Vendée Globe

February 16. 2009 at 15:10Dee's first words at the finish

You can hear an interview at the finish with Dee Caffari by clicking here:

Here are the highlights of the interview:
There were people there waving and saying hello and I thought that was pretty cool and then a random motor cruiser came up and shouted Go Dee! And I thought wow I’m close to the finish now. Then when everybody came out towards me… I knew there would be some Ribs and stuff, but this sight was brilliant and it’s such a gorgeous day. The sunset was beautiful and a lovely sunrise and I had dolphins, so I knew it was going to be a good day.

On finishing sixth: If you’d said that in the beginning, I’d have laughed in your face. I had an awesome start, then I made a few mistakes tactically in the Atlantic and the intensity of the race in the South Atlantic was just phenomenal. I sort of said, I’m not sure if I can do this. I was OK in the south, then I lost a bit of confidence in my first storm. Everybody was having lots of problems and that was when all the damage was happening and there was Yann’s injury and I lost all my confidence then.

Cape Horn was interesting. It was quite nice to hang out and know that the other two were with me. And I had an awesome Atlantic – I suddenly turned the corner and I’d grown into my boat. I did the repair on the main to keep it going a little bit longer. We just decided as a team to go for it and if it fell apart we’d deal with that later. I was really pleased to close the gap and then the Doldrums were a nightmare. A horrible two days, the worst two days of the race. I lost 300 miles to Brian in two days. Then I spent the North Atlantic closing the gap, but I just ran out of runway today. So I didn’t quite get him, but I’m happy to have pushed him all the way to the line.

Literally I started sailing in an Open 60 eighteen months ago. In my first solo race I hated it and cried all the way and got dismasted right before the end. I thought, Oh my God! What have I let myself in for? But I loved this and have grown into the boat all the time.

And your team? The reason why I’m here is that they did such a good job preparing the boat. I owe them lots of booze and I know I did them proud. They’re really chuffed with their project and we did it together. They did the boat and I just had to go and sail it and they’ve been there whenever I needed them.
 

February 16. 2009 at 14:12Dee finishes

And Dee reaches the finish line on Aviva in sixth place at 13:12:57 hrs GMT

- Race time : 99 days, 1h, 10 minutes and 57 seconds
- Theoretical speed : 10.45 knots
- Distance covered on the water : 27,907 miles
- Average real speed: 11.74 knots

Dee finished 14 days, 22 hours and 1 minute after Michel Desjoyeaux.

February 16. 2009 at 14:09Alongside Dee

And just one third of a miles to go, Dee was making 10 knots in the puff as the breeze picked up for a few minutes.

February 16. 2009 at 13:59Alongside Dee

1.6 miles to finish and Dee can see the line clearly and is steering her Aviva, trying to fix her eyes on the sails and concentate, just savouring these moments, storing them up never to forget them. And all the time now her gaze drops back to the line, shimmering in front of her. The end of the adventure is in sight. And her team have their bags on ready to leap on board with a pizza for Dee. Seven knots of boat speed.

February 16. 2009 at 13:54Alongside Dee

And she slows a little, no hardship, 2.2 miles to go at 13.55 local time. Is there a chance that bow number 222 could finish at 2.22? Helicopters up now, sailing boats. Alain Gautier, saferty consultant and winner of the second edition of the race, driving the RIB with Golding, looking on appreciatively.

February 16. 2009 at 13:42Alongside Dee

2.5 miles to the finish and MIke Golding is alongside in a rib with Bruno Dubois and Laurent from North Sails France offering their hearty congratulations. Two British girls in the top six of this Vendee Globe is amazing....and Dee's only remaining problem is that she just can't stop smiling. And three boats finishing within 12 hours is just fantastic. Brian had such a warm welcome into the channel this morning, it is such a lovely day you would expect the same for Dee, though she will have to wait until after 1800hrs local time to get into the Channel. That is not going to be too much of a hardship given the weather, giving her three or four hours to enjoy with those closest to her.

February 16. 2009 at 13:33Alongside Dee

She is eased off on a beam reach, Aviva picking up speed with the puffs, as keen to get to the finish as Dee is, she is focussed on where the line is 3.82 miles away, so counting down the last 15 minutes of her amazing Vendee Globe. Her race started as amazingly as it is finishing, no wonder she looks ecstatic.  The shafts of sunlight streaming through the two big areas of delamination, above the second batten and above the first batten.

February 16. 2009 at 13:25Alongside Dee

Dee has 5.25 miles to go and looks deliriously happy on this beautiful afternoon, just 7-9 knots of breeze and almost warm sunshine, she is making 9 knots and her mainsail looks bad, very bad but it is holding its shape and driving her nicely, full main and G2 genoa, she is waving to the photographers every two or three minutes as the spectator fleet grows. She is en route for sixth, a huge achievement in just over two years of Open 60 sailing. Her family and friends are in close and making huge cheers. She has Les Sables d'Olonne in her view, that familiar outline she last saw on 9th November, 99 days ago.

February 16. 2009 at 12:35Highlights of Brian's press conference

You can listen to Brian's press conference by clicking here ... 

Here are some of the highlights:

It’s absolutely fantastic to be on dry land and to arrive back on such a beautiful day, and with so many family and friends and public who’ve come to welcome me back. It’s a little bit strange, but this is where the race started and les Sables is such a fantastic place and the people are so friendly and it feels like I’m back home again. The start was not the best start I’ve ever had. I was not that near the front and I had too many people on my boat 3 minutes before the start and they’re supposed to get off 4 minutes before. So there was some misunderstanding about the timing of the start. It was a very difficult start, straight into big seas from the very beginning. And you think, oh is the whole race going to be like this?

I took a penalty for the problem with the people on board and the penalty was 4 hours, but because of the place where I had to take the penalty it cost me 500 miles to where Dominique Wavre was. Interestingly perhaps it was a good thing in a strange way as I was out of the leading pack and I was then able to sail my own race. I’m still not too happy about the penalty but the leading boats were all racing each other and going faster and faster until there were only 2 left.

In the southern ocean I had a lot of repairs to do. One time I was doing repairs down below for 3 days solid, going quite slowly to make sure the boat did not move too much so that the repairs would solidify. I think I sent an email to a sponsor Andrew Pindar and said near the Kerguelen Islands I thought I could get in the top 5. I could see a lot of attrition at the front of the fleet.

There was actually one big storm before Cape Horn, then I thought Cape Horn would be the deliverance to better weather, but actually the biggest storm of the race was after Cape Horn. This storm was so bad that the race committee looked at the weather with Météo France, and called me and said Brian I think you should turn around and hide behind Staten Island, and that shows how great the race committee is and how they take care of us. Because at that point I didn’t have a lot of weather information, so maybe their actions saved my life

In the South Atlantic ,I was 2nd fastest and then I was stopped for nearly 24 hours, so I was very lucky and sailed a good course up there. I was hoping to get the record for that, but of course Michel Desjoyeaux got it. After my good run in the South Atlantic, in the Doldrums, after using my keel so much the hydraulics started to fail and that was a problem all the way from the Doldrums to the finish here. I couldn’t really use the full potential of the boat in reaching conditions. It was incredible, as on the very last night of the race, last night, the two rams became disengaged from the keel, because the bolts broke. It shows you how lucky I’ve been to finish this race and very fortunate to be back in les Sables, and very happy to be in 5th place.

The boat is a very good boat, very strong, very new, so little problems became big problems in the Vendee Globe, but normally we’d have had more time to test things beforehand. I’ve had to learn about lots of new things, and also I’ve had a lot of support from my shore team and also from experts all around the world who’ve given up their time to be on the end of the phone. It was definitely a team effort, but I’m very happy that I kept pushing and kept trying to over come each obstacle and get to the finish in les sables and my goal in the beginning was to get in the top 5 and finish and I did it.

I’ve sailed around the world twice on big catamarans, and I thought that would prepare me for the Vendée Globe, but still the Vendee Globe is much much harder than you can possibly imagine. And those times like having to go up the mast by yourself, which you don’t have to do with a crew, are the most difficult moments. And also it takes longer, and you see much more bad weather, than in a maxi catamaran which goes much faster and in the south sees with only one weather system for many days or even weeks, but on our boats we see more weather and bigger storms.

I would really like to see a Bahraini sailor in the Vendee Globe, and I think 8 years would probably be the right amount of time. It would be possible in 4 years. There are some very good sailors in Bahrain, but to get the offshore experience, 2016 would be ideal.

The race is much bigger, better organised, and much tougher than any other race, and more than I ever could have imagined
 

February 16. 2009 at 11:05Brian's first words

"It’s brilliant, what a day, what a beautiful day, sun’s out, great seas, it’s amazing

I’ve been fighting to stay ahead of Dee (Dee Caffari, AVIVA) the whole time and keeping my keel problem a secret, and last night the ram broke, and disengaged from the keel

I’m amazed I’ve done any sailing at all, because every day I spent my whole time down below fixing various things, electronics, weather equipment, I mean it’s just amazing

I’d rather have done the race with a bit more sailing involved but I’m pleased of myself for getting through all those things and not getting down and fighting every problem and somehow get to the finish line one way or another

20 minutes before I crossed the finish line, I thought I’ve only got to do one tack nothing can go wrong now, and just had a beautiful crossing of the line

I had a few problems in the bow, but I managed to pull up the repairs, the worst thing was getting stuck up the mast on Christmas day, that was very rough, bumpy and not Christmasy at all

She’s obviously had a mainsail problem (on Dee Caffari aboard Aviva), but peen pushing quite hard, the keel not working for the last two three weeks has been hard, no electricity either, and no weather information, the last three days I’ve had very little power, and the only thing working was the autopilot

5th is an excellent result overall, I’m quite happy about that, I wanted to be in the top five, but I hadn’t expected the race to be such a race of attrition, but that’s pretty good out of 30 boats"