Ed Hill. Image copyright Artemis Offshore Academy.
by Artemis Offshore Academy media
After a hectic few weeks in France, I headed back to the UK for a weekend’s rest after the Solo Concarneau. This race was one of the toughest races I have done mentally and I really pushed myself and found out (by error) where my breaking point is.
For the duration of the race I had in the back of my mind that I needed to show that I could keep in the mix when racing with the best of the French sailors and made it my goal to stay in contention with the best and stay with the pack. It was a race of playing the percentages, especially with the tricky weather conditions and the fleet had very different ideas as to which was the right way to go. My race plan worked very well, up until the point I started to suffer from the side affect of sleep deprivation!
Throughout the last couple of races, managing myself has been more of an issue than managing the boat and my inexperience in this area has cost me dearly. I lost six places in the last 80 miles of the Solo Concarneau through 'hitting the wall' and hallucinating. I'm not sure for how long I was blacked out, but it was certainly pretty terrifying to wake up pouring water over my eyes and not being able to see properly.... fortunately I had an inkling of what was going on and immediately put the auto pilot on and got some much needed sleep. Studying my race track afterwards clearly shows how out of it I was and how badly I was sailing the boat... Another lesson well and truly learned - 20 minutes of sleep in over 48 hours is no way near enough!!
These may seem simple mistakes to make, but actually it's incredibly hard to know where your body and minds breaking point is, especially as most sane people do not forgo sleep for such a long time.
The fantastic news was that a day after finishing the race, the Artemis Offshore Academy confirmed that I would be racing in the 2013 Solitaire du Figaro. This has been my aim since joining the Academy and it is a huge reward and payback for all the hard work and sacrifices that I have made throughout the year. I'm under no illusion, the Solitaire will be 100 times harder than anything I have done before, but at the same time I am relishing this challenge and being part of one of the toughest yacht races and arguably one of the toughest sporting events in the world, full stop.
After a hectic few weeks in France, I headed back to the UK for a weekend’s rest after the Solo Concarneau. This race was one of the toughest races I have done mentally and I really pushed myself and found out (by error) where my breaking point is.
For the duration of the race I had in the back of my mind that I needed to show that I could keep in the mix when racing with the best of the French sailors and made it my goal to stay in contention with the best and stay with the pack. It was a race of playing the percentages, especially with the tricky weather conditions and the fleet had very different ideas as to which was the right way to go. My race plan worked very well, up until the point I started to suffer from the side affect of sleep deprivation!
Throughout the last couple of races, managing myself has been more of an issue than managing the boat and my inexperience in this area has cost me dearly. I lost six places in the last 80 miles of the Solo Concarneau through 'hitting the wall' and hallucinating. I'm not sure for how long I was blacked out, but it was certainly pretty terrifying to wake up pouring water over my eyes and not being able to see properly.... fortunately I had an inkling of what was going on and immediately put the auto pilot on and got some much needed sleep. Studying my race track afterwards clearly shows how out of it I was and how badly I was sailing the boat... Another lesson well and truly learned - 20 minutes of sleep in over 48 hours is no way near enough!!
These may seem simple mistakes to make, but actually it's incredibly hard to know where your body and minds breaking point is, especially as most sane people do not forgo sleep for such a long time.
The fantastic news was that a day after finishing the race, the Artemis Offshore Academy confirmed that I would be racing in the 2013 Solitaire du Figaro. This has been my aim since joining the Academy and it is a huge reward and payback for all the hard work and sacrifices that I have made throughout the year. I'm under no illusion, the Solitaire will be 100 times harder than anything I have done before, but at the same time I am relishing this challenge and being part of one of the toughest yacht races and arguably one of the toughest sporting events in the world, full stop.
Last week was blighted by the terribly tragic news of the death of Andrew 'Bart' Simpson whilst training for the America's Cup. I was lucky enough to have been coached by him whilst in youth classes, but only rarely encountered Bart in the keelboat world. His loss will be huge among so many people as he seemed to create such a positive impact on anyone he met. At this incredibly sad time my thoughts are with his Wife, family and friends and the tragedy comes as a reminder to us all to live life to the full and enjoy the sport we love. This is something that I will be doing over the next six weeks as I go out to enjoy and compete in the Solitaire du Figaro.
Artemis Offshore Academy
