Ending on a high

Amer Sports Too crewman Emma Westmacott reflects on their campaign and its happy conclusion in Kiel

Well we could not have asked for a better way to finish this nine month marathon race around the globe. And how much nicer it was to end on a high note, and feel like we really did achieve something in the end and to show ourselves that we are capable of so much more than any of the other leg results showed.

There is always going to be so much speculation with female teams - are we capable of being highly competitive or are we just token chicks? Sometimes I think to a lot of people we are the latter for good media coverage etc, but what most people do not see is the absolute competitiveness and determination of the girls that we had.

The desire to succeed - that out-wayed any other reason for participating, and we felt frustration and distress at not achieving what we had set out to do. Podium finishes that is what the guys dream of and that is what we dream of as well. We are not content with last.

In this instant a year ago we were all sitting on the couch preparing to watch seven boats go around the world on a race we all wanted to be a part of. When each of us was asked to do this race we all took a while to say 'yes', stunned at the task that lay ahead. We fully knew that the boys were going to be late and pushing it, so how on earth were we going to manage? If we were short of time or one boat was to get priority it would be them.

It is hard to go into something knowing these things, but what were the options? Give the opportunity to someone else and watch from the side line? None of us were going to let that happen. It was better to be a part of it and gain the experience, keep fighting up the ladder and expose more girls to deep Southern Ocean sailing, big waves, big breeze, hard core balls-to-the-wall sailing, wild experiences, fast and furious, to see how far you can push yourself, the boat and each other.

By leg 7 (Baltimore to La Rochelle) I was fed up of hearing my own excuses, despite the validity of them, and now looking back the dice were stacked against us, but never once did any of the chicks give up and that is credit to everyone of them.

We did have it tough, doing a lot of the shore work ourselves, getting the boat to La Rochelle after the rig broke and consequently starting many legs tired and not overly prepared on the tactical front. There was no time to do proper sail development or crew training in the stop over.

Leg 8 (La Rochelle to Gothenburg) was thoroughly depressing for me. I could barely talk to my friends, let alone the media. I felt that we had let ourselves down. After all the hard work in getting the boat back together, I had very high hopes that it was the last leg with breeze and good heavy air, to go hard sailing.

We did not sail a good leg tactically or performance-wise, we had a lot of seasickness and just plain old exhaustion, but that is no excuse. Illbruck won leg 7 with half the crew with flu so these should not be excuses.

But it was not until we arrived into port and talked to the guys, the blokes that are out there striving for first, that the realisation came that they all found this leg to be one of the hardest in the race, with hardly any sleep, always pushing hard, many manoeuvres, sail changes etc.

One of the big questions floating around is: "Is the era of female teams over?" I don't think it is quite from a corporate perspective. It it does attract media coverage - 50% of the race coverage went to the chicks. And we do still have something to prove.

Sailing-wise, we want to be equals, we want to be mid-fleet, we want to be competitive, so we need to start early and be a campaign that stands up on its own right, not in the shadow of a boy's team or there to bring coverage.

Success is possible - look at America3 in the America's Cup, look at Ellen MacArthur in the Vendee Globe. But to do this we need to start early. It does not matter that Volvo have not decided the boat, course or rules. We need to get hold of one of these boats go training and competing with the more experienced guys as coaches for us.

This last leg I had a really good feeling before the start. Before the start I spoke to our cameras full of renewed vigour at the start of the last leg. I had spoken to many friends in the previous stopovers, who were full of positive words and just plain old "dig in and go for it" philosophies. We left with a subdued vibe among the crew, no one wanting to raise their hopes to be dashed again.

We had had an afternoon the day before of setting our plan up for the start and working on the crew manoeuvres etc and it paid off. We left the lighthouse at the back of the fleet, but we were definitely up there down the channel. We had decisions to make immediately and the plan was to be offshore originally, but to keep with the sea breeze. Once in the sea breeze, it became quite difficult to get offshore so we were committed. We had several position swapping sessions with Amer Sport One, and at no stage did anyone give up.

We ran the boat slightly differently, being very strict on drivers, trimmers, stacking etc. We slept on the rail. If we slept at all, the maximum was 2-3 hours, and we drank the coffee pot dry. We sailed like the blokes do, and you know what - we always said we would be ready to do this race by leg 9. Even now we have only sailed together now for one third of the time illbruck has - so what do we all expect?

It was amazing to come under the bridge with Amer Sports One, fighting tooth and nail, not letting Katie [Pettibone] even peek at them just drive the boat hard. We had had a wind shift causing us to tack over. This ended up not staying so gave Amer One time to catch up a little. Then it was all on.

We were amazed to come around the corner and see Assa, pointing 180 degrees in the wrong direction, fighting to get out from under a hideous cloud. Both the Amer boats played hop-scotch to get around Assa, all hands on deck, Bridget up the rig looking for puffs of wind. We caught the breeze and were off, but it then filled in for Assa too, who at a better angle and with more pace, rolled down over us, with, I hasten to add, our skipper's husband at the wheel! Nice one.
It cracked us up, here we were ready to hose them too, and remembering there had been warnings about team racing! You have to be joking - we were out there to beat them all!

Keil was incredible, what a way to end the race. The spectators were endless, and everyone was shaking their fists and full of admiration: finally we had pulled it together. How satisfying was that! And smiles all round - everyone just grinning, laughing and fully satisfied.

To beat the boys, in fact to beat three boats, and the three that were all vying for third place overall! It was great for us as well to see our fellow back fleet boys - the pink dragons winning the leg. Everyone came out trumps.

This is a ridiculous sport. Instantly all the frustrations and irritations of our sailing circumstances melt away. We forget the icy, cold, wet, snow driven south and the sweaty, hot, lack wind, sails flopping equator. The broken rig, damaged forestay strop, damaged rudder, the blown out sails, crashed gybes, and disastrous tacks, the tiredness, lack of sleep, lousy food.

All I want to do is go again and go hard, and finish knowing that we could not have done any better, and above all kick some asssss!!!