30 years on from the first edition Shawyer flies the flag again for Canada in Transat Jacques Vabre
by TJV Media 21 Oct 2023 08:57 AEDT
Inauguration of the Winners Quay by officials Edouard Philippe, Mayor of Le Havre, and Vincent Prolongeau, President of JDE, Agnes Firmin Le Bodo, French Minister, and all ex-winners during the Transat Jacques Vabre, in Le Havre, France © Jean-Louis Carli / Alea
It is appropriate that the imminent 30th anniversary edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre sees the return of a Canadian skipper, some 30 years after the legendary Mike Birch finished fifth in the Monohull class on Biscuits La Trinite in the inaugural edition and compatriot Gerry Roufs was sixth on Groupe LG. On the first ever race the Canadian duo were the only non- French skippers in the eight strong mono division.
Since then no Canadian skipper has finished this race. In 2015 Eric Holden and Morgen Watson started but were forced to abandon with technical problems. But Scott Shawyer - who races the Owen Clarke designed Be Water Positive is intent on completing a competitive race sailing with highly experienced Aussie co-skipper Nick Moloney, seeing the two handed race from Le Havre to Martinique as a key stepping stone towards racing the 2028-29 Vendée Globe.
While Roufs - who was sadly lost in January 2017 on the Vendée Globe and Birch were very much career sailors - Shawyer's current course towards the Vendée Globe is from a standing start, with no real offshore racing experience behind him.
A highly driven, successful businessman who skied to the North Pole ten years ago and is a competitive Masters ski racer and triathlete, it was only when he happened across a programme about the start of the 2020-21 non-stop solo race round the world race that a moment of epiphany struck him, and struck him hard.
"I was looking for a financial partner for my business and I was on the phone 12 hours a day with New York private equity groups." Recalls the 55 year old aboard his IMOCA, which started life as Javier Sanso's Acciona, at the race dock in Le Havre, "And we were in Covid lockdown. I live in a place where I have a mountain out the back of my house. But I had not been out the house at all for more than three weeks. And I see the Vendée live show and I see these skippers walking down the dock and setting off around the world and I think 'how cool is that? And what am I doing with my life strapped to a deck 12-16 hours a day. I got hooked and watched all the shows. And I thought 'there has to be more to life than this....and that was the impetus to make some changes."
Collabrating with Alex Thomson Racing, Shawyer set up Canada Ocean Racing, last year purchasing the IMOCA which had been fully refitted as Offshore Team Germany. Since then he has trained and raced somewhere around 30,000 miles, most recently completing January's RORC Transatlantic Race from the Lanzarote to Grenada before taking on this summer's Rolex Fastnet Race two handed - which they had to retire from - and the Bermudes 1000 - which he raced with Canada Ocean Racing's boat captain Ryan Barkey.
"Right now I feel like I am as ready as I am ever going to be. With Nick we have had a few weeks of sailing together and it is has been great getting to know each other. We did about 15 days on water, some day sailing, some overnight sails. With Nick we had one gnarly night beating into 30kts of wind all night, that was painful but it had to be done." Shawyer explains.
Moloney has an extensive track record in IMOCA but has been away from the class for a good few years. He was sixth in 2003 racing Team Cowes with Sam Davies and third in 2001 racing with Mark Turner on Casto Darty. Shawyer originally approached him for some UK based coaching.
"He was really keen to do some coaching but did not seem to want to do the race." Shawyer recalls, "Then we went our separate ways but then I called him and said 'come on' and he had just spoken to Mike Golding who had pretty much said, "...come on what are you thinking? you won't get this opportunity again, get on and do it...." And so here we are and Nick is having a great time."
One difference for Shawyer is he is under no immediate time pressure as it is the 2028 race he is preparing for. Even so, as an ardent competitor who clearly wants to measure his progress, he is looking to be in the mix. "I am a ski racer and triathlete and Nick is a competitor too, through and through, and so yes the main objective is to get there but we have looked at all the other daggerboard boats and weighed them up and we have a performance in mind..."
He concludes, "Overall I am not in any hurry. I have six years to the big event, but last year it was seven and so you want to feel you are making progress. The clock is ticking..."