Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

It was a quick and easy decision, to apply for the Clipper Race challenge back in the autumn of 2017. Fate seemed to open its doors to a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience as I read about the eleven-month regatta online. As an ETH Zurich student working on a Bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences, a sailor, an athlete, and a nature lover this seemed to be the perfect challenge. Soon after, my eyes were scanning the wide horizon of the Atlantic ocean and my face pointed into the rough breeze of the English Channel during my first training.

After two years of intense training and preparation, my team and I slipped the lines of the St. Katherine Docks in London - close to the Greenwich meridian and headed out to sea. Eight legs and various destinations including: Uruguay, South Africa, Australia, China, the Philippines, the USA, and the UK will host a fleet of 11 identical racing yachts. It is one of the longest and toughest sailing races in the world and follows a unique route.

Earlier this year I got to know my skipper, team, and yacht in a random allocation process called “Crew Allocation Day”. My team called, “Dare to Lead” will have 20 persons on board on average. Divided into two watches during the race, one half of us will keep the boat running while the other half sleeps, cleans, prepares food, or repairs the sails. After each leg a crew changeover alters the composition of the team. Most of my 58 team members are ‘leggers’ who complete just one or several legs of the race. Only a core team of nine will aim to fully circumnavigate the globe.

Our yacht is led by two professionals: Skipper Guy Waites and an additional qualified person, Hugues Stellio. The vast diversity of the different teammates is a key feature of the race. Our team is lucky to consist of sailors with a wide variety of knowledge: instructors, a surgeon, artists, bankers, soldiers, engineers, students, and even a psychologist to mention but a few. In addition to different areas of expertise, nine different countries are represented in the Dare to Lead team.

Offshore sailing is a tough sport, but is open to all genders and ages. Neither raw strength nor solo attempts will lead to success. On the contrary, teamwork is the key to reach our goals – as a team and as individuals. To improve my abilities to work within a team was one of my biggest incentives for signing up for this challenge.

It has been almost two years since I had my first experience with a 70 foot offshore racing yacht. Now we are in the final preparations for the first leg - The Atlantic Trade Winds Leg and we will leave within the next six hours, but by the time this blog is published, I will already be out to sea and well beyond the horizon.

Imagine the lengthy checklist that my teammates and I have had to navigate to prepare the boat to a state in which it is ready to cross oceans as a completely self-sufficient vessel. A boat is never perfect, it is a continually turning wheel that presents new challenges to which one has to solve, improvise, or adapt as necessary.

Safety is the most crucial point on our prep checklist. We practiced man over board maneuvers in all sea states and weather conditions. Every turn starts with a safety briefing including the cases that we all hope will never occur, like a fire on board, a gas leak, or flooding. Even less appealing situations such as abandoning ship, escaping on life rafts, and spending a lengthy period of time in the ‘midst of nowhere’ were discussed in our training. In a sea survival course we learned to inflate life rafts, flip them in the case that they capsize, and enter them with a fully inflated life vest and wearing heavy gear.

Difficult situations need to be discussed thoroughly in order to ensure that everyone has a deep understanding of extreme situations and what they may need to do to survive. However, life is not always deterministic and in many cases, I am sure that we will be forced to improvise.

Since my childhood I had the opportunity to join my parents on sailing trips, mainly in the Mediterranean Sea. At the beginning, I met the size and power of sailing yachts with enormous respect. Over the years it turned into a passion that I still devote myself to with awe. Of all my outdoor activities, I never feel the power of the elements as intensely as on a sailing yacht. If the wind fills the sails, a groaning goes through the core of the ship, the tension can be felt in every component of the yacht. The enormous force of the wind heels the ship flat to the horizon and the sea passes the slender waterline of the yacht in a rush!

One thing is a certainty - this race is a slightly more advanced game compared to my previous sails. There are a lot of questions on my mind as I embark on this journey. Questions such as: How will I prepare for the biggest waves on Earth, ones that reach heights of over 20 meters? How will I react when a thunderstorm lights up the night skies over a 30-meter tall and lightening-rod like mast? How will I deal with the blistering heat of the breezeless doldrums? Do I really mind if temperatures below deck rise to well over 40°C?

I will, at times, feel afraid, but how well will I control my feelings in these difficult situations and will I make the right decisions for my crew mates, the yacht and myself? While a scientific back-ground helps to remain abstract in cases of emergency and helps to create order out of chaos reasonably quickly, this is of no use if no one on the ship can or wants to hear you. Feedback and suggestions for improvement have to be timed correctly and communicated precisely, otherwise they will literally be blown away in the wind. It all comes down to leadership and taking responsibility for the team and, more importantly, your own actions. When I read the daily news, I see that the world is in desperate need of responsible and courageous leadership skills. On a 70-foot racing yacht, there is not enough room to accommodate poor conflict management or selfish behaviour. Actually, the earth is too small as well for this kind of thing. It is an enormous privilege for me to have the chance to face this challenge and practice these skills in such a unique environment.

At the moment, it is difficult to estimate how our team will perform relative to our ten competitors. There are too many influences that cannot be controlled to set a fixed goal in such race. We prefer to be competitive rather than aim for success and podiums. Behaviours such as sharing, tolerance, enthusiasm, respect, and discipline will allow us to achieve our best in any situation.

Since August 10th, I call our racing yacht ‘Dare to Lead’ my home. While a slight change in life-style, it was a welcome one. We prepared our yacht in the training centre in Gosport on the southern coast of England. Subsequently, we sailed to London. At the time of this writing, we are moored in the St. Katherine Docks within the historic centre of the city. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London lie just around the corner. By the time you read this we will have launched to destinations beyond the horizons. First stop will be in Portimão, on the southern coast of Portugal. A race into the unknown, the sea is calling.