Vendée Globe

One of only two women in the race, Davies has immersed herself in French solo sailing culture for the last five years, taking the classical route from Mini to Figaro to Open 60. An established and popular member of the elite training group working out of Port La Foret, Sam lives in a quiet area near the coast, midway between Concarneau and Lorient, as well as having a house in the UK. So, for her, she sees both sides of the French and Anglo Saxon sailing cultures.

She is a graduate engineer and while she has a tremendous shore team, she has become so self reliant at sea, able to have a go at fixing most things on Roxy, that her crew call her Mr MacGyver (after an American adventure tv series where the character can fix anything), in fact she confesses, she now e-mails daily just to assure her team at home she is OK: 

“ I like to do it myself. It is the perfect challenge, it is round the world without help and it is my challenge and I am more satisfied at the end if I have done it myself.” Davies admits.

On the contrast between the English and French solo sailing cultures and approaches she says:

“ The big thing in the IMOCA class is to have the PÔLE France structure and so I am lucky to be part of the team there, where we have a really good base and we can take the Open 60’s there now, so when we have the training stage then we can all have the boats in the same place, and be together for the briefing in the morning. With the Open 60 campaign it is so easy to get tempted into the trap of not going sailing very often on the boat.”

And is there is a big difference in the philosophy of self reliance, between the French and the English?

“ I think it is just because the emphasis in France has for so long been singlehanded racing. In the UK the equivalent to what we have in Port La Foret is like the Olympic training bases in Weymouth, the Olympic squads, the development squads which is much more advanced than in any country. Each country has their own strong points and weak points.”

“ Here all the skippers have all worked together as a group to progress, and then after that they fight it out among themselves, but they know that they will be either first to fifth rather than being anything from sixth to 15^th. So that is the idea of the ‘Frenchies’ to work together, to reassure ourselves of being one of the best, once the race is on. And sharing the knowledge a bit more than the English.”

“But then maybe the English teams, the team structure is slightly more developed and so there is that knowledge within the teams. I think in the UK there some of the biggest, most organised, most efficient teams and that is an Anglo Saxon way of doing things.

‘It is not worth doing it unless it is the best’….is the English way. I just pick out what I want from both. What goes well for me.”

Being a Roxy girl has made her a target of interest for a huge number of young teenage girls, and indeed visitors of all ages, on the pontoons of Les Sables d’Olonne, and while she chuckles almost embarrassed at being considered a role model, she remains down to earth and approachable:  

“ I am lucky because I was kind of a Roxy girl before I joined the programme, and now it is every girl’s dream because I get the clothes for free.”

“ As part of the group of Roxy athletes we are all very similar, and everyone trains really hard, and it would be so nice to meet up and do a sport which is not really anyone’s particular sport and train together, and we tried and tried but all the seasons overlap and so I don’t meet that many.”

“ Kids coming up and asking for autographs is just amazing. I was just so overawed as a kid I would not even go up and ask for an autograph, so it is so nice to just to chat to everyone and show them it is normal and you don’t have to be superwoman to do this. Anyone can do it, and you don’t have to have sailed all your life to do it.”  (more on audio) 

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