BRITS IN IMOCA: AN EXPERIENCED AND TALENTED GROUP WITH THE VENDÉE GLOBE AND THE OCEAN RACE IN THEIR SIGHTS
If you look through the list of skippers and co-skippers for the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre 2023, you will discover that the biggest representation of any nation in the race, apart from France, is from Britain.
Eight British sailors will take part in the biennial double-handed classic which starts from Le Havre on October 29th while, on the IMOCA website, there are 10 skippers from Britain listed as currently active in the Class.
It underlines that despite the almost complete lack of British-based commercial sponsors in IMOCA, British sailors are still managing to make the grade in the most exciting and demanding short-handed offshore racing class in world sailing.
Among them right now is the veteran Mike Golding and Sam Davies, a key figure in the IMOCA circuit and a sailor who will be aiming for a top-five finish in the next Vendée Globe on her new Initiatives-Coeur 4.
Then there are a group of sailors who learned their trade at the Isle of Wight-based Artemis Offshore Academy – Sam Goodchild, Alan Roberts, Will Harris and the Australian-Brit Jack Bouttell. And finally there’s Pip Hare and newcomer Nick Bubb.
Two other skippers are not taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre this year – James Harayda, whose boat is undergoing repairs, and Phil Sharp who is launching his new IMOCA (OceansLab) next week.
It’s an impressive cohort and the Brits are enjoying seeing more of them about as they work their way up the IMOCA ladder. “It’s really cool,”enthused Hare who, along with Harayda, has chosen to remain based in the UK with her Medallia-sponsored team located in Poole Harbour. “That’s because we are all promoting the sport within the UK and we are giving British fans more things to watch and to engage with. We’re increasing the popularity of our sport through a broadened reach,” she added
Harris, who co-skippers Team Malizia with the German star Boris Herrmann, is equally positive about the return of the Brits to the Class and especially about the fact that British sailors are now well-established on some of the best boats and in the most competitive teams in IMOCA.
“Yeah, it’s really nice to see the growing British presence,”said Harris in Lorient during a break from preparations for the TJV. “We are coming back from a bit of a dip to be honest, when we struggled to break into that top bunch. Alex (Thomson) was always there and Ellen (MacArthur), but now we are here with more presence and have increased our chances of putting in top results.”
A remarkable feature of the current crop of British solo and double-handed racers in IMOCA is the Artemis Academy influence, with four “graduates” of the OC Sport-run sailing school based in Cowes. It was set up in 2009 with the aim of finding and training future British solo racers and preparing them for the Figaro championship and ultimately the Vendée Globe. The Academy closed down in 2016, but the fruits of its vision are only now fully becoming clear through the exploits of Goodchild (For The Planet), Harris, Bouttell, who will sail the TJV on Initiatives-Cœur 4 alongside Davies, and Roberts who will race with Clarisse Crémer on L’Occitane En Provence.
Harris attended the Academy in its final year. “It’s really impressive to see what its sailors have achieved,” he said. “I guess no one really imagined how long the timeline would be to see the benefits of that programme paying off.”
