Harsh lessons for Sam Davies in the Transat (From Daily Echo)

Harsh lessons for Sam Davies in the Transat

12:03pm Thursday 3rd December 2009 in

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HAMPSHIRE ocean racer Sam Davies has described a gruelling 5,000-mile transatlantic yacht race as a steep learning curve.

The Hamble yachtswoman and her French co-skipper Sidney Gavignet had to contend with constant boat breakages during the Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre, France to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

The pair were the last of ten to cross the finish line after being dogged with problems – but Davies described the experience she gained as the “overall victory”.

Sam, 34, from Hamble said: “It was a good race in lots of ways because some of the sailing was fantastic, but some of it was hard and frustrating.

“We had lots of technical repairs to make and so we could not concentrate on the tactics and the sailing because we were just so physically tired from having our heads in the toolbox all the time with the other person helming. It was difficult.

“For me this race was all part of the run up to the next Vendée Globe and so the result is just one bit, but it is an amazing result in terms of what I have learned.

“It is the hard stuff which makes you stronger. And I am sure that in the next race, the performance will just shoot up.

“That is the overall victory for me.”

Davies and Gavignet chose the most southerly route of the fleet, avoiding the treacherous north Atlantic.

She added: “I would not have gone north with this boat.

“No regrets there at all, especially when you see that one boat pretty much sank.”

Mike Golding was the first of a host of Hampshire sailors to finish the race, coming in in third place with co-skipper Javier Sanso.

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, sailing Aviva, finished in eighth, while Alex Thomson and Ross Daniel were forced to retire after their yacht Hugo Boss struck an unknown object.