Golding wins Transat monos

Mike Golding first home in Open 60 class after gruelling North Atlantic passage

After a race that seems like an entire Vendee Globe squeezed into 12 and a half days, light winds took Mike Golding’s Ecover across the Boston Harbour finish line in the early hours of this morning to win the Open 60 monohull division of The Transat.

Sailing the 2,800 mile course from Plymouth to Boston in 12 days 15 hours 18 minutes and 8 seconds at an average speed of 9.23 knots, Golding took two days off the 12 year old record for the singlehanded passage east to west across the North Atlantic. This was previously held by Yves Parlier’s Cacolac d’Aquitaine with a time of 14 days 16 hours and 1 minute. Golding says he hadn’t thought about the record during the race and was surprised it was broken by so much considering the fleet had sailed so far off the great circle route during the race.

“I’m elated to be here and being first,” said a relieved Golding upon his arrival. “It is not the first time I’ve been to Boston and generally I have a bit of luck coming in here. I was concerned coming in here due to my keel problems - I thought I might have made a hash of it right at the end.”

Designer of Ecover and Project Manager of Golding's previous boat, Merfyn Owen summed up the real significance of this race win: "It’s the fruition of seven years of hard work of dreaming and planning, and sailing and breaking and getting back on his feet again and starting again. It is the pinnacle of his sailing career I would imagine."

During the race Golding and Ecover had to endure three weather systems bringing winds in excessive of 40 knots. “Each time we saw it coming…35 knots," recounted Golding. "But it was always significantly worse than that. I had a sustained 50 knots which you don’t very often get and very very big and confused seas. It seemed to go on forever. The first 10 days of the race were just rolling from one strong system to the other. I heard the stories of what happened to Virbac and it just blows my mind thinking of that happening with one of these boats. But my opinion of them is that they are incredibly safe.”

The weather Golding saw in The Transat he says was worse than he saw on the last Vendee Globe. “The last Vendee was not that strong. Maybe we saw 45 but we were going downwind. Realising you are going to get 45-50 knots of wind on the nose is a bit of a scary proposition. Conditions may be harder on this than in the Vendee but the boats can do it.”

Despite winning, Golding’s race was hampered when the electronic pump driving the hydraulic mechanism operating Ecover’s swing keel burned out within hours of the start. “The keel pump failed originally at the Eddystone and I changed the fuse and eventually the motor blew within half an hour. So I phoned my shore team and said ‘I’ll stay out here for two or three days and if it doesn’t work out - I’ll come back.’ So I am amazed to be here and to be here in the lead.

His winning move came three days before the finish at a time when he was neck and neck with competitor Mike Sanderson. “There was one bit of routing that suggested we went to the south of a little depression and I realised it was possible for me to get just above it and get some better angles and that’s exactly what happened. I just managed to get above it by the skin of my teeth and sailed around the top of the low in about 20 minutes. It went from very little wind to a lot of wind and I had to change the sail plan and come around. That’s when I got a decent size lead on Pindar.

“I was physically exhausted at the time and the transition around the top of the low was physically very very difficult to do. I had to do a large number of sail changes in a very short space of time and I was toast after it. Once I’d done it I was making bad decisions and pouring hot water into the coffee jar – but I was in front…”

With a third place in last autumn’s two handed Transat Jacques Vabre, a win in the singlehanded return race, Le Defi Atlantique and now The Transat, Golding is now a favourite for achieving what he set out to achieve seven years ago: a win in the Vendee Globe, non-stop singlehanded around the world race, which he will attempt for the second time this November.

Golding’s win in The Transat also puts him firmly into the lead of the 2004 IMOCA Open 60 class association championship with the remaining event in the calendar this year being the all-important Vendee Globe.

“Our project has been about Vendee and this is my second stab at that. So clearly we are heading in the right direction. But the truth of the Vendee is not about having the fastest boat nor the boat which wins this race. The last Vendee was won by someone who came seventh in this race, so while we are in good shape we can’t draw too many conclusions.”

Upon finishing at the Boston Harbour Hotel, Golding paid tribute to his shore team. “There was a lot of luck, great preparation on behalf of the team. The guys who work on these boats, work on them hard for very very long hours and get very little rewards. But in Plymouth we felt we were very well prepped. We were having meetings to discuss what we’d forgotten. And that was testament to the team. Plus some experience of having made a lot of mistakes before helps you not to make them again. And the same applies on the water – knowing when to push, knowing when not to push.”

Listen to 2000 monohull winner Ellen MacArthur compare her race to the 2004 Transat

More photos on page 2...

To give some indication of how much the lead changed in the Open 60 class during the Transat, here is a list of how the leader changed:

Armor Lux leads at start
Ecover leads across the Celtic Sea
Virbac took over the lead in the Celtic Sea at 1 June 0830.
Virbac led until midnight 2 June when Ecover takes the lead
0230 on 2 June, Virbac takes the lead.
Ecover ahead at 4 June 1430 shortly before Virbac dismasted
Pindar takes the lead 5 June 1100 (going over the top of second depression)
Pindar leads until 5 June 1800 when Ecover takes over.
Pindar retakes the lead at 0817GMT 6 June (on the NW corner of the depression)
Stamm takes the lead at 1008GMT (storming down from the north), PRB into second ( Pindar and Ecover third and fourth) by Stamm loses keel
Ecover back in lead 0917 on 7 June
Pindar in that lead at 1108 on 7 June
Ecover back into lead at 1300 on 7 June
Pindar takes lead at 0200 8 June
Ecovers into lead at 0300 8 June
Pindar retakes the lead at 1837 8 June
Ecover back in front at 2314 8 June