Roxy reaches Plymouth

An update from Sam Davies' Open 60 campaign

Leaving France yesterday for her delivery trip to Plymouth, Sam Davies and the Roxy Sailing Team arrived in Plymouth this afternoon, docking in Sutton Harbour where the boat will stay until the race start on 11 May.

Since being appointed skipper of the glamorous Roxy Open 60 in 2006, Sam has spent most of her time racing and training intensely, working on her physical preparation and her weather skills. Over the winter, the 33 year old skipper and her team have worked hard to improve the yacht; which as PRB is a two time winner of the Vendee Globe. During a three month refit, Roxy had her singlehanded central daggerboard replaced with a new twin daggerboard arrangement while other mods included her ballast system, shrouds, winches, autopilot and colours scheme. Since the beginning of April, Roxy has been tested and sailed around Brittany. As the only Briton to be part of the best offshore sailing school in France, Sam has had the opportunity to training against the French sailing legends Michel Desjoyeaux and Vincent Riou, both former skippers of her boat and find out the benefits of the changes made during the refit!

Before the refit, the boat’s performance upwind was not as good as her competitors and the addition of new daggerboards has radically improved this. “The boat now points upwind and doesn’t track sideways anymore," Sam explains. "There is a real change in the power and the speed of the boat. Five of the skippers competing in the Artemis Transat trained last week for three days. I had the oldest boat and my performance was really positive. It is so exciting to know that I can now keep up with the new boats even upwind. It was mouthwatering and we got a great taste of what the boat is capable of in the Artemis Transat and the Vendee Globe."

These were satisfying results for Sam, sailing single-handed against a male-dominated fleet. With a perfectly tuned and tested boat, she feels she has learnt a lot in the past month alone. “It is going to be my sixth transatlantic crossing on the boat and the third one racing, so I know Roxy like the back of my hand. I have felt a real improvement in terms of my own performance in the last two weeks. Now I just can’t wait to go racing. I don’t feel nervous yet but I am sure it will come. We are just too busy at the moment to think about it. It is part of the game and I can’t wait to start playing “.