The Ocean Race Europe
As he returns to training with his team, we chat with Charlie Enright, the skipper of the 11th Hour Racing Team, to hear his thoughts as the team prepares for The Ocean Race Europe, which will take place between the months of May and June.
Charlie, it’s great to see the team get back on the water with a full training and racing schedule for this season. It all starts with The Ocean Race Europe, the first opportunity to compete in a full crew configuration with the IMOCAs. Why is this regatta important to your team?
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The Ocean Race Europe will be a great opportunity to measure yourself against the other IMOCA 60s, and do it for the first time with a full crew. Although it looks like we will have one of the older generation boats, the plan is to have new foils and we are eager to see how they work.
You have performed several full-crew transatlantic transports over the past two years. What have you learned in those journeys that you can apply now?
Ocean liners are very different from coastal regattas, so I’m not sure how much of our learning from the last 18 months we will be able to apply. The ship is well equipped to make ocean life with more people, but there is not much to “experience” in these short and fast stages. We’ve been practicing boat handling and sail changes, but ultimately it will all be about how fast we get on the water and making the right tactical decisions.
What do you think is the biggest challenge for uncrowded teams and sailors when preparing to sail a larger crew?
Honestly, in a race like this, with shorter stages, there shouldn’t be many challenges. Those who are more used to sailing with fewer people only need to accept the help of more hands to do the hard work.
The Ocean Race Europe consists of three short stages, lasting a few days at most … how do these sprints compare to the marathon pace around the world?
These sprints are very different from the typical stages of The Ocean Race, which last more than 20 days, or the non-stop world tours that take more than 70 days without stopping. In many ways these shorter stages are more difficult because you are always on full blast and you rarely put yourself in a guard system.
Tactical decisions can become more important because you don’t have much room to correct if you’re wrong, but as always … speed can make you seem pretty smart.
How does The Ocean Race Europe fit into the overall team schedule as it prepares for the global edition of The Ocean Race in 2022-23?
The Ocean Race Europe is a great opportunity to introduce the concept of crewed racing to IMOCA teams. It will be great to see the boats brought to their full potential, with more hands to work, throughout all the stages. Given the course of the race, we should see many different conditions that will help us a lot in our overall development, and particularly in our sailing program. We all really want to go back and compete again.
Feel free to add whatever you want …
France is unique in that it has been able to sail with little crew for most of the pandemic. For most of us, it will be great to be racing again!
