The boys from Brazil

TJV Open 50 winners talk about disgust of frankfurters and Alex's sleepwalking

Early yesterday morning Australian cat sailor Paul Larsen (left) and Alex Bennett (right) finished first in the Open 50 class in the Transat Jacques Vabre.

For Bennett this victory takes him one step closer on the road to taking part in the 2004 Vendee Globe for which he needs sponsorship and an Open 60. For Larsen it is another page in a career that has included being one of Pete Goss' elite on Team Phillips (where he met Bennett), sailing around the world in The Race with Tony Bullimore on board Team Legato and most recently racing with Cam Lewis on Team Adventure.

This boat has had a remarkable career. They were sailing the Aqua Quorum Open 50 Adrian Thompson designed for Pete Goss to sail in the 1996/7 Vendee Globe Challenge. It was in this boat that Goss rescued Raphael Dinelli. It has since been around again in the Vendee Globe with Patrice Carpentier at the helm.

Between these occasions Ellen MacArthur sailed her to a class victory ahead of many of the Open 60s in the last Route de Rhum and last year Emma Richards sailed it to another class victory in the Europe One New Man STAR.

She is a carbon fibre boat with a swing keel and a fixed carbon fibre mast.

Congratulations! Well done, you're the first Open 50 to cross the line, how does it feel!?

Alex: Great! It's really good! We worked hard from the start, our competition was very hot indeed ­ the last 18 days they've been pushing hard and we've been pushing them, we've had a great race!

Paul: It¹s a very difficult course, we never knew we had first place until the finish line, I don¹t think either of us were satisfied that we had first place till the finish line ­ so, now we¹re sitting here AT the finish line, so obviously we¹re very happy.

First of all, what were you¹re first impressions of the course, what do you think the conditions were like and what did you think of the fleet?

Paul: Well I think we had a bit of everything in there, we had the light winds coming off the title at the start line, we had the Bay of Biscay which was quite windy, certainly coming over Finisterre. We had a situation where we didn't know the performance envelopes of the other boats and how our boat would perform in all these different conditions.

It was a whole lottery. We were very worried all of the time, frightened that these boats were going to get their pace, but we managed to keep them off. So the race offered everything. The boat won in the end because we had a better overall package.

Alex: We knew that with any and every opportunity to push the boat hard we had to take it, because the newer boats would work better in a straight line. So any opportunity to charge that little bit harder was seized and maximised.

That resulted in us getting to the Canaries first, and the Canaries was the first time that we really hit a physical wall in our fitness. We'd been pushing the boat for so long for two weeks, and all of a sudden we got to there and we were shattered. The wind conditions didn't let up from the start ­ it was full on all the way.

How do you think One Dream: One Mission performed in the race?

Alex: Great! Really good! The boat has always been a good design, not just fast but also robust, and you need that in a race like this I think. Even now she's a five year old design, she just goes to show that she can compete up there with the new designs and she's still right up there in the fastest 50s in the world.

Which do you think the most intense phase was?

Alex (to Paul): It was the last 50 miles wasn¹t it!

Paul: I'd say for us we were very psyched to do well in this race so, when it came down to going down the Bay of Biscay, we just pushed probably to an extent that the other guys didn't suspect. That's where we grazed beyond them, and we just nailed them.

We had a huge lead in a very short time and it made the other guys lift their level, whereas we were always thinking that there was something more we should be doing and that we had to try harder all the time.

Every minute of the day we were always saying that we should be trying harder, we should be going harder, we should be getting more out of the sail, we should be catching more waves. And so we nailed ourselves, mentally and physically, which gave us a buffer and it was up to them to catch up with us. We set the pace.

Now you talk about pace, you're probably aware the of the press coverage that said that you were going so well early on that they thought you were going to burn out ­ what's your response!

Paul: AH HA HA HA!

Alex: We always knew to win this race you've got to push hard. We were also very aware of our physical and mental abilities which is very important, and we knew that we could push ourselves as hard as we did at the start for the whole race. If the race finished tonight or next week, we knew that we could keep that pace up, which was quite high. We were always determined to raise the game as high as it needed to be, to be that one step ahead of the competition.

Paul: I think that when we came to The Canaries, we'll learn from then for when we do races again. We'll know next time that every time you have an opportunity, and the boat's stable ­ sleep, because you don¹t know what the next 10 hours, 5 hours, 2 hours ahead are going to present.

The absolute example of this was when we hit a rocky patch, there where we were both sitting in a daze watching the kite blow out, and there was nothing we could do about it with fatigue. It's all experience. We're relatively young, but it saved the game.

Alex: That was one mistake we made coming into the Canary Islands, we were still pushing hard and we had to make a decision between a big spinnaker and a not so big one, and the conditions for the entrance of the Canaries needed the big one. But we knew that within five miles that we needed the smaller one, but we left it on the big one because we were tired, but as a result we blew one of our sails out.

Lessons learnt and luckily it didn't cost us anything in terms of mileage to the opposition. But at the same time as Paul said we are young, and sometimes although you need a little of that 'gung ho' attitude. You also need the experience and maturity to know when to slow down a bit, so it's all a learning curve.

Talking about sleep deprivation, we heard of some skippers who had bad experiences and hallucinated etc. Did you have any of these?

Alex: Yeah I had this big hallucination that we finished this race first! No I generally tend to dream a lot, when I'm on the boat, more than I would normally. But I didn¹t have any hallucinations ­ what about you? (to Paul)

Paul: Well where do you think you are now Alex?

Alex: Well I'm still back in Torquay aren't I? (Laughs)

Paul: Well we did have this one funny situation where I was up on watch and the boat had just done this big old round up. Alex was obviously woken up because the boat was at some extreme angle, and he's got out there and said "Are you all right?" and I said "No I'm not bloody all right, the autopilot's failed, get up here and do something about it, cos I'm fighting here at the helm!"

And he's gone okay and he disappears into the hatch, and I thought he was just putting all his gear on - but he's gone back to bed! He's got up, but not woken up!

Is the boat still in good shape?

Alex: The boat's in pretty good shape

Paul: I think we've done more damage on the boat trying to get across the bloody finish line as opposed to the 4300 miles we've been sailing!

Alex: All the rubbish has fallen out due to the big gybes and tacks coming in land! But in general the boat's in pretty good shape ­ our winches have pretty much given up the ghost now. It's a shame that we didn't have better winches. Our sails are pretty old too, but they're not with us any more! We trashed a few so we have to get some more, quite how I'm not so sure, but we made the best of what we had, and luckily that was enough to get us to first place. But in general the boat structure and electronics are great.

You've had glowing reports from Catherine Chabaud and Ellen MacArthur, as well as with others who have experiences with the 'little yellow boat' ­ what are your responses to them?

Alex: Great! The little yellow boat is a fantastic machine, a boat that is really loved throughout the sailing community. It¹s a very special boat, it has been the springboard for careers for a lot of people, and I hope that it will be the springboard for my career too. And this result will obviously help both of us. We¹re very fond of the boat.

Paul: Oh absolutely, I¹ve always been a great supporter of multi hulls, and to have been onboard this thing, and to see the performance capabilities for a mono hull has been quite enlightening.

Alex: He's been shown the light ­ a multi hull sailor converted!

Paul: Yeah, yeah! I was very impressed with the boat and I think that boat still has quite a few races ahead of it. I think there's some stuff that Adrian hit right on the head that will influence the future of designs, be it 50 or 60 footers.

So when are you guys going to sail together again?

Paul: Never!

Alex: Urrgh never (Laughs)

Paul: We're not in the same hotel are we? (Laughs) We are?

Alex: Aren't they my foulies?

Paul: They were when you had to do the dirty work!

Alex: They ARE my foulies they've got knots in them!

Paul: No I have knots in mine too..oh here we go! Turn it up

Alex: Turn it up!

Alex what are your immediate thoughts on sailing home alone?

Alex: Can't wait! Need to get the boat in shape in the next few days, we had a few autopilot problems on the way down here, so we need to sort that out and our winches. Apart from that, I'm really looking forward to getting out there and doing some serious ocean miles solo, and I'll think that will be good for next year's singlehanded races. My only hope is that I'm home for Christmas for my mum!

And there's more....

Below: the boat when Ellen MacArthur sailed her in the 1998 Route de Rhum