Friend or Foe?

A chapter from the book Voices from the Sea by Nic Compton - Hugo Boss rescue by Ecover in Velux 5 Oceans

When two bitter rivals Alex Thomson and Mike Golding set off on the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans Race, sparks were sure to fly. But no one could have anticipated the strange sequence of events that brought them face-to-face in the Southern Ocean.

Friend or Foe?

Mike Golding and Alex Thomson (2006)


It was no secret that there was little love lost between British sailors Mike Golding and Alex Thomson before the start of the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans Race. At 46, Golding had sailed around the world five times, including three solo circumnavigations, and in the process had notched up eighteen equatorial crossings. His consistent success in Open 60 yachts had made him champion of the International Monohull Open Classes Association (IMOCA) Open 60 class two years running. The one thing that had eluded him, however, was a win in a single-handed round-the-world race, and he was determined to rectify that this time.

Thomson, on the other hand, was a relative newcomer. At 32, he had already won one round-the-world competition, the 1998Ð99 Clipper Round the World Race, and four years later set a 24-hour solo record of 19.5 knots during the Defi Atlantique Race from Brazil to Europe. He had a high-profile sponsor, the clothing designer Hugo Boss, and had an ambitious program: taking part in three round-the-world races in three years.

The pair had been snipping at each other for weeks before the start of the race, leading the race director David Adams to describe them as "two randy bulls in a very small paddock". Matters did not improve when, during the in-port racing before the main start at Bilbao, in Spain, Thomson, who was in the lead on Hugo Boss, deliberately messed up by sailing on the wrong side of the finish buoy. Superstition has it that whoever wins the in-port race won't win the main race. Golding, who was in second place on Ecover, didn't spot Thomson's ruse and, much to his disgust, ended up winning. But the final straw came when, in a newspaper article relayed to Thomson after the start of the race, Golding described his rival with obscene language. The knives were drawn.

Six skippers set out from Bilbao on 22 October, but with 50 to 70 knot winds flattening the fleet in the first forty-eight hours, four of the starters were soon back in the harbour making emergency repairs to their yachts, including Golding and Thomson. By the time they had all re-started, the fleet was widely scattered; the race leader, Bernard Stamm, was already approaching the Cape Verde islands while 1,500 miles (2,400 km) behind, the stragglers were just getting out to sea again. Somewhere in between, Golding and Thomson were almost neck-and-neck tearing down the Atlantic trying to make up for lost time, the IMOCA champion in front and the young upstart snapping at his heels. It looked as if Golding's years of experience were paying off as he caught up with second-placed Kojiro Shiraishi when, in a neat tactical move, Thomson overtook both boats and bagged the second spot. Even the dolphins gave Ecover a wide berth that day.

With Stamm out on his own some 750 miles (1,200 km) ahead, everyone's attention became focused on the very personal dual taking place between the two archrivals. And sure enough, as they jumped on the Southern Ocean merry-go-round, the game of cat and mouse continued unabated. At one point the two boats were almost within sight of each other, yet they still maintained complete radio silence - pretending that the other didn't exist, while at the same time being aware of each other's every move. Four days after Thomson had spectacularly overtaken him, Golding took advantage of a weather system to steal back a few miles and take second place. Touche!

Often criticised for pushing his boat too hard, Thomson tried to keep his cool as he saw his advantage eaten away. By 23 November, he was about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south of Cape Town. He had reduced his mainsail and set his small solent jib, and Hugo Boss was making good headway, sailing at 18 knots in 35 knots of wind. As Thomson lay in his bunk, the boat suddenly tipped over to one side. He rushed on deck and freed the mainsail, expecting the boat to right herself, but she just lay with part of the mast in the water, her sails quivering like the wings of a wounded bird.

Like many Open 60 boats, Hugo Boss was fitted with an adjustable, or canting keel, that could be angled up to 40 degrees Ð providing the effect of seventy people standing on one side of the boat. Thomson immediately tried to angle the keel to bring Hugo Boss back up, but there was no response. He went down below to check the mechanism in the keel box, and his heart sank as he saw that one of the rams that angle the keel had snapped off. This was a major structural failure, and there was no way he would be able to keep racing. It was now a question of survival.



First he had to get the boat upright. He clambered across the tipped-over deck, pulled the mainsail down and furled the jib, and Hugo Boss gradually came up. Thomson then pointed the yacht downwind and, under instructions from his shore team, jammed the rams in place to prevent the keel from swinging. It was just a temporary fix, however, and it only allowed him to sail dead downwind Ð which on his current course would take him to Antarctica. Slowly the reality of the situation dawned on him, and he realised he was going to have to abandon ship.

Approximately 80 miles (130 km) further west, Golding had noticed his rival's sudden loss of speed and suspected there might be a problem. He also knew that as the boat nearest to him, he might be called upon to go to Thomson's assistance. It was a bizarre twist of fate, but when the call came from race control later that day, Golding didn't hesitate for a moment. "It wasn't a hard decision at all, because a life was at risk", he said. "I was tasked with a new responsibility, and if it went wrong I would never be able to forgive myself".

First he had to tack Ecover back into the wind to reach Hugo Boss. Six hours later, in the middle of the night, he arrived and established radio contact with Thomson - for the first time this race - and they agreed to wait until morning to make the transfer. At daybreak, Thomson put on his survival suit, climbed into his life raft and said goodbye to the boat that had meant so much to him. Ecover was standing nearby and preparing to pick him up. But a lumpy 15-foot (4.6 m) swell made manoeuvering tricky. And to make matters worse, Golding's engine controls broke which meant he kept having to dive down into the cabin to adjust his speed.

Meanwhile, Thomson was stranded in his life raft, slopping around in near-freezing water, knowing that if he did fall into the sea, he would have less than five minutes to live. It took an hour of near-misses before Golding finally brought Ecover alongside Thomson's life raft and dragged him on board. The first part of their ordeal was over.

It was a strange, almost surreal moment, as the two men, who had done their utmost to avoid each other for so long and who just a few hours earlier had been locked in bitter rivalry, suddenly found themselves drinking coffee together. Before he had abandoned ship, Thomson's shore team had suggested that he take "a large slice of humble pie" with him when he boarded Ecover, but the advice was unnecessary. Thomson already knew he was lucky to be alive, and he knew to whom he owed his life.

"This has been without doubt the most terrifying and emotional experience of my life", he said from on board Ecover. "This yacht has been my life for three years. It's wrong to leave her down here and I would have done anything to save her. But to be stranded in big seas 1,000 nautical miles from land, with an irreparable keel that was swinging uncontrollably, I really had no other choice. It was really distressing to look back and see Hugo Boss in such a sorry state. I am hugely grateful to Mike for turning back to rescue me. He is a true, true hero".

But their troubles weren't over yet. Less than six hours after the rescue, Ecover was hit by a squall and Golding could only watch as her carbon fibre mast "exploded". Although half the mast was still standing, it would be impossible to make a repair at sea and with the first stop at Fremantle, Australia, still over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) away, Golding decided to repair the boat as best he could and head north to Cape Town. His race was, in effect, over. Back on shore, there was a sense of disbelief that two of the top sailors in this prestigious event, both tipped as possible winners, had been knocked out before the end of the first leg. It was bad news for the Velux 5 Oceans, too, because with Golding and Thomson gone, there would be no one left to seriously challenge Stamm.

The only people who weren't complaining, strangely enough, were the skippers' sponsors. Thanks to the media obsession with football, rugby, and cricket, sailing events rarely receive much coverage in the general press. But a good, daring Southern Ocean rescue is a different matter - especially when it's captured live on camera. And one thing the media-friendly Thomson had learnt was to carry a camera with him everywhere. Even as he flirted with death in his life raft, the images of the rescue were sent by satellite to his shore team to be broadcast on that day's news. Suddenly, Thomson and Golding were hot news and, back in the UK, they were interviewed by all of the national television stations and given unprecedented coverage in newspapers around the world. A documentary about the rescue was made, and Golding was awarded an OBE for his heroism. The two bitter enemies were now an international touring combo and they received much more coverage than if either of them had actually won the race. No wonder the sponsors were happy.

Golding was philosophical about the unexpected turn of events. "When you start a race, you never know what the challenge of that race is going to be", he said. "This wasn't the challenge I wanted, but it has been rewarding in different ways than I hoped or expected. So it is a positive story. Ocean sailing, and ocean racing in particular, is a hard task master and you become fatalistic - if you're not already fatalistic before you start!"

Thomson, meanwhile, was having a new boat built for his next round-the-world contest: the two-handed Barcelona World Race. His co-skipper for that event had been announced before the start of the Velux 5 Oceans, so it would be pure fantasy to suggest that he might sail with his new friend Mike Golding. But it would make a great story.

Voices from the Sea, Nic Compton
Foreword by Alex Thomson

Voices from the Sea is a collection of inspirational tales of adventure on the world’s oceans; from the explorations of Shackleton in the Antarctic and Nansen’s quest for the North Pole, to extreme individual challenges of such as kite and windsurfing undertaken by Dom Mee and Raphaela le Gouvello. The tests of the Vendee Globe, Velux 5 Oceans and Golden Globe races provide sailors with the chance to push themselves to the limits, break records and experience the thrill of the ultimate adventure, but over the years they have also provided the settings to courageous rescues and incredible survival stories. Voices from the Sea allows you to experience all the fear, exhilaration and triumph felt by those who endured the dangers, excitements and rewards of life and adventure on the ocean.