Vendée Globe

Four years ago, Karen Leibovici was the final competitor to finish the race in thirteenth place out of the twenty that set sail.  Her race time: 126d 08h 02', was 2h30 more than Norbert Sedlacek. And the course Sedlacek completed is 1160 miles longer.

In fact, if we look at the rankings, we can see regular progress in terms of the times taken by the final boats to finish, with the exception of the Italian sailor, Pascale De Gregorio in 2000-2001, who took 158 days.

Norbert Sedlacek said: 

“ I would say it was the same tough race that I thought it would be, but I have not thought before that I would make it. I think it was really quite funny in some ways because we had some really stormy weather two times. The second time it was just for a few hours, it was an experience, but when I was deep down south in 2000 it was I had really heavy storms but that was for two or three days with big waves and so on, but I never ever seen it like it where it just hits you like ‘bam!’ and you are at like 90 degrees and one or two minutes it is gone, no more wind. In a few seconds it is gone.

The second really great experience was at Cape Horn. I was crying like a child on the boat, it was a mystic situation, I don’t know why but it was really, really, really good. I don’t know I was never worried about myself, I was only ever worried about damaging the boat. That was my one and only sorrow was about big damage to the boat, I was worried about not being able to finish the race.

“Life aboard the boat is really difficult.  She's an old boat, but it's all very simple inside.  I don't have any seats like on the new boats, where you can do all the adjustments.”

“ Our problem is that an aluminium construction isn't the same thing as a carbon boat.  It's very hard to change tack and you find yourself heeled over at 30° for 4 or 5 days.”

“ There's a bed just in front of the nav desk. I have various alarm systems.  You get to sleep for 15-20 minutes at the most. The alarm starts beeping, as you have to trim the sails to deal with the weather. In the Bay of Biscay where there are cargo ships all around, you get to sleep for five or ten minutes, so over the past couple of days I didn't get any sleep, as there was too much shipping around.”

“ If you sleep for 5 or 6 hours a night, that can be dangerous. On the automatic pilot, wind mode wasn't working. So it could only keep on a bearing. If the wind or sea conditions changed, the autopilot couldn't adapt to that.”

“ The relationship with Nauticsport Kapsch is a bit like the relationship between a man and a woman for one, two or three years with a lot of love, but with problems too that you can expect with such a love.

I really loved the boat.  I gave her a kiss after crossing the finish line. But I can't sail another Vendee Globe with the same boat.

“ I mean you go down to the South you are searching for strong conditions then  you must not be angry when you get them. But you still hope you will not run in deep shit. It happened two times, for me it was quite Ok I was able to manage the situation.”

“ When you do a project like this it can end up every second when you crash in a container or when you have a bad accident so for me it is obvious you need to have luck. If you don’t have luck then you’ll run in troubles.”

“ When you  make race with an old boat you know you re going to have technical problems and you prepare yoursefl and the boat for such situations.”

“ The skippers that run the new boats may trust too much on the technique and the fact that the boat is new and will not accept that the Nature does not care if your boat is old or new, Nature breaks new boats in the same way it breaks old boats. You have to accept it and all your living and handling onboard has to be run under that rule.

When you can t tack anymore, when the wind is too strong, you have to search for another course. That’s the reality.”

“ I did in 2000 a Cape Town to Cape Town I met few skippers with Open 60 s and 50’s before. When I saw the boats the first time I thought that  must be somebody stupid that goes at sea with that king of  boat or make a race. Then I did the Antarctic project and I know that cruiser racing was over and I also realize that kind of sailing was too slow for me.”

“ And then I met Thierry Dubois and sailed one day on Solidaires, it was a day with no wind, sailing in La Trinité sur Mer and I was really pleased about the  conditions and about the technical equipment on this boat. That was my first real contact with this kind of and then I thought it might be possible to do the Vendee, people told me it would not be possible that I would not find sponsors or a boat. But in the end the people that know me know how I handle things when I really want to get something. In the end I found the boat, not the most beautiful, not the best but she did the Vendee in the end.”

“I was not in a situation when you sit down and say I want to be Open 60 skipper and do the Vendee Globe.”

“It was not so bad to drive the Tram but not the same speed as when you surf in the southern ocean !

A few weeks before I quit the job, I was reading a book about Colombus, it was 10 o’clock in the evening and I was reading a very interesting page when Colombus went to the Caribbean island, when the light turned green and  I thought: “Forget the traffic light!” And I read 2 pages more and then there comes another that was late but normally I had to wait for it. So in that situation everybody was happy that I had waited!”

“ So the next day I had a letter in the office with a nice bonus saying that I had been so clever to wait for the tram 49 at that late hour and pick up all the people. So that was a great situation.

“ When you want to make a big thing you have to organise it in small steps. This small steps to help you. Even the clothes. The weather gear for example you can buy it in every store so nothing special about it. But I bought a second one that I stored to use it when i think i would be in deep shit. And in this situation I would open the container and take the new weather gear.”

“ I bought some French pate also. So when you are in a situation that is not very nice, you take the paté and make yourself a nice tea with nice bread. That keeps you going.

Hope 18 weeks was not too long for you to wait but now you have to wait for 4 years to have the same situation again.”

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