A Q&A with Ash Skett about the role of being a Clipper Race skipper

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 5 Jul 2016 It’s one thing to lead a group of experienced sailors across an ocean in the role of skipper, however, it’s a totally different scenario to lead a group of inexperienced sailors around the world on identical, 70-foot bluewater racers. While many of us have the opportunity to act as skipper on our private yachts, the skippers of the Clipper Round the World Race are selected to lead their teams based on their sailing, teaching, seamanship and communications skills (amongst other criteria), as well as their ability to forge a tight and cohesive team out of a group of strangers.

Factor in some seriously long legs (for example, Qingdao, China to Seattle, USA), some seriously rough weather, some seriously prolonged mal de mer, and some seriously steep learning curves, and you’re starting to get a clear picture of a day in the life of a Clipper Round The World Race skipper.

I recently caught up with Ash Skett, skipper of Garmin in the 2015/2016 edition of the Clipper Race, in New York City, just before the start of the final offshore leg, which is taking the fleet from the Big Apple to the Northern Ireland city of Derry-Londonderry, to learn more about his complex job description.

You’ve been the skipper of Garmin for the whole race, is that correct?
Yes, so I was working for clipper before the race, that’s where I learned all about it, met the people who were doing it, and I decided to apply for the skipper position. So all in all it’s probably been about two years really of quite full-time involvement in the race, and yeah [I was] selected as the Garmin skipper about a year ago.

Tell me about the leg from Seattle to New York.
Seattle to New York was a good leg. The whole leg was split into two races, so Seattle to Panama and Panama up to New York, [and] we went through the Panama Canal, so that was a highlight of that leg as well. Panama up to New York was mostly settled, calm conditions compared to some of the races we’ve done previously, although we were hit by Tropical Storm Colin, [which] came over and we did experience some very, very high winds, but it was only for a short period of time, maybe six or twelve hours, and it [made for some] quite exciting sailing.

Where was Garmin when the wind hit?
We were just off Miami…so maybe about two hundred miles out from Miami.

Did you experience proper Gulf Stream conditions?
Well initially yeah, and then after we did, because the Gulf Stream moves east and then we moved west so we were in the Gulf Stream for the last period of the race towards the end, and it definitely did give us a bit of a boost. Except the wind did change, it was coming from the northwest actually and what that created was horrible sea states [that were] working against the Gulf Stream, and we had some really lumpy seas, so that was probably the most uncomfortable part of the race, but really we’ve experienced [much] worse conditions in the North Pacific for example.

The fleet arrived broken in Seattle, didn’t they?
We certainly did. We were hit by a really powerful wave, it was a bit of a freak wave, and it was so powerful that it ripped off some of the metal sanctions that are welded to the deck here to protect the helm and it caused quite a bit of damage. But it was, luckily no one was hurt, and it was all fixed in Seattle, so it supports the local business there.

As a skipper, I’ve got to imagine that one of the hardest things is working with new crew members. Is that correct?
Yeah, exactly. We have to initiate our crew and we have a process for that so the new crew join [the team] and we buddy them up with another crew member whose done a lot of racing already on the boat and then [the more experienced sailors] take responsibility for making sure that the new crew are [settling] in smoothly. But we prepared [the new sailors] as much as possible, they’ve all done a lot of training, and there’s a lot of communications by email and Facebook and all that before the race, so they know what to expect, I hope, and also [so] there’s no big surprise when they come on board.

Have you ever had someone have a big surprise when they come on board?
Yes, we did lose a couple of our crew, around-the-world crew actually in the early stages of the race. Some crew sign up to [cruise] around the world, some crews to race around the world, and some boats in the fleet are less sort of racy than others, so some boats actually suit the cruisers more and some suit the racers more. Now they don’t have any choice in or say in which boat they end up on, so sometimes if they turn up and they’re not too bothered about the racing, but we are a fast boat and we push hard.

So yes, some of the crew they come aboard and they expect it to be a little more of a cruise rather than a race, but because we push hard it means that sometimes it’s going to be wet, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but that’s because we want to win. So [while] it’s impossible actually to keep everyone happy all the time, we try, but unfortunately you’re always going to get the one or two [crewmembers] who will drop out because it is an enormous undertaking and sometimes it’s too much.

How much of the first couple of days do you act a race skipper versus a coach for the newer sailors?
Most of the first few days I’ll definitely be coaching the team more, so you know it involves a lot of time on deck, a lot of time standing here behind the helm and getting the crew bedded-in to that. Helming is the most critical part, a good helm will mean that we go faster and we do well, but also that the boat is safe all the time.

So the helming is really the most important job, so I’ll spend a lot of time coaching that especially to begin with. But then, eventually, especially at this stage in the race now, the crew tends to coach each other, so the around-the-world-ers, their skills have come along so much and they’ve improved sailing now to a stage where they are in a position to be teaching the new-joiners themselves. So actually my involvement as the race has gone on has been less and less and less, which is great for me. Makes my job easier. And allows me to focus more on things like are tactics and the weather.

What’s the single best part about your job?
There’s so much I love about the job… I think seeing the improvement of the crew’s sailing ability, I mean it’s very rewarding and I’d say that’s definitely the best part is seeing their skill base just grow and grow and especially you know among the watch leaders who take responsibility for the whole deck, when I’m supposed to be on the deck the whole time. Actually watching them develop as leaders as well is very rewarding. I like imparting the knowledge to the crew and watching them get better and better and their results improving as well, that’s also a good feeling.

How about the worst part?
Yeah, the worst part of the job would be [that it’s] a long race, you spend a lot of time at sea. The longest race we’ve done has been over thirty days, and I’m responsible for over twenty people, that does wear you, especially when the conditions get tough and especially dangerous, it can get quite exhausting. So I guess the endurance factor can sometimes weigh a little bit on the mind. And yeah, you’re always going through the what-if’s and trying to plan ahead best you can, keep the boat safe, I guess finding the balance between safety and the racing at sea. Safety always comes first, but also you want to be going fast, [so] you have to walk a tight rope between the two sometimes, and that can be quite stressful and exhausting.

What are you most looking forward to the leg from here to the UK?
It should be a lot of spinnaker sailing, a lot of downwind sailing, which is nice for us. We quite like the downwind stuff, although oddly enough we seem to perform better upwind, so it’s a mixed bag really. It’s more enjoyable, comfortable sailing, but potentially not the best conditions for us to do well in, but having said that it hasn’t stopped us on the downwind races so far, we always finish in the top half of the fleet, and we’ve actually had some very good results downwind as well, so it also means that we’ll be quick across, we’ll get into [Derry-Londonderry] as early as possible, which is always something that we like to aim for.

Is there anything else you’d like to add to the record?
No, just [that] Garmin has been a great sponsor for us, they’ve been great to us in Port we’ve had lots of social functions that have been put on for us. They actually gave us surfing lessons in Albany [Western Australia], so we’re absolutely delighted to have Garmin as a sponsor, and I’m proud to fly the flag.