When diminutive is massive
by John Curnow, Sail-World.com AUS Editor 3 Nov 2024 13:00 PST
Cole Brauer – First Light - Global Solo Challenge © globalsolochallenge
Let there be light. Indeed. Elizabeth Tucker has acquired Cole Brauer's Class 40, First Light. Come November 23(ish), the pair will undertake a 12,000nm journey from Spain to Australia via the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Llewelyn, thence under Tasmania and into Sydney.
Four years into her sailing odyssey, Tucker aka 'ZaZa' or just 'Za' for short, has snapped up one of the greatest prizes in sailing on the planet today. Personal tuition from Brauer who holds the record for the fastest, solo, unassisted lap of the planet in a 40-footer, which just so happens to be the one Tucker bought, and the one the pair will deliver back to Oz together.
That's a whole lot more than some mere weekend handover. The 'price'? They will pull into Cape Town so that Brauer can have Christmas ashore, which was a stipulation from her family. The 'bonus'? Timing dependant, Tucker will get to fly back to Australia to compete in her second Sydney to Hobart race as the Navigator aboard an X-55 named, Xanthus.
From the outset, it is very clear that the two are literally peas in a pod, laughing at the same time, and finishing sentences for each other. Yes. Talking with them was an absolute riot, and they have only known each other for six months... Now ZaZa insists she feels like a giant next to Brauer, yet it is only about an inch that separates the two, who are closer to five feet tall than any other indicator, and probably make the 50-kilo mark, when dripping wet in full offshore gear.
In Spain, to get the boat back together and all set for the voyage (hull and stick have already been united once more), we got the chance to investigate the meeting of the minds. My opening comment to the pair was, 'Wow for things that have been done and wow for the things that are to come.' It pretty much sets the scene.
"We're looking in pretty good shape; the sails are on, rig is tuned, and we're setting up cameras and so forth now. The boat is very much ready, and that is great, as I will be able to focus on mentorship, not yardmanship. We've still got three weeks to go, so it's a busy time to make sure everything's all set up as we wait for a suitable weather window," said Tucker. "We'll follow the Global Solo Challenge route and we're planning for at least one stop, if not two (Cape Verde maybe and Cape Town definitely)," added Brauer.
Do it with a smile
Highlighting the humour on board already, Tucker said, "Apparently, I'm not quite good enough for company for Christmas." Of the homely fairy lights brightening life down below, Brauer said, "You don't need to feel like an astronaut in space. You might as well make it comfortable. I think it's my biggest secret. Everyone else can be so miserable, and I'm like, it's fine. Just like put on a bikini and enjoy yourself."
"I described to Cole how I feel, and I think we're probably quite similar on the polar ends of sailing shorthanded at sea. You can be a princess at the same time as being a bit of a tomboy. You can be offshore and paint your nails as Cole did," said Tucker. "Well, you only have yourself at that point. There's no one there to judge you, or tell you that you need to like man up and go change that sail. It's like, oh, I'll go change that sail and I'm going to paint my nails afterwards because I just destroyed them when changing that sail," commented Brauer.
So, before anyone gets dismissive, just ponder all the pair have accomplished to date in either sailing or their professional life, which in the case of Tucker is what has paid for First Light. It is just that they are using humour to keep themselves going and tackle all that happens ashore in departure mode, as well as prep them for those 'charming' moments at sea.
Speaking of which, Brauer stated in regards to sleep at sea, "I want to make sure that I'm prepped, ready and safe, and I'm going to run it the same way I ran it solo. I'll pass the torch on to Za in a way where it is like, so you watch me do this and hopefully you won't be too miserable for the first five days, because that's the worst part. Once you're through it, you know, once you've thrown up everything you have from reality, you're probably pretty good. You certainly learn how to get to the bucket in time. After that it gets easy once you get into the Trades."
"I did it fairly publicly online the first time. So now I'm just going to do it publicly in front of Za. We're going to be very close by the end of this trip. We have already discussed how we'll handle our arguments. We think we might need some couples therapy along the way," said Brauer, by way of highlighting aforementioned reliance on humour.
On a serious note, Tucker adds, "Cole knows not just the boat, but everything that comes with the boat, which is the most insanely comprehensive kit of spares and belongings that you could imagine. I've been in the yard and said, 'Hey, do you have this? She's told me exactly where it is, in exactly which case in this massive array of containers of stuff. The hardest part is trying to remember where put it all back where it came from! I'm trying to absorb all of her immense knowledge."
Sometimes it is hard to remember that Tucker is a relative newbie. So what was the hook? "When I was like six years old, I used to play in a trailer/sailer that was in grandparents yard, back in the UK. When she went in the water, I was just as obsessed with her then, as I was on the trailer, but we moved away, and I never got to go sailing. It was during Covid that I finally got back into it, and clearly went fully at it."
"Funnily enough, I didn't actually enjoy racing the first time I raced. I was like, this is too intense, with lots of shouting. I still don't like shouting, which is why shorthanded appeals to me; the only shouting will be my own at myself."
As a sign of the times, both think the times they'll be loudest are when they can't find their phone or headphones, and literally say simultaneously, "But don't worry, it won't be against you."
The boat and the mission
So why the Class 40 then? Brauer started the GSC two months behind the first vessel, and finished in second place by just two days, so you have probably worked out that both like to have a challenge, go quickly, and very much be in the mix when it comes to the podium. There is also the solo/shorthanded pedigree, and proven blue water capabilities. Tucker wanted a conventional 40, highlighting that 90% of potential competitors for the 2027 GSC are looking for the earlier, pre-scow bow craft, that can do a bit of slamming.
Aware that her learning trajectory maybe more akin to a jet fighter climbing vertically, Tucker very quickly speaks of baby steps, but if you haven't yet spotted the unfettered ambition, let me just point to the fact that Brauer is a believer.
Say no more than this. It was Brauer who came up with the plan we are discussing here. She had seen that Tucker was interested in the boat, but had not made an offer. On enquiring as to why, which would be shipping cost, and then learning about Tucker's plans to assist other women enter the sport and skill up, Brauer developed the cunning plan to pass the torch on. "I'll sail it back with you!" One call, and a friendship, strike that, kinship was made.
Of the 2008 built First Light Brauer said, "I wanted a boat that you could go into the Southern Ocean with, come back and it didn't look like you went around the planet. When I returned with First Light and we took her out of the water it was amazing. It looked like we had just done a short coastal passage. Today when we put the main on again, it looked brand new. If you take care of this era of Class 40, they take care of you very easily. I hit things during the race, slammed into waves and broached really badly, so much so that I cracked my ribs, and still was quite successful because the boat is just set up very, very well."
"My family told me I had to finish and not sail for a while. Alas, I very much did not want to get off the boat. I wanted to almost prove that it was not a choice."
Save it mode instead of damn it mode
Apart from laughing about who would throw whom overboard to feed the Great Whites, Brauer talks about another friend (her BFF), and how when racing together and issues struck they just got on with the job. "We just start observing what each other are doing and hand each other tools and so forth. We don't really speak. We do; run and go. The problem gets fixed faster and there's no yelling. There's no screaming. There's no questioning. There's nothing."
"It might be a bit generalised, but I think it comes down to the mother thing, like when something happens to like a child, a mother jumps in and just handles it. It's instinctual, like a biological trait, and I feel very similar when I have women on board."
"First Light is the closest thing to a child that I have. I did not want her to go to a museum and get the tax write-off, nor just sell her on. I wanted to do something that actually means something and matters. Training someone to take on the knowledge that I have and then run with my child, as such, was the best thing to happen. The biggest thing we're going to have is that when we finish this delivery, we might actually get sad afterwards."
Could there be more chapters in this particular book? "You never know. This was definitely like an ideal plan after I got off the boat on March 7th. I talked to my sponsors well in advance that we were going to sell the boat no matter what at the end, but they told me I had all the time in the universe to sell her that it didn't matter that I could just take my time and find the right person. And so I did."
Point of Origin
"I've wanted to sail around the world solo for quite a while, and I've wanted to do something really, really challenging for pretty much all my life," said Tucker. Half a lap is very good start BTW... Both point to Ellen MacArthur's record attempts (also a petite frame), and more specifically her book as motivation, but with Tucker, who was a corporate highflyer, the nexus was the passing of a loved one who was very dear to her. They had lived their life to the fullest, and with burn out jading her, she found the courage for change, took the plunge, quit and now gives sailing her all, with the 2027 GSC her guiding light.
"Moving forward, I really need sponsorship for the rest of the programme. I really, really want to make sure that I'm giving other people the opportunity to learn all aspects of sailing when they don't have a boat, and that includes maintenance, engines, the lot. If I can run courses where somebody's teaching me, but they're teaching a load of other people at the same time, then that's amazing."
At 24 years of age, Brauer was keen to be on a Volvo Ocean Race team. Alas, she was bit crushed when they would can her based on size alone. Crying in the plane on the way back from Europe after try-out, she made the decision that she would have to do it alone as an American Woman. She can certainly tick that box now.
How it came to pass is that she raced with a group of guys in Class 40s for a few years, and they enquired as to her plans. One day they called to say they had purchased the boat she had been racing against them on for her. She then went on to win every solo or twohanded affair on the East Coast of the USA that year when they offered her one more race. The GSC was proffered, and they replied, 'Go big or go home'. Typically, Brauer did not disappoint, nor did the team she gathered around her to take on her goal, which says a lot about said passing of torch to Tucker. Peas in pod, after all.
Said to be looking at a ride in the 2028 Vendee Globe, Brauer suggests 2032 might be more like it. She is working with Team Malizia right now, and wouldn't it be interesting if she shows up on the roster for the 2027 Ocean Race. Applause and Champagne starts here. At any rate, she's learning all she can under Boris Herrmann, and also states that as a woman, a family is definitely in the mix, as well.
Sail-World.com USA Editor, David Schmidt, described Cole Brauer as an 'absolute bad ass', which she loves. I wonder how Elizabeth Tucker will be best described in the future? There's certainly no shortage of superlatives for this omnipotent, ocean-loving Aussie at this point. We'll see what sticks. For both it is now time to crack on, and my my, aren't they just!
In the meantime, anybody in the Atlantic, Indian or Southern Oceans from about December through to say February might want to be on the lookout for a massive freight train with two diminutive women as the cow catcher on the front. Heads up! It will be nicely disguised as a Class 40, with Za and Cole as the Figureheads next to the bowsprit. You've been warned. You won't miss them. The nail polish will be perfect and reflecting not just first light, but every beam of sunshine...
Want to follow the freight train? Easy. We'll have it here, and also go to Insta - @zaoceanracing and @colebraueroceanracing
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John Curnow
Sail-World.com AUS Editor