Miranda Merron diary

Former Pindar and Royal & SunAlliance girl turns skipper for Transat Jacques Vabre

We are in Le Havre, with five days to go to the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre. Our Open 60 un univers de services... is almost ready.

The boat started life as Alain Gautier's Bagages Superior on which he won the Vendee Globe in 1992-3, so she is now quite an old lady compared to the rest of the fleet. She has undergone a number of changes since then, including the addition of a canting keel. The only thing we have added are two tillers in place of the wheel (see above*), so at least we can see the headsails when steering. We have tested them downwind in 40 knots, and they work well.

My co-skipper for the Transat Jacques Vabre is Frederique Brule, who I sailed with on Royal & SunAlliance. We have only had the boat for two months, and have been very lucky to have friends help out with preparation and training. These boats are not particularly easy to manouevre in port at the best of times, but since we installed the tillers, the engine controls are some 20 feet away, so the extra help has probably prevented us from damaging our boat or someone else's!

We spent the last three weeks training out of Lorient, where Emma Richards and Mikaela von Koskull were also based. Wednesday night and 300 miles and thirty hours later we reached Le Havre, much of the trip being downwind. The current speed record for us stands at 21.4 knots, and we think she can go faster.

One of the delivery crew, former BT skipper Steven Wilkins, had his first experience of overtaking a cargo ship in a sailing boat. There is no excuse to go slowly with these beasts off the wind.

Most of the 35 boats are now in Le Havre - this must be the most spectacular gathering of Open 60s, 50s and 60ft trimarans ever seen. The deadline for being here has just passed, but three boats are stuck behind the lock gates twenty miles away in Ouistreham because the lock-keepers are on strike until tomorrow and tardiness involves financial penalties.

The race this year goes to Salvador, Brazil, which makes it tactically more challenging. We are allowed shoreside weather routing and hope that we will take the right decisions, to make up for the slightly lower performance of the boat.

Brazil is a long way away and the infamous Doldrums lie along the way. First though we have to get out of the Channel and across Biscay with the boat intact. Then with some luck we will be rewarded with fast sailing in warmer weather. I can't wait to get going, and see if all the hard work has paid off!

Miranda Merron
skipper - un univers de services

*Joke