Winning a Figaro campaign for a year

Next week RYA Youth Match Racing Champion Sam Goodchild takes on a different challenge

A British first is to take place next week when youth sailor Sam Goodchild embarks on the Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne, a selection event where the winner earns themselves a year’s Figaro campaign – a scheme it would be great to emulate in the UK.

Goodchild is perhaps best known for being last year’s RYA National Match Racing Youth Champion, which might seem a million miles away from short handed offshore racing, this latter form of sailing is where Goodchild’s heart lies.

“I’ve tried to stick mainly to offshore and shorthanded where possible because I don’t like sitting on the rail for hour after hour,” he admits.

While his youth match racing title saw him being packed off to New Zealand and California for match racing events such as the Governor’s Cup where he finished fifth in a field of 12, aged just 19, Goodchild has already sailed across the Atlantic on the Hugo Boss Volvo 60 and this summer joined the Artemis Ocean Racing team for Cowes Week and the Rolex Fastnet Race on board Artemis 1. To give some indications of the diversity in Goodchild’s sailing – for the last two years he has also competed (as a sailors) in the 3 Peaks Race.

The connection with Artemis came from Andy Tourell, with whom Goodchild sailed on the Hugo Boss 60, as part of the RYA Volvo Keelboat program and in fact it was Tourell, now with Artemis Ocean Race, who put Goodchild on to the Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne. “Andy said I should apply for it, because it was a good opportunity,” recounts Goodchild. “So I applied for it thinking nothing would happen, because I’m not French, but thinking I have nothing to lose. Then they got back to me last week and said do you want to come and do it next week?”

Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne is open to 18-25 year old, so Goodchild falls very much into the lower end of this category. The winner gets to race the Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne for a season along with a budget, wages, allowing them to be competitive in the ‘Championnat de France de Course au Large en Solitaire’ ie the French Figaro circuit. The winner is also entitled to be trained by the no1 Figaro training centre, the Pôle Finistère Course au Large in Port la Foret, where most of the top Figaro sailors – as well as Open 60 skippers – work from. In short a very sweet deal for the winner.

The competition to win the Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne falls into three phases – initial selection via a sailing CV sent to judging panel, including professional sailors, technical experts from the French federation, the FFV and the partners.

Phase two which Goodchild will embark on next week will see the 15 sailors selection being evaluated over six days, looking at their competency as a solo skipper for a high level sailing project. This will include their ability with reading the weather, tactics, psychology, physical fitness, etc. This will be carried out three up on Figaro Beneteau 2s.

Should Goodchild pass this, and given his experience for one so young, he stands a good chance, then from 12-16 October the final seven finalists will be assessed on their ability singlehanded about the Figaro 2s who will race a series of triangle and windward-leewards.

Thanks to the help of Artemis, Goodchild has this week had three days of training on the Artemis Figaro 2 together with some coaching from Nick Bubb. And if Goodchild gets to move on to the second week of the competition then he will return to the UK beforehand for another week of training prior to the final stage.

The line-up for the Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne is as follows:

- Maxime CARIOU, 20
- Paul CLOAREC, 22
- Benjamin DUTREUX, 19
- Sam GOODCHILD, 19
- Cécile HOFFART, 24
- Hugo LAVAYSSIERE, 24
- Martin LE PAPE, 21
- Arthur LE VAILLANT, 22
- Anthony MARCHAND, 24
- Simon MORICEAU, 22
- Quentin PONROY, 23
- Maël TROEL, 23
- Simon TROEL, 22
- Julien VILLION, 22
- Vincent VILBOUX, 24

A fairly innocent looking list, but we would hazard a guess that Martin Le Pape, is related to or son of Christian le Pape, who runs the Pôle Finistère Course au Large while Arthur Le Vaillant, could be similarly related to Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, who runs the Incidences sail loft in La Rochelle and is also a sought after crew on the Open 60 and ORMA 60 fleet.

Goodchild admits that singlehanded offshore racing is his preferred future whether it is the Mini or the Figaro. “I am keen on offshore and shorthanded sailing because I find the fully crewed stuff quite dull. You spend a lot of time doing not much. And the Figaro seems a good place to start. It is all one design so it doesn’t matter which boat you have. It is also good competition. You know if you start doing well you are a good sailor. I don’t really have a clue how I’m going to get on, because I don’t know any of the other competitors or how much Figaro sailing they have done, but I am intrigued to find out. Either way I am going to benefit whether I have been selected for the second week or not. I am looking forward to it.”

In the meantime Goodchild, who doesn’t speak French, has been on a crash course to learn as many French sailing terms and phrases as possible before next week’s competition.