At the Sharp end

An update from the young British Class 40 skipper in St Malo

Phil Sharp (25) will be one of the sailors flying the flag for Britain in a fleet dominated by French sailors but is confident that after months of preparation he and his Groupe Finot designed Pogo 40, philsharpracing.com will be capable of a podium place come the finish in Guadeloupe.

Speaking from the marina in St Malo this morning Sharp said, “It seems hard to believe that in four days time I will be setting off as one of the 80 competitors in the biggest solo transatlantic to date.  Preparations are going well and these next few days will be all about watching the weather, getting the boat ready and getting as much sleep as possible. On average I will only be sleeping 4 hours per night, your body is slowly degenerating throughout the 3-week race period, so being as fresh as possible at the start is important”.

“The race village down here is an amazing spectacle, and far bigger than I ever imagined.  State-of-the-art ORMA 60ft trimarans, a lot of new expensive Open 60’s and then a massive fleet of 25 new Class 40 monohulls (which I am obviously part of), are lining the harbour walls all the way round St Malo.  Everyone is very interested in the Class 40, this being their first big race, and It is going to be really interesting how the different designs perform.  I think it’s going to bottle down to who knows their boat the best and who’s had the most sailing time on it, since many of the boats have just come out of the boatshed in the last month or so, and many skippers have literally just stepped onto their boats to race them for the first time.  I’ve fortunately got a Round Britain under my belt with the boat, on which I learnt a lot, and I think this will be very valuable experience for the Rhum.  Despite this I know that this race is going to be a huge learning curve for me and present many new challenges.

“So far it looks as though the start won’t bring anything like as windy as the previous 2002 Rhum, or the current Velux 5 Oceans.  My thoughts are really with those guys who’ve had to return to shore.  Having worked your socks off to get to the startline of such a big event only to get nailed by severe storms and damaged before you’ve had the chance to find your feet in the race must be sole destroying.  The conditions sounded horrendous, and you just have to be thankful that everyone is OK.  It is difficult because solo sailors end up taking huge risks and have to expect that sometimes the weather can get the better of you since it demands the highest respect at all times.  But when something actually happens to you, you are left thinking, ‘why me?’ and it can be incredibly frustrating… but that’s racing.

“Although at first I was quite apprehensive towards the start, I am now really looking forwards to going out there and getting the job done.  It will definitely be a long marathon, without many creature comforts, and with cold and windy weather expected in the North Atlantic at this time of the year it is going to be hard to keep my sprits high the whole time.  So I will just be concentrating on sailing as fast as possible the whole time and keeping my mind busy, since the harder I push the sooner I can begin my holiday in the Caribbean!”