The Ocean Race

But after completing many impressive sailing expeditions, Tracy still felt she needed more of a challenge.

And then I heard about the '85-'86 Whitbread Round the World Race.

What is the Whitbread, for people who've never heard of it?

The Whitbread Round the World Race is the toughest yacht race in the world.

Uh, it starts and finishes in the UK, and it's 33,000 miles, and it's nine months.

And it was the pinnacle of ocean racing, uh, you know, the, the peak of what guys wanted to achieve.

I'll, I'll do that."

Mm-hmm.

Well, they stopped doing theirs, so you're all right.

And theirs was called Off Watch: The Ocean Race, I think-

Oh

... as, you know, formally.

It's not the Volvo...

The Volvo Ocean Race doesn't exist anymore.

I think Volvo pulled out.

Anyways, you get the point.

I am a little concerned.

We were looking at it as an offshore team, I think, is what we were discussing, forming up a, an ocean race team, but it-

Redheads don't go so well offshore, though.

[laughs] Do, do explain, Stace.

All right.

Enjoy that one.

Ocean Race, new home.

Team no one-

I would say let's start with, uh, CC.

She's a, a former Volvo Ocean Race yacht and, uh, has been built to, uh, to get thrashed by a professional team through the Southern Ocean.

Um, we, we, we ourselves did, uh, did, um, passages through the Northern Atlantic, um, close-- and we had ice gates in Regatta, so it was, uh, it was ve- ve- a very similar experience pretty much.

Um, we went through big storms on the middle of the Atlantic.

And I don't know what you think, Shona, how that works.

Marie Rieu is somebody else I think of like that who has won a number of match racing world championships as well as having taken part in a number of editions of the Volvo Ocean Race and more recently the Ocean Race.

What's the crossover?

It might be the The culture around sailing in France in that it's just that little bit more accessible in France from what I've learned is that it's very much part of maybe a school environment.

Yeah, yeah.

Occasionally we do get these incredibly tight finishes after such long offshores.

Also interesting that Simeon Tienpomp from the Netherlands was amongst the competitors and a top level professional racer, skipper of his own Volvo Ocean Race campaign going back.

probably about eight or nine years ago.

going to be sailed in J22 boats in San Francisco Bay in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was the first time in the ocean race where they've had 24 hour live stream.

Big Brother was what they were calling it.

Hello and welcome to episode 40 of The Foil Podcast, your independent take on all things sail racing, both foiling and non-foiling.

Going to be sailed in J22 boats in San Francisco Bay in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, as you mentioned, Shona, which is... iconic sailing venue so I'm very jealous for all the teams going out there going to yacht around Alcatraz and all that stuff I think it'll be very cool to see some of the pictures that come out of that event and there's some you know top sailors that are that are entered I think you've been having a snip at some of the teams Shona there's a few names that I think you'll probably recognize and some of our foil fans at home will probably recognize

Yeah, so coming back as she has won the last five consecutive World Sailing Women's Match Racing World Championships is Pauline Courtois with her team match in pink.

And then also interesting me for myself, as I've just seen her at two previous events, is um Megan Thompson and 2.0 racing team she's just done the ocean race and she went and did the women's championships in uh Newport Rhode Island and then she went straight down to do some training and now she's going into this event in San Francisco so uh really really excited to see how she gets on because I don't know how she does it

It's so impressive.

So everything is online.

It's called the Ocean Race.

And so it has like all the like, I think I'm there in April of 2027.

And you can actually come visit me and come see the boat relatively.

And if they're looking for dates in particular, I'm planning on putting that in my bio anyway of specific dates that they could potentially come see me if they wanted to fly out and come to St. Pete in Florida.

That's the only US stop we're actually doing.

And on top of that, if they just wanted to follow along on the tracker or anything like that, that's also through the Ocean Race website.

Awesome.

Now, Shona joined us as a triple threat, at least, probably quadruple threat.

a competitive sailor fresh off the plane from Newport, having competed in the New York Yacht Club Women's Championship, a talented and fearless onboard reporter on some of the biggest offshore campaigns like Ocean Race Atlantic, plus the Olympic cycle working for Irish Sailing.

And she's pretty handy with a camera, too.

Shona, welcome to The Foil.

Thank you.

I think

that the opportunity that these teams have, similarly to the way that the Ocean Race has picked up two events in between each world race with the Ocean Race Atlantic and the Ocean Race Europe, They're all new teams and they need this run-in time to get sponsors, to get money on the table, to make these campaigns happen.

I even saw last week, the more...