Vendée Globe

Dee Caffari is getting used to the inherent celebrity status around the port of Les Sables d’Olonne that comes with being a Vendée Globe skipper.

The British solo skipper has had to work to a tight time schedule since the new Owen Clarke designed AVIVA was launched in New Zealand in January, but – other than losing two weeks when a replacement keel was fitted – she has consistently hit all her targets along her Open 60 learning curve which she has often admitted was ‘near vertical’.
Crucial to her confidence in her own ability with the powerful, new generation AVIVA, was completing the gruelling solo Transat in the spring.
And with the predecessor AVIVA Open 60 she completed a testing Transat Jacques Vabre a year ago as a prelude to her first ever solo Open 60 race, the Transat BtoB back from Salvador to France.
She, and the AVIVA shore team, spent a valuable seven weeks based out of Cascais in Portugal putting in the long hours on the water, and refining the boat. As part of the technical alliance with Mike Golding’s ECOVER project – the two boats are identical twins built in Wellington – they managed to complete one of two planned two boat testing periods in September. There is little doubt that being the second of the two new Owen Clarke boats has helped with the learning process.
Among the best single group of Open 60 skippers mustered for the biggest ever Vendée Globe, she is very much aware of her relative status as a Vendée Globe first timer, but she is loving the experience and is very happy with her preparations:

“ I am starting to enjoy the atmosphere, enjoying being here. When we arrived we were one of the first six boats here. So it was quiet when we got here and it is just a massive buzz now. It is nice arriving early because I have had time to get my bearings, to find where everything is without stress and just enjoy the atmosphere…. while my nerves can still take it. The last week will probably pass by in such a flash I am kind of trying to make the most of now.” Caffari comments on board AVIVA in the warm autumn sunshine, “ There are a few compulsory briefings that we have had to go to, and there are a few jobs being done on the boat so I kind of just see them so that I know what they are up to. And just working with Coralie to try and get the media requirements and the schools and those kind of things which are better for us to get in now just to take the stress off the final week.”

Her sailing programme has been carefully planned, with only one delay when they had to fit the new keel.

“ I have simply done as much sailing as is humanly possible. It feels like it was really just a case of getting as much time as I could. We did have two weeks when we had to do things on the boat, we had a week where the keel was changed and then I went offshore immediately the next day, and did 1500 miles. And then we did a 10 day testing session with Mike (Golding) out of Plymouth which was straight on the back of that, and so it was a really good few weeks sailing. And then ‘the boys’ had a good couple of weeks with the boat prepping the bottom and just doing the final checks, and then we just did some local sailing just to make sure we put the boat back together right.”


And this week has been about making final checks, but Dee would happily slip away and start now, she quips:
“ We have been here to just check the pilots with the new software upgrades, and we had Laurent from North Sails on to check over a few things, and then we were chatting on the way in and they said ‘that’s it we don’t need to sail again’ and I was like……’oh my god the next time I go out I’ll be off to sail around the world. Finally it is happening!”

“Yesterday would have been a really nice day to start . I was saying to them….”I’ll just go now and have a little bit of a head start and miss out on all the stress that goes with it.”

She has worked hard with her team to strengthen her weaknesses and get to know the boat as much as possible:
“ I know I have had a short amount of time. The boat has been in the water 10 months and I have sailed 12,000 miles in that time. I had have managed to pack it in, and we have done quite a lot of crewed stuff as well. I am aware it is not as much as some but on a late project such as some, we have worked very hard at time on the water. We have never missed a day’s sailing. I have done the best that we could with the time.”
“ Even The Transat alone gave me everything it gave me everything in the first 24 hours I think, through every sail change possible and back down again. And I definitely feel so much more confident after that race. From there I identified key areas that I did not have confidence in, I did not fly the spinnaker because I did not have the confidence and I had not done it, and I was not confident with the pilot and the extra sail area this boat has. So I worked with a French coach for a week, flying the spinnaker and gybing it. And you do that over a concentrated period and that is fine. My confidence with stuff has just grown massively, but it is nice that I have been able to know the areas that I was concerned about, so that I could focus on them, rather than always sailing within your comfort zone.”

And preparing and sticking to a plan has been key to making sure she arrives here with all the ‘boxes ticked’, those relating to her own development and that of the boat:
“I was quite aware of what I wanted to achieve at the beginning and I knew we had quite a tight timetable. I have worked really closely with Joff (Brown, boat captain) just so that you know when the boat can be available for sailing and when we could not. A key time for us was by relocating to Portugal for seven weeks. It worked really well because the guys could work early morning and late nights, and so I still went sailing every day and get in the offshore miles. And so I was able to say….’right I am off to Madeira and I’ll see you in a few days. With a team which has been flexible I have been able to not lose any time on the water.”

And of course, her physical training has been one of her pleasures:
“ I have really enjoyed the strength and conditioning work. You always wish you had more time and you will always use whatever time is available to you. It is like a budget. You wish you had more money, but whatever money you have you will use. I had a big aerobic base anyway and did a lot of work on my core stability through the winter because injury is my biggest fear, illness or injury. And then since Portugal I have been putting on the strength programme. I feel the benefit.”
“ The shock is realising where it goes (during the race). When you come back everyone asks have you lost weight, you kind of go ‘I have probably got bigger shoulders and a bit more muscle, but you really lose a lot of lean muscle tissue too. It is a bit shocking, the effect it has. I am quite interested to see the effect it has on me, for the future. I am hoping I can do all this lot again.”

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