Last minute crew change for Wardley

Nick Black gets to sail the Transat AG2R

Changing your crew a week out from the start of a major transatlantic race is not an ideal scenario, however this is the situation Liz Wardley has been placed in prior to this Sunday’s departure of the Figaro class’ Transat AG2R from Concarneau to St Barts via Madeira.

So what happened to Francois Gabart? “He won the new challenge for the youth boat for the training centre - the guy who won it pulled out so he has been given the opportunity and is staying here to prepare his season,” says Wardley.

Fortunately Gabart’s shoes are being amply filled by the familiar face in the shorthanded offshore world of Nick ‘Nobi’ Black. Heralding from just south of Belfast, Black first came to our attention back in the bad old days of Ellen and Kingfisher when he worked for Offshore Challenges. During his stint there he was also shore crew for Nick Moloney’s Vendee Globe campaign and, usefully given his latest ride, for Sam Davies’ Skandia Figaro campaign. Thus he knows the boat he will be racing across the Atlantic inside out.

He has since worked at Pindar and Artemis on the shore side, but also taking part in fully crewed races including two Calais Round Britain Races. Currently he is Boat Captain of the Pindar Open 60 – probably not the best time to be running away to sea with The Artemis Transat looming and a new Lorimar-built mega-spar about to be fitted to Brian Thompson’s 60 - but there you go, this is a unique opportunity not to be missed.

Black says he got the call on Sunday/Monday. “It was a little bit last minute.com, but it should all be good.”

For Wardley, an 11th hour crew change is not a great thing to happen so late in the day, but the pre-start for this race has been a bit of a rush in other ways. The former Amer Sport Too bowgirl turned Figarist, who heralds from Papua New Guinea, has just returned from taking the Veolia One Design 50 footer, destined for the Sol’Oceans singlehanded round the world race, on an exploratory trip from France to Wellington, New Zealand. She only returned from this epic with former Solitaire du Figaro winner Charles Caudrelier three weeks ago and says she is still very much in sailing mode.

“The boat is pretty well prepared. I’ve got Erwan Lebec working with me to prepare the boat, so it is all pretty good. As far as me being prepared I am still in the offshore rhythm. It won’t take me long to get back into it. As far as weather and everything goes I am still in the groove so it is all cool, apart from getting slightly stressed by last minute crew changes. It is not the easiest thing.”

The reason for choosing Northern Ireland’s finest was that she and Black sailed together on Pindar last year. “With a week to go I had to find someone who not only I’d sailed doublehanded with, but someone I knew well enough that I knew I could get along with, which was quite hard. We did 1000 miles together on the 60 and it went very well sailing-wise and relationship-wise, so it was an easy pick.”

This afternoon the duo will take to the water in the Prologue event to the Transat AG2R. At present it is grey, windy and very overcast in Concarneau (we’re so sorry not to be there...) but from a sailing perspective the weather is looking okay for the first few days of the race proper with a depression usefully centred over the Bay of Biscay.

Wardley updates us on the met situation: “We have a big front to pass about two days into the course so it is going to be quite easy conditions to set off but it is going to start reaching pretty quick and as the wind goes left we are going to end up in quite heavy airs on the nose getting past Cape Finisterre. So it could turn a little nasty for a day of so. Then we’ll start reaching down to Madeira when it will pick up again.”

While she competes in many of the Figaro class’ events, including the annual Solitaire, Wardley admits that the events she prefers are the long ones. However it seems she not only prefers them, but is better at them. In the class’ last transat, the singlehanded Trophee BPE last year, Wardley finished fourth, a top result in a highly competitive 27 boat fleet.

We look forward to seeing how Wardley and her new boy will fare on this occasion.