First female monohull sailor to finish the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race was Britain’s solo sailing daughter (and RORC member), albeit now adopted across the Channel, solo round the world race veteran Sam Davies.
This time round Sam was racing her first brand new IMOCA. Launched last year, this is a Sam Manuard design, constructed from the same moulds as L'Occitane en Provence. In the IMOCA family tree, this is all slightly confusing:
The original L'Occitaine en Provence, which Armel Tripon raced in the last Vendee Globe, is now Louis Burton's Bureau Vallee which finished this Rolex Fastnet Race in 9th place.
The present L’Occitaine en Provence, which Clarisse Kramer raced to sixth place in this Rolex Fastnet Race was originally Charlie Dalin’s Apivia (first home in the last Vendée Globe, but ended up second after Yannick Bestavin’s Maitre CoQ was awarded time compensation).
Sam Davies’ new IMOCA Initiatives Coeur continues with its both clever and worthy campaign where likes to her social media pages raises funds for Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque
Sam Davies’ new IMOCA Initiatives Coeur continues with its both clever and worthy campaign where likes to her social media pages raises funds for Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, a charity which undertakes heart operations for third world children. For every social media page ‘like’, her trio of sponsors each donates €1 to the charity. Davies admits that this is an incentive like no other for in her darker moments she just thinks about this, and quite simply the better she performs, the more popular her social media pages get, and, putting it bluntly, the more lives she saves.
IMOCAs are built for sailing around the world, so the conditions that many found brutal they took in their stride.
“We are used to those conditions, but we are usually further away from the coast at those times,” Davies explains. “It was similar to two years ago although it blew through a lot quicker then. This one was a bit more sustained so you had to survive for longer upwind.”
Sadly even for their robust IMOCA, Initiatives Coeur suffered a broken ram for the tack of her headsails which took place in one of the worst places for it to occur in the race – off Portland Bill. “We had to bear away and head downwind at a really annoying point. And we filled the front of the boat with oil. So we had to bear away and put a lashing on to replace it. It took a little bit of DIY on the bow in 35 knots in the Portland Race…”
Surely this is a job for the co-skipper (highly capable for Solitaire du Figaro sailor and Volvo Ocean Race navigator Nicolas Lunven)? “We were both on the bow at that time! Generally when you have a co-skipper, the skipper is the one who knows the boat better whereas they tend to keep an eye on traffic while I’m trying to dig out lashings and figure out how best to secure it.”
Fortunately despite this they managed to recover: “Our strategy was quite good after that because we managed to come back and hook into the next group of boats, that we ended up in contact with for the rest of the race, which was cool.”
Sam Davies was sailing with her highly competent co-skipper, Solitaire du Figaro sailor and Volvo Ocean Race navigator Nicolas Lunven
After rounding Land’s End, the Celtic Sea was a chance to regroup. “That was the calmer moment where we actually managed to recover, rest and eat and I had to re-fit a new J3 tack at that point. So there was a bit more DIY as the repair we’d made off Portland was a temporary one to survive.”
After they got through the second front they enjoyed a nice run into the Fastnet Race, neck and neck with Maxime Sorel and Christopher Pratt on V And B - Monbana – Mayenne and other IMOCAs. “Sadly we didn’t make it around the Rock until nightfall, but it was a nice rock rounding. Then we got stuck in a light patch and w lost V And B.”
Back towards Bishop Rock, conditions were idea.
“We just sent it. The top speed we did was 37.5 and we had a lot of points above 35 at various times. And we were within sight of L’Occitaine and TeamWork. It was great, making crazing speeds and racing and a little bit scary because you know there are boats coming the other way and a few fishing boats, so it is ‘eyes peeled fully’ on the radar (because you can’t see very much because there is so much water over the deck).
“After the Scillies, we knew that we were going to have a park-up and meet everyone somewhere off the Casquets TSS. That happened and resulted in the full-on Figaro race-type finish. It was quite frustrating in a way because you have so much of a lead over the ones that caught up from behind you, but at the same time we caught up V And B and nearly managed to get past them. But in the end everyone managed to hold the place they deserved.”
Initiatives Coeur finished in 2 days 8 hours and 1 minutes, beating Charlie Dalin and Apivia’s IMOCA record time from 2021 of 2d 16h 51m 24s.
The last gasp of the race into Cherbourg had been quite exciting: “It was quite cool overtaking Lucky just on the finish line. We had a bit of a fight with L’Occitaine because they are really fast in those conditions and they just caught us up. So we had a bit of a luffing match and then a wheelie-ing match. We pulled off some really cool wheelies on the way in because we didn’t have the right set-up and once you are going you can’t change it. The guys on the rail on Lucky must have enjoyed us wheelie-ing it out of control across the finish line!”
Long an advocate of the Rolex Fastnet Race, Sam is pleased with how the IMOCA participation in the race has developed and competitors have learned to enjoy it and its huge diverse fleet, despite the usually scary start out of the Solent. “I remember a few years ago coming to the Fastnet Race and there were just four or five of us bringing our boats over so that the people who race on the Solent [as Sam used to] get to see our boats. Now 30 IMOCA come – which is so cool. And now across the whole fleet there are some really good matches with ten boats all staying really close. Now the Rolex Fastnet Race is really part of the IMOCA class, it is in its calendar and it is essential, established now.”
There was a strong field of mixed crews in this race and impressively finishing immediately astern of Initiatives Coeur was
L'Occitane en Provence sailed by Justine Mettraux and Alan Roberts and Teamwork skippered by Davies' former Team SCA crew Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion. “It is cool to see that there are quite a few mixed crews. I know that Pip [Hare and Nick Bubb] had a load of breakages and there’s Isa as well [Isabella Josckhe with Pierre Brasseur on MACSF). “It is good as it proved that that is not a problem. Having said that it is pretty hard core racing these boats.”
But with the fully enclosed cockpit you don’t get wet? “No, I was drenched fixing forestays on the bow in 35 knots going downwind under water. Then there were a few sail changes and some stacking. We did a little soaked. For sure it is nothing like it was before. And we did have a lot of thoughts for all the people doing, and still doing this race, sitting on the rail. For sure we are well protected in our cockpits, but when you do speed over 30 knots you do need that protection. We are still learning what we need for these kind of boats which are not very comfortable.”
