Solitary Sam

Prior to the Vendee Globe start Roxy skipper Sam Davies spoke to thedailysail about the race

Last week, prior to the start of the Vendee Globe, we caught up briefly with Sam Davies on board her Open 60 Roxy, tied up to the pontoons, almost sinking under the weight of spectators.

The extent of the throng that gathers in Les Sables d’Olonne, seemingly come rain or shine, has to be seen to be believed. Public interest in the Vendee Globe dwarfs anything we have seen in the America’s Cup or Volvo Ocean Race with literally hundreds of thousands of people passing through the race village and pontoons in the race’s three week long build-up.

Unflappable Sam seems entirely unphased by her newfound fame. Her face is on posters in every restaurant and bar in the region and being one of only two women in the Vendee Globe has added to her popularity.

“This week - everyone said ‘it’s going to be terrible, it’s a nightmare’, but it’s actually quite fun. I said myself I’m not going to worry about going to bed early and being stressed and hassled by people. All these people are here because they love it, so you have to go with the flow.”

Indeed at the late night party sponsored by Sodebo and one of the social highlights of the week, Sam was shunning the athlete way of getting plenty of early nights pre-race start and was there with French boyfriend and fellow Figaro sailor Romain Attanasio, only upstaged in this respect by the only other skipper propping up the bar - Yannick Bestaven who was with his heavily pregnant wife.




The level of public interest built gradually in the three week build up to the race start Sam says. “It was only when I was buying my apples and oranges this morning in the LeClerc supermarket that a lady came up to me and said [in awe] ‘are you Sam Davies?’ It was like – that only happens to popstars! Admittedly it is in Les Sables d’Olonne that people know who I am. And it happened again in the swimming pool this morning when I was there in my towel and turban head, someone else came up… That is the really nice thing about the race.

“The only thing which was really sad was yesterday was Jeanne [Gregoire] was on the boat and everyone thought she was me because she had a Roxy jacket on and so they are all shouting at her to get a photograph or an autograph ,and she said ‘I am not Sam Davies’ and the crowd was going ‘she’s such a snob that Sam Davies - she’s ignoring us, etc…” and Jeanne had to go because she couldn’t cope with it, because people were being horrible about me.

“You do have to perform, but its fair enough - its thanks to these people that we are here, that’s what the sponsors are getting out of sponsoring us to do this race.”

Having lived in France for several years now, Sam is part of the Port la Foret community where she trained in the Figaro and has continued to train in her Open 60 alongside many of the other top sailors in the fleet including Seb Josse, Jean le Cam, Roland Jourdain, Michel Desjoyeaux, Bernard Stamm, Yann Elies, Jeremie Beyou, Armel le Cleac’h, etc.

The boat she is sailing is none other than the former PRB, winner of the last two Vendee Globes in the hands first of Michel Desjoyeaux then Vincent Riou. This Finot-Conq design definitely knows its way around the world. Up in Lorient Sam and her team have heavily refitted the boat - the most major operation being converting her from a single central daggerboard to the more conventional twin asymmetric board arrangement. However Roxy remains a 2000 generation boat and is thus narrower with less stability and sail area than the newer more powerful beasts.

In the build-up to this Vendee Globe, Sam was perfectly happy with a good old boat preferring to be able to put in the time sailing as opposed to several of the other teams with new craft that had to concentrate first on developing their boat to a point where it was both fast and reliable. Although she hasn’t mentioned it, one gets the impression that this Vendee Globe is a dry fun for a fully fledged campaign to win line honours in the singlehanded non-stop round the world race in 2012-13.

As to this race Sam reckons thedailysail form guide is spot on having her 18th equal in a field of 30. “I reckon Dee [Caffari - who we ranked 21st] might end up in front of me because she has got a good boat and she has learned a lot. It is going to be hard to stay in front of her for the whole race, if we both make it around. Hopefully we won’t be far from each other. In boat terms the next one on my list is probably Bernard [Stamm] in front of me. Hopefully I’ll make higher than 18th because some of the boats in front of me are going to have problems which is why I should get around them.” Of course since then Stamm, being still in Les Sables d'Olonne following his collision, looks like being someone she should definitely finish ahead of.

So are there any parts of this race that even-keeled Sam is not looking forward to? “The start day. Sunday until about 3pm..! No, I am looking forward to it. I know there are bits where I’ll be grumbling.”

At this point we query her grumbling, having never witnessed it. “When I grumble, I don’t do it publicly. In that respect my boat will come back in one piece because I don’t punch my boat.”

Before continuing: “I know the Indian Ocean is hard because I remember it from when we were there on Royal&SunAlliance. I think maybe the first bit of going back up the Atlantic will be quite hard because when you get to Cape Horn it is like it is over and then you suddenly realise that you have to get all the way back up again. So there must be a big anti-climax about a day after Cape Horn when you realise you are not there yet.”

Otherwise she is confident? “Yes. I have done everything I can, but you can never be 100% confident with boats otherwise it would be easy to win and everyone can do it. There are always things that can go wrong.”

We could spend all day talking, but we happen to dwell on the subject of stacking. Pictures of all the VO70s you see all the sails up on the high side with teams developing systems to ensure that it remains in place and isn’t washed overboard. Many of the new Open 60s also place much more consideration on stacking and it is for this reason that the majority of new boats have virtually no furniture down below in order ease the passage of sails and gear from one side of the boat to the other during manoeuvres.

On Roxy Sam says she never stacks on deck. “It is too dangerous when you only have one of everything. Maybe going back up the Atlantic when I have got a couple of dead sails that I know won’t be used again, maybe I’ll put them up on deck. I stack everything. It is a nightmare.” The nightmare for her is partly due to the interior on Roxy which still has the MichDes conceived feature of ‘le maison’ - where the whole chart table and galley area can be canted up to weather. Unfortunately this is bang in the middle of the boat meaning that the stack must be dragged around it.

“Upwind I stack in the bow because its easier to tack and then reaching I start getting stuff in the bunks,” says Sam. “And I just have the next sail up on deck because it is just not worth risking it.”

Then there is stack planning, more vital for the singlehanded sailor than it is for an army of crew on a VO70. She told us her stacking strategy for the start: “You need to have the right sails on the top of the stack. You are leaving on port so you have to work out what sail you want to use first after the front has gone through [after you tack] which has to be on the bottom of the pile on port tack so that it rocks up on the top of the pile when you go on to starboard tack.”

And so endeth today’s lesson.

See Sam's first video from the race course here

More photos of Sam and Roxy on the following pages...