The Ocean Race: Sam Davies is coming - the interview before the "monster stage"

Now comes Sam Davies. The French-based ocean skipper is one of the most experienced and popular players in international ocean sailing. With her own new Imoca "Initiatives-Cœur", she has her sights set on her fourth Vendée Globe start in 2024. She is a TV expert in the Ocean Race for Eurosport on international channels. On stage three, the Portsmouth-born Brit will be back in action herself, supporting Paul Meilhat's French team Biotherm. Davies competed in the 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre with Paul Meilhat on her "Initiatives-Cœur". Now the experienced skipper and mechanical engineer is joining him on board.

Samantha Davies is the woman that "Maiden" pioneer Tracy Edwards once described as having "admirable technical ability" and "extraordinary courage".

Sam Davies will be flying to Cape Town next week full of anticipation. The starting signal for the "monster stage" of the Ocean Race will be given there on 26 February. The most brutal leg of the team circumnavigation will take the teams in the Ocean Race from Cape Town to Itajaí, Brazil, over 12,750 nautical miles non-stop past the three great capes. While others have cancelled, Sam Davies, who led the SCA women's team around the world in the 2014/2015 Ocean Race, can hardly wait for the starting signal. The fact that she has only completed one day of sailing on the new "Biotherm" so far doesn't really bother the sailor with hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under her belt ...

Sam, how are you packing your bags just before you leave for Cape Town?

(Laughs) bad ... I try desperately to get everything in. And then someone from the team calls again and asks me to bring something else.

What memories do you have of Cape Town?

With good and bad. I was there twice. During the last Vendée Globe, I collided with an unknown object, injured myself and had to repair my boat in Cape Town. At the time, that meant a piece of land that I didn't really want to see. I have fond memories of very good friends looking after me there and my team simply doing everything they could to ensure that I was able to finish the race - albeit outside the classification. It was a bit scary at the time because I continued the course pretty much alone, far behind the field. That's why I'm now really looking forward to contesting the third Ocean Race leg as part of the team.

Your memories of the Cape Town experiences in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014/2015 should be more positive?

Oh, yes. We were able to overtake "Mapfre" just before the finish before Cape Town. I also have great memories of the harbour race back then. We contested it in screaming winds of 15 to 20 knots, in gusts of over 40 knots, coming from all directions. Half the crew were discussing manoeuvres. It was totally manic on the boat. Everyone was shouting at each other. The poor journalist on board must have thought "Oh my God". We sailed onto the podium in third place. It was epic.

The finish at the end of leg two of the current Ocean Race was even more exciting. Were you able to take your eyes off the tracker in the last 24 hours?

Heavy (laughs). But I'm also the mum of a boy and of course I'm trying to make the most of my last few days here in France before I fly to Cape Town. Because I'm leaving him for two months. So I've also been paying a bit of attention to my work-life balance over the last few weeks. But of course I've also been glued to the tracker, looking at our boat's performance data and weather routing to study Team Biotherm's options and see which course they choose. I also studied the pictures that came off the boat because I wanted to know what it was like. This was also interesting for packing my bag.

Did your team complete the course of stage two in roughly the same way as you would have done?

Yes, very similar. But it's always a matter of looking at and interpreting a race from land anyway. I've just got back from the Route du Rhum and the return passage with my boat "Initiatives-Cœur". From the outside, it's easy to get the impression that the conditions out there are the same as those we see on the tracker when we press the weather button. But in reality, this is only an average of what really happens at sea. You quickly forget that there are clouds and squalls out there.

Have you heard anything from the Ocean Race crews about the findings from stage two?

I am of course very interested in all the findings (editor's note: Sam Davies wants to compete in the Vendée Globe 2024/2025 with his own Imoca and, like the current Ocean Race teams, is in the process of optimising for this). "Malizia" sails with sister foils from mine. So of course I keep an eye on how it's going. When the wind is there, it looks like it's easy to sail the boat at high average speeds. That corresponds with the feeling I had when I started to familiarise myself with my new boat. I haven't had a lot of time with my boat yet because we were a bit late getting it in the water last year. It looks very interesting: When the weather conditions get stronger, the wind and waves pick up, then it's good. It looks like Team Malizia has an advantage there and Modi finds it a bit easier to run the boat. Apart from the heavy noise on board ...

Visually, however, your boat looks different from "Malizia - Seaexplorer" ...

Yes, but my boat is also a bit heavier than the others. It seemed to me that my new boat was at a completely different end of the scale compared to other boats. My old boat was really fast in light winds and transitions. Now my new boat might be a bit stickier in lighter winds. But for a Vendée Globe, it's just a reassuring feeling when you can sail good average speeds without a lot of force. This also means that you don't put too much strain on yourself when sailing in the Solso.

So you understand Team Malizia's much-discussed Imoca concept of a robust foiler?

I think so. Even if the foils they're sailing with now don't fit perfectly because they weren't built for Malizia, but for a sister ship to my boat. Their boxes and angles were not designed for exactly these foils. But it looks like they are almost happier with the ones they have now than with the ones they had before. They obviously still have a few modifications to make... We had the same damage with our foils that they had now. We had informed them of this. They obviously didn't quite have the time to reinforce it before the start of the race, but will now do so in Cape Town.

But this is more about superficial and not structural damage, right?

Exactly. We had the same issue. It is only the aft edge of the foil that is not quite resistant enough to absorb the loads. However, this does not affect the structure, i.e. the backbone of the foils, in any way. The damage is cosmetic in nature. However, if you allow this wear to progress too far, you will no longer be able to retract and extend the foils. It could therefore become critical if you do not rectify the problem.

Do you think "Malizia - Seaexplorer" is a good boat?

They look very good in more wind. But I also took a closer look at the Doldrums passage. That's always difficult and easy to criticise from land. But it's really hard to make the decisions there. Luck also plays quite a role here. From all experience, the classic way is to position yourself like Team Malizia in the west. That's often the best way to get through.

But not always ...

Once again, the boat that decided to take the shortcut to the east had the easier passage. Team Guyot had positioned themselves furthest east. They got through the zone a little faster than the other boats. However, as we all know, they were unable to convert this into points in the end. That was really unlucky for them because they got stuck under a cloud. That's a real shame for the team! Because sometimes when you get through in the east, you can just roll over everyone. It was a shame that they didn't have the right conditions to get the success they deserved. I was really sorry because it was a brave and good decision.

Do you see Guyot and the older boat as a strong team?

Yeah, it looks like they're a great crew. I've watched them a bit. They seem to be very honest with each other. It's an international crew where two teams have come together as one. What they do is great. They've spoken openly about how it's not easy for them. When you don't have a brand new boat, your goals might be a little different to the others. It's also about getting a team to work together successfully and putting your own goals on the back burner for a while. It's an interesting sailing team on board that I enjoy following. What they manage to do is pretty amazing.

Your Team Biotherm with skipper Paul Meilhat also impresses with a purist approach on a modest budget and third place in the intermediate classification ...

They are great sailors on board. I have a lot of respect for every single crew member in Team Biotherm. That also applies to Amélie (ed. Amélie Grassi), with whom I am now swapping places. I know Paul well because we have already competed in double-handed regattas together on my boat. Apart from a very short time in Alicante, I've never sailed with Damien or Anthony, but they are good friends and very performance-orientated. When Paul asked me if I wanted to do this leg with his team, that was one of the reasons I said yes. I already knew who he would like to have with him. I was really interested in sailing this leg not only with Paul, but also with Anthony and Damien. Even better, our on-board reporter is great too. His work is fantastic. This is Ronan Gladu, a Frenchman. His sailing reports from on board are very cool. And he's a down-to-earth guy who reports realistically on what's happening.

You have a new Imoca yourself. Wouldn't you have liked to enter the Ocean Race with your own team?

We were a little late with our new building when this possibility came up. We discussed it, but it simply came too early for us as a team. There were also a lot of changes and unknowns in the Ocean Race. We were working with a smaller budget. It was simply impossible for me as a skipper to do both - the Vendée Globe and the Ocean Race - within the short time frame and with the small team that we are. But I don't want to rule it out for the future. This race is so important. After the first few stages, it looks like it will be a success. That will convince other teams to take part. I also think that the race organisers Johan Salén and Richard Brisus are very open to suggestions and discussions. Times are changing ...

"Stage three is gigantic! It is THE stage of this Ocean Race"

So you see the Ocean Race and the current small fleet of just five boats growing again in the future?

I'm pretty positive about the future of the Ocean Race. I believe that the fleet will grow again. When we were in Alicante, a lot of other French teams turned up. On the last weekend before the start, I saw quite a few managers and other skippers who are not yet taking part. Also members of shore teams from other projects. They all took a bit of a closer look.

On 26 February, the most important leg of this 14th edition of the Ocean Race, which has been dubbed either the "Queen's Leg" or the "Monster Leg", will start. What can you sailors expect?

It is THE stage. Which is why I was so keen to sail it. The upcoming leg is gigantic! We leave Cape Town, turn left and sail non-stop all the way to Brazil. That's the long way round Antarctica. We leave South Africa, Australia and South America on our port side. We come back up after Cape Horn and reach Itajaí. So we'll join the Roaring Forties and sail in the famous Southern Ocean, where we'll dive deep and not resurface until we're back in the Atlantic. We will cross the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean before returning to the Atlantic.

And you will be travelling for a very long time ...

The leg may take a little over a month in the icy cold and strong winds. We will have a border on the Antarctic side that we are not allowed to sail over to the south. This is the so-called ice limit, which is intended to protect us from the dangers of getting too close to broken pieces of ice or icebergs. This is something that the race organisation takes very seriously. Especially in view of the fact that we are now travelling so fast in these boats. It would be stupid to risk collisions with ice. Especially nowadays, when we can see more or less where the ice is moving from satellite images.

"The ice limits could slow down the fleet"

Can an ice edge that is drawn up strongly to the north have an effect on the course of the race?

There is currently a lot of ice in the South Pacific. On the one hand, this could lengthen the route quite considerably. But it could also slow down the fleet because we would then have to get out of the stronger winds in certain areas when sailing around the ice limits.

How do you personally view this big stage?

For me, it's a historic stage. The solo sailors who have already sailed the Vendée Globe know a bit about it. We also sail this course and even longer in the Southern Ocean. Apart from that, no-one has ever sailed a leg like the one we're doing now. Never before in the history of the Whitbread, the Volvo, the Ocean Race. This is the longest stage ever in the Ocean Race and I think it's great to be part of it. It's also a huge challenge. You have to push yourself, your crew mates and the boat for a long time in extreme conditions. We are tied together over a long period of time. There will be ups and downs. That's why teamwork is so important. As is keeping the boat in one piece.

"We are going into areas that have never been discovered or tested before"

Do you see a danger that the Imocas, which were originally designed for soloists, could be pushed too hard by a crew?

Yes, that's interesting. For the first time, we can push the boats a bit harder in a crew constellation than a solo sailor can in the Vendée Globe. But I also think that we have to be careful with the boat and the equipment. We are going into areas that have never been discovered or tested before. Because in the Vendée, everyone tends to take their foot off the gas a bit when sailing in the Southern Ocean. Simply because you're travelling single-handed. You also have to come back up the Atlantic. So it will be interesting to see how the boats hold up. Or whether we have to do a lot of repairs.

The very experienced three-time circumnavigator Abby Ehler has turned down Kevin Escoffier and Team Holcim - PRB for leg three because she does not want to expose herself to the conditions of this demanding leg on an Imoca. Can you understand her?

When I heard about it, I just thought: "Oh my God, if Abby says she doesn't want to sail this leg - she's so experienced - then maybe I shouldn't have given Paul a commitment either. But then I had a chat with Annie Lush, who will be sailing leg three on Guyot. We reassured each other that no matter what happens, we can't miss this leg. So we'll have to go in and deal with it. It's such a fantastic thing! Of course, I will have to remind myself of these positive thoughts several times in the coming months (laughs).

Do you have a personal lucky charm with you?

Yes, I have a little teddy bear with a big red heart that represents the charity I'm running for. I support the humanitarian organisation Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, which enables children with serious heart defects to be operated on in France when this is not possible in their home countries for technical or financial reasons. The teddy often accompanies me. There are three little cuddly toys in total that I like to have with me. But I think I can only take one with me on this stage. Especially when you consider what else I have to bring to Cape Town for the others, I will hardly have enough space.

I also always wear the St Christopher necklace that I got from my grandfather. He wore it as a submarine commander in the Second World War and gave it to me when I started taking part in races around the world. He said: "I don't need it any more. But it gave me security in my submarine. Now you need it more than I do."

Click here for the intermediate results of the Ocean Race after the first two of seven legs.