Back to the TJV

The Transat Jacques Vabre (TJV) is a 4,500 mile doublehanded race from Le Havre, France to Salvador, Brazil. Classes vary from 40 to 60 foot and there are both mono and multihulls racing. Whilst watching the end of this year’s Vendee Globe (the solo non stop round the world race for Open 60s that is held ever four years, and has been Nick’s long term goal now since 2000), we’ve been working on ways of getting to the startline for 2012.

Obviously the financial situation in the world means that things aren’t great for raising sponsorship at the moment but we will continue to work on this with moderated budgets and with some more ‘alternative’ ideas. As always we have high focus on PR and communication and delivering  Return On Investment for our partners through a close cooperation.

The short term goal is to take part in the double handed Transat Jacques Vabre in November with one of the existing Open 60 teams. Nick competed successfully,  8th place and the best of 8 British skippersin the Class 40 fleet in the last TJV and this is a logical step up.

The reality is that this will also involve finding some funding to help put together a competitive package.

From VOR to record breaking speed

Hello all,

Just a quick mail to let you know what’s been happening since the disappointment of Team Russia withdrawing from the Volvo Ocean Race at the end of 2008. It looks like in the short term at least, the teams financial problems aren’t something that are going to be resolved easily, so I enthusiastically embarked on a few weeks of recovery time from the rigours of the race. This mainly involved some great skiing and having a few drinks with old friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen since signing up with Team Russia at the beginning of last summer.

 

Anyway, unsurprisingly for most of you…. I’ve kept myself busy and have plenty of new plans on the go. Whilst watching the end of this year’s Vendee Globe (the solo non stop round the world race for Open 60s that is held ever four years, and has been my long term goal now since 2000), I’ve been working on ways of getting to the startline for 2012. Obviously the financial situation in the world means that things aren’t great for raising sponsorship at the moment but I will continue to work on this with moderated budgets and with some more ‘alternative’ ideas. The short term goal is to take part in the double handed Transat Jacques Vabre in November with one of the existing Open 60 teams. I competed in the Class 40 fleet in the last TJV and this is a logical step up. The reality is that this will also involve finding some funding to help put together a competitive package.

 

Right now I should be packing as tomorrow; I’m flying off for a two month stint working on a speed sailing project in Walvis Bay, Namibia. I am going to be joining the Vestas Sailrocket team www.sailrocket.com . This time I will be part of the shore crew (there is only one sailor onboard or perhaps tellingly he is known as the pilot!) Paul Larsen and his girlfriend Helena Darvelid have been working on this project for years and right now they are on the verge of becoming the outright world speed sailing record holders, which is for an average speed over a 500 metre course.

 

Rather than talking about it, the best thing is to check out probably their most spectacular video, which can be viewed on youtube here. It takes a while to download but is well worth it!!

Paul Larsen, the pilot, takes the Sailrocket on a record breaking run which culminated in the team taking the ‘B’ class world speed sailing record and becoming the world’s fastest sailing boat, their average speed only bettered by wind and kitesurfers. During the next run, which is also on the video, Paul’s stunning start ends in near catastrophe as Vestas Sailrocket literally takes off into the air Donald Campbell style. Thankfully both the pilot and Sailrocket are back in one piece and after waiting for a new weather window and optimisation, the team is ready to begin the next series of record runs this weekend.

 

Anyway I will keep you all posted on how this goes, take care and best wishes for the rest of the winter….

 

Cheers, Nick

A great team searching for funding

Although I should probably start with the report from Leg 3, it is impossible to avoid the news that due to a lack of funds, resulting directly from the global economic crisis, the team’s management has decided to suspend racing whilst further sponsors are sought. One of the saddest things about this is not just the lack of frontline action out on the ocean but the break up of one of the most amazing collections of people I’ve ever spent time with. At our final team dinner there were tears in the eyes of many, what people had to say will remain private but suffice to say, guys don’t like having their toys, boys and girls all taken from them in one foul swoop.

We may not be at the top of the leaderboard but we are not at the bottom either and if you ask anybody on the dock which team’s having the best time, both on and off the water, the answer virtually always come back “Team Russia”. This may be ‘the Volvo Ocean Race’, the most hardcore and professional yacht race in the world but we still partied hard. Developing a great team spirit can only be achieved by sharing experiences and these can’t all come from time on the ocean, only 30% of the team were out there anyway! We all knew the rules even though they were never written down, party as much as you like but don’t miss the morning gym session and ensure your area of responsibility is under control. Undoubtedly the last 6 months have been some of the best times of my life, when I joined the team in June I didn’t really know any of them and now I feel like I’m leaving 30 life long friends behind. I fly back to the UK tomorrow ready to see all my friends and supporters back home and can’t help but reflect on how lucky I am, even though it is going to be desperately disappointing not to be leaving Singapore with the rest of the fleet. Maybe I will sign up for the real game and see if I can crack the top 1000 in the virtual skipper competition.

Anyway back to Leg 3, one of closest races in the history of the Volvo. It was a downwind start from Cochin and we so nearly nailed the pin end with a great timed run but unfortunately, the kite took ages to pop open (it is ‘wooled’ together into a sock to stop it flapping and potentially ripping on the way up) in the light breeze. It was fairly irrelevant in the course of the race anyway though, as we chose to hug the shoreline whilst the others choose lanes slightly further offshore. Showing great light air speed we kept pace with Telefonica Black and slowly eased away from Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd. The first night was all about the transition from sea breeze to land breeze and we played a great game which saw us pass Ericsson 4, Telefonica Black, Ericsson 3 and Puma but lose to Green Dragon who did well inshore. For the next 36 hours we match raced Ericsson 3 and were encouraged to keep them well astern but in the process lost out to the others who slowly but surely started to extend on us. By this time Delta Lloyd was well behind the rest of the fleet. As we crossed the Indian Ocean on our 1000 mile beat towards the Straits of Malacca, we encountered a range of conditions but mainly found ourselves hard on the breeze with frequent large squalls. I believe the biggest of which saw my watch well set one night, with one reef in the main and a medium sized jib up in around 18 knots, before we were hit by a 37 knot bullet and driving rain of such intensity you could not see more than a metre in front of you. Luckily we emerged unscathed and battled on but it was tough going. As the squalls passed and the wind dropped you were forced to re-stack all the kit before moving it back as the next squall approached, a mammoth effort all round!

Eventually Ericsson 3’s pure horse power saw them slip away from us and we had to be content with a solid lead over Delta Lloyd and Green Dragon just ahead. As we passed the scoring gate at the NW end of the straits in 7^th, the fleet started to bunch up. Ericsson 4 lost their lead and the front 4 converged, set to race ‘en masse’ to the finish with Telefonica Blue finally taking the win. We clawed our way up to Green Dragon and on the last night finally drew level only to be thwarted by the final transition between thermal breezes on the last night. We had a great blast to the finish with the code zero up and a fresh 20 knot northerly. The action wasn’t finished there however, as we hammered along at speeds of between 18 and 23 knots in the pitch black we encountered a dreaded fishing fleet…….. thankfully they were well lit, that is all but one who we think the guys were sleeping onboard. I saw it just at the very last minute, threw the helm over and we missed it by around 5 metres. In 10 seconds they were gone but my heart rate must have been up near the 200s. If we’d hit them, it would have been utter carnage, one fishing boat would have become two and I dread to think about the consequences for us. I was a mighty relieved man when the sun came up for the last time and we coasted into the Singapore Strait! We finished an hour after Green Dragon and around 9 hours from the leaders. This was a massive improvement on leg 2 and bearing in mind the cloud hanging over our futures for the whole leg, the team spirit was fantastic.

None of us know how things are going to work out now but it seems stupid that we have most of the key parts of the project in place such as the vast majority of the budget, a competitive boat and an ambitious crew, but can’t quite close the circle. I have become passionate about this campaign and so am not prepared to sit and do nothing. We need another 1.5 million euros to finish and I intend to chase down every opportunity to help keep it afloat. The boat is going to Cape Town to be ready to head across to Rio should we get money to restart there, or if not, then either Boston or Galway are options.

Thanks for all your support, it’s been awesome. Keep following the race and in return I will keep you posted with any developments from the inside!!

Happy New Year.

 Nick

 

Nick Bubb

Team Russia stops in Singapore

Tuesday 23 December, 2008 14:00 GMT

It’s a sad day for Team Russia and watch captain Nick Bubb. Team Russia today announced it has suspended racing upon arrival in Singapore at the end of Leg 3 due to insufficient funds to continue the campaign.

The team has been seeking sponsorship in recent months to secure enough financial support to continue to Qingdao and beyond.

However no sponsorship has been forthcoming and the team has no alternative but to suspend racing until further financial support can be secured.

“From the outset, it was always a goal to bring commercial partners into the project,” said Oleg Zherebtsov, the Team principal. “Until now, I have financed the team with my own money, in advance of anticipated sponsorship funding.

“By this stage in the Volvo campaign we had intended to find sponsorship, but this process has been impacted by the global economic situation.”

Cessation of racing also means that Team Russia is unable to continue its partnership with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

The team was proud to “Sail For The Whale”, during the first three legs of the race and was instrumental in spreading the call for safe habitats for whales and dolphins around the globe.

WDCS is very proud to have been a part of this race and will continue to work for the creation of 12 large marine protection areas by the year 2012 and will find new ways to work with the international sailing community as well as the general public to achieve this goal.

Thight fight with ERT3

 Tuesday morning, 65 hours into leg 3 and still we can see some of our competitors. In fact for most of this leg we have been locked in battle with Ericsson 3. As Wouter likes to put it, this is a ‘street fight’. Typical of the Indian Ocean we have unreliable forecasts and we are having to sail by the seat of our pants. Every time we separate from Ericsson 3 there is nervousness onboard, as confident as we may be in our reading of the situation, you just never know what is going to be thrown at you next! We seem to have changed between the genoa and code zero tens of times already, as the wind strength rather annoyingly, hovers permanently around that crossover. Thankfully right now we are several miles clear ahead of Ericsson 3 with the potential for a great position report relative to Green Dragon too. Delta Lloyd right now are suffering some of the same luck we had on leg 2 and are well behind, so in general we are happy with things so far.

 

Our new bowman for this leg Scott Gray is fitting in well as expected, although having lost one of our precious food bowls, he then proceeded to throw away a whole roll of loo paper. He may find himself short of a t-shirt or two should things get tight in that department later on. With a huge renewed focus amongst the crew, all idle chit chat is strictly restricted to off watch and this now focuses on the great debate, will we make it in for Christmas?! Personally I’m not feeling too confident but then again I don’t have flights booked home or family coming out so it’s not quite such a concern for me! Unfortunately my dog Shackleton couldn’t get a visa for Singapore in time!

 

Anyway, as usual I have a few small running repairs onboard to make so I’d better go. Thanks for all the messages of support via our team website (www.teamrussia.org), please keep them coming. Fingers and toes crossed as we try to reel the leaders back in, now 25 miles ahead.

 

Cheers, Nick

Singapore next for Bubb

Evening all,

It’s taken me a while to find the enthusiasm to sit down and write this report. The end of leg two was undoubtedly one of the more depressing moments in my racing career so far……however thankfully there were some very good bits too! We had a fantastic start to the leg, heading into the south hammering along at well over thirty knots, occasionally ‘dismounting’ in spectacular fashion, getting battered down the deck by breaking surf and feeling that hugely addictive adrenalin rush as you got prepared for action down below before arriving on deck to face the elements. Passing the scoring gate in fourth was definitely the highlight of the race so far and we will certainly take heart from that as we look ahead.

David Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race

In every respect this was a leg of contrasts, Southern Ocean in 40 knots, freezing temperatures and mountainous waves, to the Indian Ocean, a sleeping giant with warm gentle summer breezes most days, but the threat of hurricanes and pirates just around the corner. As we headed north into the Indian Ocean and lined up our Doldrums crossing, it became apparent that a viable option was to try to pass further to the east than the boats ahead. Well our big break to the east didn’t pay off… as any ocean sailor knows the Doldrums are an area where tactical skill must be mixed with good fortune to achieve success. What looked so promising at one point turned to disaster as we floundered around for five days and watched the rest of the fleet slip away from us. As we battled the elements, we managed a staggeringly poor 34 miles in one 24 hour period whilst battling a 2 knot equatorial current in an average windspeed of 2 knots. It seemed crazy to think that this very boat had been banging in 500 mile days earlier on. All this drifting around brought back memories of the HSBC Oryx Quest in 2005. We had raced non stop around the world, something like 25,000 miles in just over 60 days and were heading up the Indian Ocean to Qatar, when we fell into similar conditions. In the end it took us nearly 2 weeks to finish off the last 1000 miles. There is a reason why most yacht races don’t come up here……..

Mark Covell/Team Russia

I like to think that we weren’t late to Cochin, more the others were early! As we motored up to the dock after crossing the finish line in eighth, we were informed that our finish had coincided with the official race village opening night. As a result we were mobbed by literally thousands of Indians and in the end had to be protected by armed guards as we made our way up to the main stage; all a bit intimidating when you’ve just spent the best part of three weeks with only ten other people in your world!

After a few days in Cochin handing the boat over to the shore crew to carry out repairs and improvements, all the sailing crew then had a few days off and Beno and I once again ended up heading off on a short adventure. After our safari in Cape Town, we choose to continue the theme and caught a flight out to the tiny Island of Agatti, around 100 miles to the west of Cochin, for a long weekend of diving. This proved to be a great plan as we saw two metre long nurse sharks, stingrays, turtles and millions of multicoloured fish, all playing around the reef just 100 metres offshore. This coupled with the white sand beaches and hotel room under the palm trees were a pretty good way to forget leg 2 and look forward to the challenges that lie ahead!

We restart on Saturday the 13th with the major aim of getting to Singapore in time for Christmas….which could be a close run thing. Just under 2000 miles of potentially very light and tricky conditions and a route littered with fishermen, modern day pirates and all sorts of unusual hazards. Thankfully Kosatka is once again back in good shape and we were out sailing today, carrying out a few sail and system tests.

Anyway as usual, thanks for the encouraging messages, always great to hear from you all. Take care and if I don’t see you before, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!! Wish us luck, hope you like the pics.
Cheers, Nick

Ready for the next one

Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race

Nick Bubb and Team Russia is getting ready for the third leg of the VOR. Saturday they will be leaving Cochin and heading for Singapore. Watch this space for more news from Nick.

Doing an England

So this will be my last blog of Leg 2…even if we are stuck out here for another week, I can’t take it anymore I jut can’t take it……all this sweating onto the keyboard it makes typing a nightmare. No seriously, I’ve had enough now, as my friend Meg once said, “Take me home or lose me forever.”

So the last few days have been pretty uneventful, highlights however include managing to swim all the way round the yacht whilst sailing, in the loosest sense of the word, over the equator, and managing a staggeringly poor 34 miles in one 24 hour period whilst battling a 2 knot equatorial current in an average windspeed of 2 knots.

There have been some pretty serious discussions onboard over whether the ‘professional’ thing to do would be to retire and start motoring towards a rendezvous with a fuel pick up and/or stronger breeze. This has become a consideration due to Volvo’s seemingly strange rule that you get the same number of points for finishing last as you do for retiring, right now all I can say is that I’m glad this race is not judged on cumulative time! Anyway personally I’ve been very anti this idea and thankfully that this was the decision the crew came to as a team too. Of course we may have to reconsider if we park up for another 5 days. We are hoping and praying that we will get in on the 4th December as we only have a few days food left but in reality we can hold out for another 6 days. The only issue is that cuts into our preparation time for the next leg, which starts on the Saturday 13th December, and we have quite a long job list for Cochin! Anyway right now we are sailing at 10 knots in a decent breeze, which looks something like the forecast, the first time in a looooooong time! We expect further tricky conditions on the final stretch along the Indian coast, which are currently holding up the bulk of the fleet but I’m confident we are out of the worst times.

With just over 400 miles to go spirits are cautiously rising, that is until Beno reminds me about Saturdays rugby result against NZ which then kicks off our South African clan about the weekend before, currently we are ‘doing an England’ so I can’t be too harsh on the boys.

Drifting around this past week has brought memories of the Oryx Quest 2005 flooding back to me. We had raced non stop around the world, something like 25,000 miles in just over 60 days and were heading up the Indian Ocean to Qatar when we fell into similar conditions to those we are experiencing now. In the end it took us nearly 2 weeks to finish off the last 1000 miles. There is a reason why most yacht races don’t come up here……..

This thought leads me to reflect on how we’ve ended up in this situation and my role within the team.  This leg was always going to be a huge challenge, trying to at least partially fill the boots of the great Guillermo Altadill whilst at the same time continue by duties as boat captain and general Mr Fix-it. In a funny way it has been tough but not how I imagined it would be. Mikey Joubert who has been my watch buddy for this leg is widely acknowledged as one of the best bowman in the world but I have to say he certainly knows how the back end works too. Mike has shared in all the decisions to be made on deck and between us, I’m very happy that we did a fast and safe job in the first few weeks of the race. When it comes to keeping Kosatka in one piece, Beno and Cam have been part of the task force we put into operation to keep our heads above water, whilst Mikey takes care of the rig. This side of life has obviously got a lot easier in the current conditions whilst the role of watch captain has become a little confusing to say the least, no longer do I have to worry about keeping everyone in good physical shape, sleep is now easy, no longer are there tricky sail calls to make, it is pretty much just CO-C all the way. As for the often stressful safety considerations to deal with, as much as we try to ‘push’ the boat, right now even we are struggling to break her! As far as the fallout from the tactical choices of the last week, I can say hand on heart that there have not been any… onboard at least! I was certainly not against the route we took, it was not hugely extreme and was based on solid facts but Mother Nature doesn’t always play by the same rules. I’d like to say you live and learn but I like to make bold choices in life and they can’t always be right, sure we’ve learnt a lot this leg but our style of ocean racing won’t change.

Leg 3 going to be more of the same no doubt with additional challenges. We are all focused on getting this tough situation dealt with as painlessly as possible then recuperating and hitting the line running a week or so later. Some of the guys are rushing home for a few days with family whilst most of the younger guys are planning on a few days sightseeing before getting back into race mode and ensuring we are as ready as can be. We had several milestones yesterday, as well as crossing the equator, my seventh visit to Neptune, we also clocked up over 20,000 miles on Kosatka’s log, it seems amazing we’ve only been sailing her a few months!

Well good night all, we seem to have slowed down again so I better prepare for the change back to the CO-C.

Cheers, Nick

PS Just a short note to the crew, sorry for bring ‘that’ cold onboard that I think we’ve all suffered from it at some point, interesting to note that for some people it was catagorised as life threatening flu and for others just a mild cold! Sorry boys, maxing out on the Vitamin C from now on. Oh and Mark sorry about the hair cut I gave you today, I just hope it ‘grows in’ a little before you see yourself in a mirror!

Going to Cochin with CO-C

November 28

CO-C….No I don’t mean to be rude but CO-C pretty much sums up the last four days. You see CO-C is the third iteration in the design phase of our code zero. Typically, the CO-C is used in very light airs and that is exactly what we’ve experienced over the last few days. Nobody has hit the OO.OO jackpot on the log yet, but we’ve come pretty bloody close. These have been testing conditions by anybody’s standards and it is only now as we just start to move that I feel I can face the computer. Are we out of the Doldrums yet?  “Who knows there is no wind the other side anyway, or so it
seems right now.

In every respect this has been a leg of contrasts, Southern Ocean in 4O knots, freezing temperatures and mountainous waves to the Indian Ocean, a sleeping giant with warm gentle summer breezes most days, but the threat of hurricanes and pirates just around the corner. Compared to the rest of my Volvo experience so far, the last few days have been very relaxed…there is only so much you can do in 2 to 4 knots after all!

It hasn’t all been plain sailing onboard Kosatka though. Along with our early keel issues we’ve had a lot of electrical problems which at their worst during our wetter phases, were resulting in electrical shocks all round. This certainly kept us on our toes from the galley to the wheel and especially the nav station…..not so cosy in there after all boys!

The latest set back onboard has been the total loss of one of our bottom dagger board bearings. We’ve no idea how this happened, Beno and I just discovered it during routine checks yesterday. The whole system is pretty complicated to say the least so I won’t try to explain it.  But, basically, we were very lucky this didn’t result in a broken board and damage to the case. From now on we will have to very careful whilst we try to find a way to continue to use the board but with a limited range.

And, so to the performance this leg. Well our big break to the east hasn’t paid off just yet… as any ocean sailor knows the Doldrums are an area where tactical skill must be mixed with good fortune to achieve success.  What looked so promising a few days ago has turned to …humh well CO-C. The only sail to get us out of here! The only consolation is that most of the fleet have experienced similar conditions most of the time too.  However, from the fleet being bunched within less than a hundred miles, Ericsson 4 have disappeared over the horizon and our promising position has turned to last place. We still have some cards to play and the concentration and focus on deck is still total. Almost unbelievable dedication from all eleven crew….yes Mark does play his part by occasionally keeping quiet and allowing us to concentrate!!

The first part of this leg was fantastic and that is still fresh in my mind, hammering along at well over thirty knots in the pitch black, occasionally ‘dismounting’ in spectacular fashion, getting battered down the deck by breaking surf, feeling that huge addictive adrenalin surf as you get prepared for action down below before arriving on deck to face the elements…how I wish we were back there now. Passing the scoring gate in fourth was definitely the highlight of the race so far, and we will certainly take heart from that and push on through this seemingly impenetrable wall as we close on Cochin and all that India has to offer.

Wish us luck, the game is not up yet….and it looks set to continue for a while.

Cheers all , Nick

Next up………the Volvo Ocean Race

Team Russia training in June 2008

More news to follow shortly however in brief, Nick wil be racing the Volvo Ocean Race with Team Russia. Nick’s role will be boat captain, pitman and driver. The first leg starts on October 11th from Alicante and you can follow all the action at www.volvooceanrace.com and www.teamrussia.org