My 11 year old son and I got up at 5AM today to welcome Giovanni Soldini to Marblehead.The Italian sailing hero has been leading the Class 40 contingent of the 2008 Artemis Transat pretty much the entire way from the start in Plymouth to the finish in Marblehead, and after about 17 days of sailing, we wanted to be the first humans he saw. It was a picture perfect morning (if a bit on the chilly side), and the fresh northwester set him up for a straight shot closehauled on starboard to the finish line at the MH1 bell.
The Class 40 is not as imposing a sight as an Open 60, the last of which had finished the previous evening, but it's still pretty compelling to see a sailor approaching the end of what is surely an epic journey by any standard - crossing the ocean alone in a relatively small boat. In fact, it's kind of a shame that there are no Americans in the race, as it would be a pretty amazing homecoming. New England blue water sailing legend Rich Wilson, a participant in the last Transat 4 years ago in his Open 50, and a guy with several ocean crossings to his credit, probably felt pretty good when he saw that Boston skyline after a couple of weeks at sea.We also had the good fortune to meet a couple of the Open 60 competitors last night. British solo sailor Dee Caffari, having finished that afternoon, looked ready to go out on the town - hard to believe considering the fact that she'd battled a 25 knot headwind for the final couple of hundred miles. And Yannick Bestaven, fresh from his 7th place finish, was looking forward to heading up the St. Lawrence River for the start of the Quebec-St. Malo Race starting July 10th. He loves ocean sailing, and it seems that he can't get enough of this stuff. He's already qualified for the Vendee Globe, the solo non-stop lap around the world in Open 60s starting in November that all of these sailors are preparing for, so he could just sail straight home, but he'd rather race, and Quebec-St. Malo is a cool event. The first 300 - 400 mile stretch takes place in the St. Lawrence River, and the race passes the tiny French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon on or around Bastille Day - and according to Yannick, the party spills off the shores and out to the passing boats.
Never what you'd call particularly popular in the past, solo distance racing seems to be catching on in a pretty big way. These folks are national heroes in some European countries, but until recently, very few people were nuts enough to actually want to go way offshore alone. And while it still hasn't really caught on in the US, the combination of technology and momentum has attracted a steadily increasing number of world-class sailors to this unique aspect of the sport. The Vendee Globe currently boasts 31 entries including the winner of the Transat, Loick Peyron in Gitana 80 (pictured here) and Vincent Riou in PRB, the guy who was winning until he chopped a shark in half with his keel to the detriment of both the shark and his boat which he subsequently abandoned. Ten years ago, you couldn't find 31 people who'd want to do this race with full crew, and the sight of 31 boats charging off the starting line at high speed in France should be something to behold. To be sure, the Bay of Biscay, which boasts some of the nastiest conditions in the world, will probably send a few victims limping home within the first week, but the prospect of a good-sized fleet racing around the planet should be good fun.Maybe it will even spark some interest in long-distance solo sailing in the US. Though he sails alone, Rich Wilson wants some company.
