The Ocean Race
Enclosed cockpits mean the sailors are better protected from the elements but that doesn’t mean life on board hasn’t got tougher for the crews of the fast-foiling IMOCA fleet. We spoke to 11th Hour Racing Team’s Simon Fisher to find out more.
Ask any past competitor in The Ocean Race over the last 50 years and they will tell you that the toughest challenge while racing around the world is dealing with the rigours of life on board.
Creature comforts have always been well down the priority list when it comes to designing high-performance ocean racing yachts and generations of round the world sailors have had to learn to cope with living in dank and cramped conditions below decks, enduring temperatures ranging from freezing cold to sweltering heat – to say nothing of their diet of freeze-dried food, the relentless noise, and the constant pitching motion of the boats.
It has never been easy to live that sort of life day-in/day-out, or sometimes even for weeks on end, but now, with the introduction of the IMOCA class – which is racing around the world fully-crewed for the very first time – the challenges of life on board have been taken to a whole new level.
Few people know more about life on board in The Ocean Race than British yachtsman Simon Fisher, who is a veteran of the last five editions of the race.
Fisher’s first three races were on VO70s: ABN AMRO TWO in 2005-06, Telefónica Blue in 2008-09, and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in 2011-12, followed by two editions in VO65s: a winning campaign with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in 2014-15, and then with Vestas 11th Hour Racing Team in 2017-18.
Now he is back as part of the American-flagged IMOCA entry 11th Hour Racing Team. The US team were the first to launch their new boat, Mālama, for the 2022-23 edition and have since racked up thousands of open ocean miles during training.
Based on his experiences so far Fisher says sailing a fully-crewed IMOCA where the crew operate from an enclosed cockpit that protects them from the elements is a completely different world to what he has done before.
“It is completely different and part of the challenge of these boats has been learning how to deal with that different world. For us now it’s really about learning how to survive in the ‘bubble’ where we are covered up and relying on the autopilot a lot to do a lot of the steering.”
Sailing a state-of-the-art IMOCA in performance mode is a full sensory experience.
First up, there is the noise. When you are down below the hollow carbon hull amplifies and reverberates every sound – from the whine of the foils and the groaning of the lines under tension, to the explosive crashing noises when the boat is slamming over the wave tops.
“There is always a certain amount of noise from the foils,” Fisher says. “They tend to hum and sing and often if you are lying and your bunk you can tell how fast you’re going. The faster you go, the higher the pitch of the foil noise.”
Added to that in fast mode is the rumble and roar of the waves breaking over the deck above the sailors heads.
“We are covered up but the boats are quite low freeboard and they are actually pretty wet up top, so you get a lot of water crashing over the deck and that’s pretty noisy,” Fisher explains.
Sailing upwind against the waves the IMOCAs can be travelling at speeds up around 20 knots, and that often means the boat repeatedly taking off from wave tops before landing with a shuddering bang that Fisher says turns the hull into a 60-foot carbon drum.
To combat all this noise while off watch and trying to grab precious sleep, Fisher said the 11th Hour Racing Team crew had been experimenting with earplugs and noise cancelling headphones.
“We try to shut ourselves off as much as possible but it is pretty hard to get any rest. These are not the most comfortable boats to sleep on, so anything we can do to promote sleep is a good thing.”
Perhaps the biggest difference between the new IMOCAs and The Ocean Race classes that came before is the punishing motion of the boats while foiling – even in mid-range conditions.
“The thing that is spectacular about these boats is not their maximum speed,” Fisher says. “It is the fact that you can be going so quickly in such moderate breeze and at such tight angles.
“Even when we are going up wind at 17 knots, we are slamming over the waves and it can quickly get pretty relentless on your body.”
“The sea state becomes the limiting factor – as that is what drives all the slamming – but the reality is that as we have become more comfortable with the platform [the boat] the limiting factor has, more and more, become ourselves.”
In those sorts of conditions Fisher says moving around the cockpit becomes hazardous and can quickly get exhausting.
“Everything becomes difficult. Even just staying put in one spot can get really hard. It can be really easy to fall over when you are climbing around the boat, or basically doing anything that involves getting out of your seat, like going to a winch.”
Unsurprisingly, given all this, as well as plenty of foam padding and dayglo tape marking parts of the boat it is easy to bang your head on, the American IMOCA’s cockpit has been decorated with a multitude of dangling handles, each strategically positioned for the sailors to grab on to as the move through the boat.
“It can look in the videos like we are all sitting hanging on like we are in a bus. But you kind of have to monkey swing your way around the boat a little bit just to avoid going for a tumble,” Fisher explained.
“You also have to be careful in a big breeze about putting the bow into a wave. You can quite easily go from 35 knots to seven knots in an instant – and then everyone ends up squashed up against the nearest bulkhead.”
When it comes to sleeping Fisher says the US team are still undecided on whether traditional pipe cot bunks, heavy duty bean bags, or foam ‘mattresses’ are the optimum solution.
“It is something we’re still playing around with and testing. It’s all about finding a solution that’s soft enough to save you from the pounding and at the same time be able to hold you in place.”
Unlike the VO70 and VO65 design rules that specified those boats must include a rudimentary galley with a sink that could drain water, the IMOCA class requires no such frills.
Accordingly, on board Mālama, the kitchen facilities extend no further than a water maker and a small gas burner used to boil water to reconstitute the crew’s freeze dried meals.
“These boats are much more basic than the VO70s and VO65s,” Fisher comments.
“We literally have the burner and a little kettle on top – and that’s it. There’s no sink and no water in there. If we need to clean a bowl we just wipe it out and go to the back of the boat and rinse it with salt water – which, happily, is in fairly constant supply.”
There’s no getting away from the fact that the enclosed cockpit largely eliminates the firehose conditions that we have become accustomed to seeing the sailors experience on deck over previous editions of The Ocean Race.
That’s not to say they won’t spend any time on deck. Sail changes cannot be done from below deck (although Fisher confessed that as ‘pit man’ during manoeuvres he really has little reason to ever venture on deck) and the crew need to always be dressed so that they can be outside quickly in the case of a breakdown.
“You certainly use your dry top a lot less,” Fisher says. “But if you are in the cockpit on watch you always need to be ready to go outside if something happens. So it’s not like we’re cruising around out there in pyjamas the whole time.
No story about life on board in The Ocean Race would be complete without discussing what passes for toilet facilities. So what high-tech solution have the design teams come up with for these latest generation boats? Very little, it seems. According to Fisher the 11th Hour Racing Team crew rely on nothing more technical than a sturdy bucket to meet their bathroom needs.
Sometimes though, in the right conditions, they can make a trip to the open air at the back of the boat for some ‘alone time’.
“We have to be flexible,” Fisher said. “Sometimes, when you slow down and the weather’s nice, you have got to take your opportunity to go outside, because it makes life that much easier for you and your fellow crew members, as well.”
One upside of life on board the latest generation foiling IMOCAs is that the sailors are generally no longer having to deal with the acute heel angles of previous designs.
“We get all this righting moment from the foil and it doesn’t only lift us up, it keeps us flat. In the VO65 we used to sail around at 25 degrees plus – fully tipped over. When you are going fast on an IMOCA, with all the righting moment from the foil, the ‘hill’ pretty quickly comes down to zero.”
For those people still keen to sample life on board a new generation IMOCA for themselves, Fisher has a word of caution.
“Be careful what you wish for. Everyone is really keen to come for a sail and they get super excited. Then, normally after about 30 minutes, it all gets a bit wearing and the appeal suddenly disappears.”
