation.'

Colman says that he didn't have things as he prepared as he would have liked before the start, or how they should have been - a situation that is not uncommon outside of the well-funded teams.

'You need lots of people to make sure that there is nothing left behind, that everything has been thought of, is squeaky clean and works. You can do a lot with what you have, but the race outcome is largely determined before the start gun goes.'

Colman admits he was dealt a mixed hand by the 'Weather Gods' getting 'smacked' several times, including one 'impressive' 60kt gale in the Southern Ocean from which he could not escape its path; plus the final storm off Finisterre which dismasted Foresight Natural Energy. After that final storm, he then had the good luck of calm weather followed by a fortuitous breeze to push the IMOCA60 the final few hundred miles to the finish in France.

In response to a question about what it was like 'sitting with your boat on its side in 50-60kts, at Point Nemo, the most remote area of the course - what do you think of it minute to minute, hour to hour - how do you deal with it?'

Colman had a very long pause...

'I haven't told anyone about this yet, but when the forestay released and the mast was again horizontal, I thought I was going to lose the rig in the middle of the Pacific - that's a pretty bad place to be.

'But it wasn't the worst that happened to me.

'There was one night when I fell overboard. I was attached, thankfully which is why I am still here.

'I had to drop the mainsail completely. I was tidying the sail in the lazy jacks, out on the boom, which was over the side of the boat and the lazy jacks broke.

'The boom fell with me and the mainsail, and I fell into the water - at night, of course. This was just before the big storm in the South.

'That was scary - because it is not the boat that was in danger, but you. The worst nightmare of anybody in my position is to be separated from your boat and in the water.

'So in comparison being inside your boat when it is being thrashed around is a relatively safe place to be.'

Although he did not go into further detail in the media conference, Colman said in a subsequent radio interview that he couldn't reach the boat while in the water and was fortuitously swept back to the boat by a wave, and managed to grab a stanchion. He then made the difficult decision to unhook the tether from his harness, and swing himself back on board the boat - all while it was still sailing, at night in the Southern Ocean.

For the full media conference (English language sections only) click on the Soundcloud link below.