The recent rain does little to dampen the spirits and excitement of the hundreds of school children who clearly still enjoy their visit to see the assembled Vendée Globe race fleet.
From on board his Great American III laconic American Rich Wilson takes time to speak to the different parties of kids and their teachers, answering their questions patiently in French.
From on board his Great American III laconic American Rich Wilson takes time to speak to the different parties of kids and their teachers, answering their questions patiently in French.
But while the few words the 57-year old skipper can share with the young enthusiasts may inspire another generation of French soloists, Wilson is behind a growing, flourishing educational programme which has expanded its reach and magnitude all over his native America.
While the French kids may love their day out of the classroom, Wilson is intent on inspiring youngsters at home and in schools by bringing to life a whole range of educational topics, helping them to interact with his seagoing adventures as well as with a range of different world renowned experts in their field.
During this Vendée Globe circumnavigation Wilson expects to typically spend two hours each day working on the Site’s Alive http://www.sitesalive.com) education programme and writing articles which will have an enormous audience across the USA.
Wilson raced the last Transat Jacques Vabre with veteran Mike Birch and then completed the solo return BtoB race from Salvador to La Trinité. While he has no great expectations to be competitive in the main fleet, he does aim to tussle with the older generation Open 60’s.
“ We did the Transat Jacques Vabre with Mike Birch which was interesting, because he is great and sailed the boat back from La Trinité to the USA. In the Transat Jacques Vabre we made a few mistakes, we did not really have a weather route, but anyway Mike was great to sail with. On the BtoB race back from Brasil we had a little problem with the D2 shroud which had a cut in the PBO so we had to take it a little bit easy. We did not do so well upwind.” Recalls Wilson, “But the BtoB was really about getting the boat back in one piece and qualifying for this race. And then I did not do The Transat because we have this big school programme which we do and so I had to spend some time putting that together.”
The Site’s Alive programme has gained a big following in the USA over its history of more than 15 years:
“ It is mostly going to be in the USA, on the web. Maybe we are getting to the point now in the USA with the web as an educational tool. But I really do not consider myself a professional sailor, I consider myself an educator and we have been doing these kind of projects for 18 years now and have done 75 different programmes with adventures and expeditions all around the world into , from Institutes of Oceanography, to the Rainforest, we even did a programme with the New England Conservatory of Music and all these programmes are two months long and on line.”
He explains the essence of what the education programme is about and how the reach has grown:
“ We have been on line in a big way since 1993, and it has taken since then to really gain acceptance. On this race we have 26 different newspapers all across the USA which will publish 15 part weekly series, all under contract. We have five more newspapers which will promote the programme on line. We will get to six million readers for the weekly pieces 250,000 – 300,000 schoolkids participating, a 60 page teachers’ guide. Plus one of the coolest things we did in the 2004 Transat, so we have some other people writing. We have a spectacular line up of experts in the maritime arena, 15 experts plus who will write some of our articles and answer questions on line. This includes the head of Maritime Affairs for the US Government, the President of the US Merchant Marine Academy, a Professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we have the President of the Museum of Science, Maritime Art Curator, we have five doctors including a cardiologist, my Asthma doctor, a psychiatrist.”
“What they will do is answer questions, kids will be able to be in communication with these experts, or to see communication with these people who have lead varied lives. So the whole idea is to get kids excited by whatever it is, science, geography, maths, nutrition by putting them in touch with real people. I was a school teacher many years ago.”
The Great American III Open 60 programme is privately funded. As with Bruce Schwab who competed in the last race with his Ocean Planet, sponsorship has been extremely hard to find in America.
Wilson explains:
“In the USA these races are almost completely unknown, really almost in the sailing community as well, which is odd for the USA, since the mythology there is for the lone frontiersman out in nature, overcoming hardships, sleeping under the stars, the cowboy ethic. And this race is absolutely congruent to that, but it is unknown there, the media don’t write about it. This race will get more coverage in the USA than it has ever got, because we have this outreach programme.”
He has great confidence in his boat:
“ When we got this boat it was a great boat. It was designed by Bernard Nivelt and built by Thierry Dubois, a great boat builder, who sailed the boat 2000 and in the Around Alone in 2002. Patrice Carpentier raced her in the 2004 race and so the boat has been around three times, so we are hoping for a fourth. She has a canting keel, single daggerboard and twin kick up rudders. The keel was controlled by a block and tackle, but we have a motor for the winch now. Other than that we made the chart table a little longer, moved the galley. We have the same mast but some new daggerboards, and two new rudders.”
Wilson’s boat appears well prepared, tidy and virtually ready to go. His spirit of adventure is already well proven, he admits to being in peak physical condition and set for the Vendée Globe.
While the French kids may love their day out of the classroom, Wilson is intent on inspiring youngsters at home and in schools by bringing to life a whole range of educational topics, helping them to interact with his seagoing adventures as well as with a range of different world renowned experts in their field.
During this Vendée Globe circumnavigation Wilson expects to typically spend two hours each day working on the Site’s Alive http://www.sitesalive.com) education programme and writing articles which will have an enormous audience across the USA.
Wilson raced the last Transat Jacques Vabre with veteran Mike Birch and then completed the solo return BtoB race from Salvador to La Trinité. While he has no great expectations to be competitive in the main fleet, he does aim to tussle with the older generation Open 60’s.
“ We did the Transat Jacques Vabre with Mike Birch which was interesting, because he is great and sailed the boat back from La Trinité to the USA. In the Transat Jacques Vabre we made a few mistakes, we did not really have a weather route, but anyway Mike was great to sail with. On the BtoB race back from Brasil we had a little problem with the D2 shroud which had a cut in the PBO so we had to take it a little bit easy. We did not do so well upwind.” Recalls Wilson, “But the BtoB was really about getting the boat back in one piece and qualifying for this race. And then I did not do The Transat because we have this big school programme which we do and so I had to spend some time putting that together.”
The Site’s Alive programme has gained a big following in the USA over its history of more than 15 years:
“ It is mostly going to be in the USA, on the web. Maybe we are getting to the point now in the USA with the web as an educational tool. But I really do not consider myself a professional sailor, I consider myself an educator and we have been doing these kind of projects for 18 years now and have done 75 different programmes with adventures and expeditions all around the world into , from Institutes of Oceanography, to the Rainforest, we even did a programme with the New England Conservatory of Music and all these programmes are two months long and on line.”
He explains the essence of what the education programme is about and how the reach has grown:
“ We have been on line in a big way since 1993, and it has taken since then to really gain acceptance. On this race we have 26 different newspapers all across the USA which will publish 15 part weekly series, all under contract. We have five more newspapers which will promote the programme on line. We will get to six million readers for the weekly pieces 250,000 – 300,000 schoolkids participating, a 60 page teachers’ guide. Plus one of the coolest things we did in the 2004 Transat, so we have some other people writing. We have a spectacular line up of experts in the maritime arena, 15 experts plus who will write some of our articles and answer questions on line. This includes the head of Maritime Affairs for the US Government, the President of the US Merchant Marine Academy, a Professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we have the President of the Museum of Science, Maritime Art Curator, we have five doctors including a cardiologist, my Asthma doctor, a psychiatrist.”
“What they will do is answer questions, kids will be able to be in communication with these experts, or to see communication with these people who have lead varied lives. So the whole idea is to get kids excited by whatever it is, science, geography, maths, nutrition by putting them in touch with real people. I was a school teacher many years ago.”
The Great American III Open 60 programme is privately funded. As with Bruce Schwab who competed in the last race with his Ocean Planet, sponsorship has been extremely hard to find in America.
Wilson explains:
“In the USA these races are almost completely unknown, really almost in the sailing community as well, which is odd for the USA, since the mythology there is for the lone frontiersman out in nature, overcoming hardships, sleeping under the stars, the cowboy ethic. And this race is absolutely congruent to that, but it is unknown there, the media don’t write about it. This race will get more coverage in the USA than it has ever got, because we have this outreach programme.”
He has great confidence in his boat:
“ When we got this boat it was a great boat. It was designed by Bernard Nivelt and built by Thierry Dubois, a great boat builder, who sailed the boat 2000 and in the Around Alone in 2002. Patrice Carpentier raced her in the 2004 race and so the boat has been around three times, so we are hoping for a fourth. She has a canting keel, single daggerboard and twin kick up rudders. The keel was controlled by a block and tackle, but we have a motor for the winch now. Other than that we made the chart table a little longer, moved the galley. We have the same mast but some new daggerboards, and two new rudders.”
Wilson’s boat appears well prepared, tidy and virtually ready to go. His spirit of adventure is already well proven, he admits to being in peak physical condition and set for the Vendée Globe.
