Three months from the Vendee Globe

Mike Golding looks ahead at what they learned from the Artemis Challenge and their imminent two boating with Aviva

With three months to the start of the Vendee Globe, Mike Golding and Ecover 3, are looking forward to the two-boat testing period with Technical Alliance partners, Aviva and Dee Caffari.

After a successful Artemis Challenge Race round the Isle of Wight this week, Mike Golding and the Ecover team are beginning a critical period in the development of the boat in the lead up to the Vendee Globe.

Recent races and sails have started to prove the reliability of Ecover 3 is much improved and, after a turbulent 18 months, Golding's stock is rising again.

These next few weeks of trials and tests are set aside to try and earn Ecover 3 a competitive edge, to allow Mike to fast-track some of the learning and optimising work, which would normally take thousands of ocean miles. Having two near perfectly matched boats in technical alliance represents an approach, which is commonplace at America's Cup, Volvo Ocean Race or even grand prix one design levels, but no IMOCA Open 60 team has really taken this approach yet.  Mike Golding and Dee Caffari are hoping the benefits will bring a tangible reward.

Speaking after the Artemis Challenge Mike Golding explained: " One of the things we are very clear on is that we are not looking for the minutiae here, we are looking for the big stuff, the cross-overs, the ballast changes, the things that will make a real difference on the Vendee Globe. The reality is that we are not an America's Cup programme, we have not got months and months to test nor do we hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds to spend on it to build hundreds of sails and test them, or a team to test them.

" So we are looking at the big stuff that is going to make the most difference and I think that the structure of it is coming together well now."

They will concentrate on speed testing and tuning during a series of days off Plymouth. Golding continues: "Day sailing will give us the most benefit. The objective is not to test Dee's solo capability up against mine, the objective is testing of configurations and knowing where crossovers occur and stuff like that. So we will achieve more with a crew that is alert and fully functional, so day sailing is the way to go.

"We have two weeks, which we hope will cover the complete wind range and allow us to try a number of different things in a number of different ways. It is less than we would have liked, but both Dee and I have had to change our keels. With us that has been a major effect on our programme, costing us probably four months, whereas with Dee it has not cost her so much, but the reality is that it has cost her another couple of weeks and that is all time that we could have been two boat testing.

"Two weeks is better than nothing, that's the way we view it now."

The exact structure of the technical teams, which will drive and review the testing is being formed just now, but it will certainly include the skippers, North Sails France's Bruno Dubois who sailed on Ecover 3 with Mike on the TJV last November and on the SNSM, and Merf Owen of designers Owen Clarke.

"I think it will be a technical individual from each team," says Golding. "We will be working with Nat Ives and Dee will appoint someone and we set out the agenda with Merf (Owen of Owen Clarke, designers of Ecover 3 and Aviva) about what we want to test. Dee has now done enough sailing with the boat to know where she is uncertain about crossovers and stuff. I have done enough sailing with the boat to know where I want to test and Merf has his own views of certain aspects that he wants to look at. In addition to the straightforward things like the cross-overs we want to test the interceptors, because both the boats are identical - interceptors, daggerboards, dagger-board settings, are much more interesting because you can really learn what works best. Bruno will be with us of course and he is a fantastic asset to this team and of course does Dee's sails as well. "

They are hopeful that a two-week window out of Plymouth will afford a good range of wind conditions: "We would like a complete range of winds, but it is reasonable to say that we don't need to be testing above 25 knots.  I think above 25 knots it is pretty clear what your sail configuration is. Lower down the wind range there is really just about nothing that is too light. If it drops sub six knots it might get marginal because you will probably be on the same configuration, but then it is just a question of maybe testing how much negative keel angle works best, any negative keel angle."

Reviewing what was learned from this last race around the Isle of Wight, Golding reveals: " We lost the race ourselves rather than were slow. I think Pindar was very quick - they made some good calls. All of us started on genoas and I think that cost us. We were only eight lengths behind Pindar in the Hurst Narrows and if we had been on our Solent we would have done better.

"Having said that, that is exactly the type of cross-overs we are trying to learn about with Aviva. The VPP crossover chart has us changing over at something like 15-16 knots, but I think now it is closer to 12. And that is the point this is what this is all about."
And the immediate agenda dictates a hard week working on the boat and in the office, but Mike feels they are now starting to make good progress with Ecover 3:

"In ten days time I will go off and do some solo sailing as a sort of shakedown for the boat come training session for me but next week is definitely a work week for the boat.  Ecover 3 still needs to complete the 1500-mile Vendee Globe qualification for the new keel; this can be either crewed or solo condition. The organisers have accepted that the SMSM race acted as 400miles of that qualification so it follows that we still have 1100 miles still to do. This sail will serve to complete this final qualification as well as offering a last chance to practice proper offshore techniques on my own before the main event.

"I do think the boat is coming together now. We did the round the island and we did this race without any problems; we have a boat which is not breaking, which is good. We are opening and closing ballast without seeing the leaks, which is a good thing, everything else seems to be working as it should and when we do break things, it is really small stuff.  All the indications are that we moving in the right direction to getting a Vendee boat ready. It is still a struggle, no question.

" It is not getting easier. Straight answer. This year we are just finding we have new guys on the team and they are coming on great but it can never be fast enough. We need to be ready quickly. And it is just a struggle in that department for everyone. We still have a very big work list, which we are chomping through. We have some good guys and they are learning fast, but the question is if we can bring it all together on time."