October 25, 2023 • 43 mins
Sam Goodchild is a professional sailor, a member of Thomas Ruyant’s (TR Racing) team and skipper of the sailing vessel “FOR THE PLANET''. For the past 20 years, he has had one thing on his mind - the Vendée Globe. Known as "the Everest of the Seas' “, this solo-non-stop race around the world is one of the most difficult challenges across all sports. A bit more than 100 sailors have completed the journey, and Sam looks to be one of the few to achieve this feat. Tune in and find out more about the world of competitive sailing, near death experiences, and the global initiatives behind the team to benefit people and the planet.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
Welcome back to the Clobetrotters podcast,the show that brings me divers storytelling,
awful discussions on ethical issues, andinvestigations into how you can make the most
of an adventure without breaking the bank. I'm your host, Jonathan Oteo.
If you've been tuning in recently,you might have noticed a pattern in our
episodes. Lately, They've revolved aroundextreme sports and traveling around the world to
(00:37):
compete in some of the toughest raceson the planet. This week will be
no different. Today we'll be speakingwith Sam Goodchild, a competitive racer for
Thomas Ryon tr Racing team and skipperof the sailing vessel for the Planet.
Sam will be competing in the twentytwenty four edition of the Vonde Globe.
(00:57):
For those that aren't familiar with thisrace, it is a solo, NonStop
race around the world, commonly referredto as the Everest of the Seas.
At a young age, Sam's familyleft Bristol to live on a sailing boat
in the West Indies until he wasfifteen. Pretty cool. During this time,
he discovered what the Von de Globewas by reading about it in one
(01:19):
of his father's magazines. As allkids do, and since then he's been
driven to one day compete in thislegendary race. At eighteen, he decided
to quit school and enter the worldof sailing full time. He has worked
with some of the biggest names inBritish sailing, including Alex Thompson and Mike
Golding. Sam is now thirty fouryears old and has enjoyed an extraordinary amount
(01:42):
of success early on after entering intothe Emoka class, currently leading the world
rankings thanks to three podium finishes andwinning two legs in the Ocean Race,
a race that is crewed around theworld would stopovers. Sam, It's a
pleasure to have you on the show. Hey John, thanks not giving me
through. It's a bit difficult tohear someone talking about you like that,
(02:04):
but thanks. Sorry kind same.We're going to spend a large portion of
today talking about the Vonda Globe andthe team and collective you're a part of
that is championing initiatives for people onthe planet. But I want to start
at the beginning. You were bornin Bristol, but at a very early
age your family chose to leave allof that behind and live on a sailboat.
(02:25):
Pretty much until you were fifteen,What was that experience? Like,
I guess it's difficult to speak ofit as an experience because at the time
I didn't know anything else, Sofor me, it was normal. I
guess when I started to realize thatit was maybe a bit unique was when
I moved back to England when Iwas fifteen. I went to boarding school
and then I met a bunch ofpeople and they're like, oh, You're
(02:46):
so lucky. You grew up inthe West Indies living on a boat,
and I was like, oh,I spent fifteen years wanting to move back
to England and bind the skateboard Icould see in the magazines and play rugby
and football and all the sports youplayed. So that was k when I
probably started to realize that there wasa bit of difference. But no,
no, I mean it's unique.And now I've got my own kids and
(03:07):
I've grown up a bit, youcan of appreciate a lot more what actually
that means to live it and toexperience that. Yeah, no, definitely.
And now that you are a competitiveracer, do you meet other people
that have similar upbringings or are youone in a thousand? I mean,
yeah, I've met a bunch ofpeople that have been brought up on boats.
But I mean it's it's not likeone specific path who if you get
(03:30):
brought up on boats, you turnyou end up being a professional sailor over
the years that it's it's fairly rare, and I was very lucky and fortunate
to have that, so I tryto remember that from time to time.
Awesome, incredible at age we're speedingup. At age sixteen, you cross
paths with Alex Thompson, a britwho is a legend in the sport of
(03:51):
sailing. Can you talk a littlebit about him and the impact he had
on your life as a person andas a competitor. Yes, I would
part of a what they called theAcademy at the time, helping young people
get into offshore sending or get intoselling just as a whole. And Alex's
team he's done four or five onthe globes now and at that stage he'd
(04:15):
done one or two. But hehad a massive team sponsored by Hugo Boss
and part of their team was todo a round the world tour with a
boat to take clients from Hugo Bossand partners and basically Hugo Boss taking them
sailing, and as part of thatproject, they said, oh, well,
we'll open up two spots on everytrip for this boat to come discover
(04:36):
what it is sailing on an offshoreracing boat. So my first trip with
them, when I was still atschool during school holidays, was to sail
from England across to what we endedup in Halifax in Canada, and then
down to New York. And soyeah, I discovered that was my first
big crossing. It was a bigtransatantic crossing on a race boat. So
I mean for me, it wasjust a eyes open to a whole new
(04:58):
world which I'd read about but neverscene. And now I suddenly started meeting
these people and meeting people that werelearning or earning their living and living a
life from from what was my passion. And I mean that that showed me
that it was possible and it wasn'tjust a dream, and that if I
if I kept hanging around these peopleand asked enough questions, they'd finally let
me come do with it more.And that's that's how it turned out.
(05:20):
And how what was the length ofthat first experience going from going over to
Halifax and down in New York?What is the time frame that we're talking
about here, So Halifax, ittook us. I think it was fourteen
days exactly. It was about twoweeks, and I think it was exactly
two weeks, and it was inMay, and it were it's not normally
(05:40):
the best time in the year tocross Atlantic, going across from east to
west, because there's all I mean, it's it's late in the season,
but there were still some winter depressionscoming across Atlantic, and the water is
still pretty cold, and it's generallygoing into the wind and and the golf
stream, so it's it's not it'snot what you'd be advice to do as
(06:01):
your first crossing. And I thinkmy parents were pretty scared that I'd do
that and never wanted to go sendingagain. And it was pretty hardcore,
but I guess that's what that's whatmade me like it and think that it
was difficult, but I still enjoyedit, so that made me want to
go further. Now that's incredible.As we mentioned before to our listeners,
(06:21):
the Vonde Globe is a solo,NonStop, roughly twenty six thousand nautical mile
race around the world, and itis a race it's commonly referred to as
the Everest of the Seas because it'swidely known as one of the most challenging
and extreme sporting events. Why doyou want to compete in this race?
(06:41):
I mean, I guess I likepushing myself, like pushing the limits.
I like taking on something which Ihave no idea how I'm going to achieve
it. I have no idea howit's possible. But break it down into
small pieces and we'll get there.I mean, I think basically twenty years
ago, when I was really mydad's magazine, I was reading about the
Vonde Globe in two thousand and fourand I said, that looks what I
want to do that and someone saidthat's impossible, it's too difficult, and
(07:03):
I was like, Okay, challengeaccepted. So here we are nineteen years
later and a year away from,if all goes to plan, getting to
the start line. So it's it'sbeen a I mean, it's been my
life. Really, It's not justbeen a hobby on the side. It's
become my life and dictated a lotof what I do. But it's but
it's it's kept me driven to belike I want to achieve this, and
(07:24):
it's going to be difficult. It'snot gonna be easy. It's going to
take a lot of different things.But I'm ready to work hard and make
the sacrifics and and well, Ihaven't done it yet, so we'll see,
we'll see how it goes. ButI'm going in the right direction.
You said something that stood out tome. You said that I'm going to
take it piece by piece or stepby step, you know, from the
(07:45):
outside looking in this, to me, it does seem so daunting and impossible
because I'm thinking about the entire adventureof it right just circumnavigating the globe.
But it sounds like from your perspective, you're only thinking about one step to
the next. So keeping the problemssmall, is that fair to say?
(08:05):
Oh? Yeah? And on somany different levels as well. I mean,
there's just getting to the start lineas a mission. Like I said,
I've been wanting to do it fortwenty years, and i haven't been
like half asked about it for twentyyears. Trying to get here. I've
been kind of really trying to makeit happen, and it's taking twenty years
to get there. And then there'sthe actual the whole adventure and the competition
(08:28):
side of things where you have tobreak it down to little steps. Because
if you leave France and attempt toNovember next year, being okay, I'm
going to go say around the world, Miami is to be here in three
months, I think mentally you justcrumble, or I would anyway. And
so even with the small races,it's just really like break it down,
no, of course, and thatmakes a lot of sense, right,
just to put it into context abouthow difficult this race is for our listeners.
(08:50):
A little over one hundred people havefinished this race since it was first
held back in nineteen eighty nine whenit was known as the Global Challenge.
In fact, more people have actuallybeen to outer space than people who have
successfully completed this grueling around the worldrace, and even just people doing it
outside the sport, right, it'snot too many more that I've traveled around
(09:13):
the globe and solo NonStop. Canyou talk about how difficult it is to
simply finish the race, let aloneyou know, get to the starting line.
Yeah, I mean that's of allthe advice I've gotten, all the
people I've spoken to and listen to, that, I mean, the number
one advice is to finish first.First, you have to finish because it
is it is twenty six thousand miles, it's almost three months at se NonStop,
(09:37):
and you're not at any outside assistance, So you can't phone someone and
say, oh, I've run outof fuel can you come help me?
Or I've ripped my sale or brokenmy mass, like if you need a
problem, which if you have aproblem that needs outside assistance, it's game
over and that's it. So itis really about being as prepared as possible.
And it's a race as well,so you can't just go everything safe.
You have to find that right balancebetween competition and endurance. So it's
(10:01):
yeah, it's not going to bestraightforward, but that's I mean, with
thirty people in the team, okay, with two votes, with thirty people
getting ready for that basically aiming forthat one race next year, and it's
we're all full time and we're allpretty busy. Yeah, can we talk
a little bit more about the actualadventure of it before we start diving into
(10:22):
maybe a few of the nuances ofthe actual race. You know, on
a personal level, do you everjust get caught up in the moment and
you think about where you are inthe world and what you're really achieving and
doing. I mean, you're justsuch a small blip in this massive blue
ocean. How do you reconcile withthat or how do you think about that?
(10:45):
Yeah, I mean, I meansometimes you do, like and I
try and force myself to do it, but you get so dragged into the
whole performance side of things. Butthere's a moment when you're like, I'm
we're literally here in the middle ofthe ocean, like you say, just
to drop, Like you can seeus from a satellite miles from anything,
and we're on a boat which isbeing pushed by the wind surfing waves,
and we're going to sell around theworld or across the Atlantic or wherever we're
(11:07):
going, and it's pretty cool,like not everyone gets that opportunity, and
we're lucky, so so enjoy itwhile you can't. I remember, it
makes me think of a little story. We were selling around the world on
around the World record attempt five orsix years ago. We were going past
the equator in the middle of nowhere, and someone says, oh, it's
that cloud on the moon. It'sa bit weird. And we looked up
(11:28):
and we were in the process ofexperiencing a full lunar eclipse and no one
was aware of it on board,No one knew it was coming. We
had zero light pollution because we werein the middle of nowhere and just a
clear sky and not a cloud insight, which is why everyone was like,
what's that weird cloud? There's noclouds And we just watched the lunar
eclipse in the middle, in themiddle of nowhere, halfway through a record
(11:50):
attempt, and it's just like themoments like that, it's like, well,
we're really lucky and pretty special.Yeah. Another question, just as
a as a competitor, do youdo you find it difficult to balance your
desire to win versus knowing when tostrike. From everything that I've read and
seen about the Vonda Globe, itseems that this race is equal parts ability,
(12:11):
intuition, strategy, and really guts, like you got to have some
Gohnis Yeah, yeah, for sure, I mean it is. It is.
It is something where it is allabout trying to find the right balance
the whole time. Like this,we're setting on quite big, powerful boats
with lots of lots to do allthe time, and you're constantly trying to
assess what time should I strike attack, Like you say, what time should
(12:35):
I be trying to rest and getsome food in and be ready for the
next next activity? What time shouldI be repairing something, checking something,
looking at the weather, the strategy, the all that sort of things.
And it's constantly about I'm only oneperson. We've only got twenty four hours
on a day. I need tokeep going for three months, so I
have to sleep and eat and beworking like a have to keep the machine
(12:56):
going, if you like. Andso yes, it's just trying about finding
that right balance of what is theright time and what is the priority at
this moment that's going to help youwin the race. Because sometimes it is
going as fast as possible. Idon't think, just go fast. And
sometimes it's slowing now or fixing somethingor accepting that now's the time to take
the compromising and going for a sleepbecause you're going to need the energy later.
(13:18):
So it's it is a sport whereit's literally just designing priorities all the
time. And that's I mean,that's why I enjoy it because there is
no one way of doing it.There are thousands a way of doing it.
You just have to try and findwhich works for you. What is
the top speed that you're hitting andat your worst, how slow are you
moving? I mean slow we're pushedby the wind. So there's times when
(13:39):
there is no wind, so thespeed is sorry, there's times where there's
no wind and we're going zero knots. And there's times when our max speed
is is just under forty knots.So that is in mars parows it's a
little bit more so it's like fortyfive miles an hour and kilometers an hour
(14:01):
it's just under double so or somethinglike seventy five kilometers an hour. So
yeah, it's compared to land landmachines, it's not very fast, but
I mean it's normally in a seastate of big wave, so it's it's
it's fast enough. Can that befrustrating when you are hitting zero knots where
just you know, weather isn't cooperatingwith what you're trying to achieve, And
(14:24):
how do you medig or how doyou kind of deal with those emotions in
the race environment? Oh? Yeah, for sure. I Mean there's there's
times when the boat's going zero nutsand you expect it in a way,
and if everyone else is going zeronuts, it's kind of okay. When
it really gets frustrating is when you'regoing zero nuts and they aren't. And
I mean the way to mitigate itis navigation. So you have to choose
(14:46):
your route as where you're going.And sometimes that will be going to a
place so there's no wind and you'rewaiting for the new wind to come in
and you're expecting it. And sometimesyou'll be sitting under a cloud expecting to
have loads of wind and there'll benothing, and that's really frustrating. So
it's more it's all about ex spectationsreally. I guess if you if you're
expecting it, it's okay. Ifyou're not expecting it, then it's difficult.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthe route that you need to take
(15:07):
for the von day globe. Iknow that you have a loose or maybe
their strict guidelines about what necessarily youhave to cross or hit or go around
before it's for it to count.So I mean, in short terms,
and there's a map behind you,it's practical. We leave France, you
go south down the Atlantic, soyou leave Africa on the on the left,
(15:31):
the America's north south and Central Americaon the right at the bottom,
you turn left, so you leaveSouth Africa on your left, you go
past Australia, past New Zealand,leaving Antarctica on your right. So you
go round Antarctica, and then whenyou get across the Pacific, you go
around Cape porn so south tip ofSouth America, back up the Atlantic,
across the equator, and you finishback in France again. So if you
(15:52):
put, if you were to putthe world on a flat map, you
go round the round out Tactica andyou come back again. But I mean,
it's it's a bit weird to thinkyou go, you turn left and
you come back from the right,but it's takes it takes a bit of
time. But that's I guess that'sgoing around the world. No, no,
no. And the reason that Iwanted you to kind of outline it,
outline it for you know, ourlisteners, is because I want to
(16:12):
segue into this next next question forpeople who are not sailors, are too
familiar with the von the globe isI really want to learn what the approach
is from a skipper who's doing arace of this magnitude. When we're talking
about you know, food, clothing, weather, boat maintenance and maneuvering,
just the things that you need tothink about, and we could talk about
(16:33):
each one of those a little bit, like just starting off with food and
clothing for for this, how minimalistor robust are you with these supplies?
So, I mean, the firstthing to know is you don't have any
outside assistance, so you can't belike, oh, I forgot the I
forgot my ninetieth days worth of food. I need to go back and pick
(16:56):
that up. So you have tolive with all the food you're going for
and that's what as well. Sofood, we're taking all the food with
us. It's about one hundred andfifty kilos of weight, so that's what
three three hundred pounds. I'm notvery good at pounds, but yes,
one hundred and fifty kilo is worthof weight about that and yeah close.
(17:18):
So that's so that's food. Wetake it with us, and every everything
we try and go as light aspossible because we've got a boat where the
basically the lights for it is thefaster it goes in most conditions, so
we're trying to take as little weightas possible, so we take a lot
of rehiderated food which is just wherewe add hot water. The advantage for
us is we have a water makeron board, so we take in salt
(17:38):
water from the seed, take outthe salt we have. Fresh water obviously
uses energy, So when you comeinto the energy side of things, we'd
look at how we create energy,whether it's solar or hydro power, or
we've just got a diesel generator onboard, so diesel you have to take
diesel with you. Hydro power youneed to be going faster in the wind,
and solar power needs to be inthe sunlight. So we have a
(17:59):
few differ ones to be able tohave some backups if there's a problem.
And so yes, I mean it'sreally about trying to take what you need
to make sure you're going to beable to perform. So you need to
have enough energy and how you needto be able to function. At the
same time, it's trying to beas light as possible so you don't penalize
the performance. And that makes alot of sense. Right as we were
(18:21):
talking about, you know, themarathon then where they have to carry everything.
Dehydrated food tends tends to be thethe best way to go about it.
Just in terms of weight. Nowabout clothing. You know you talked
about how you have your bed onboard. Is it just two changes of
clothes, one one for the raceand one for when you ever you're going
(18:41):
to sleep or is that not evensomething you take into consideration. Like,
So I mean for clothing that it'strying to find that the balance of hygiene
because there's no showers on board,so we I mean, we can like
wipe out like baby wipe to keepyourself a little bit clean, but you're
not We're not going to watch.So you need to be careful in hygiene
because there's obviously a medical side netmaking sure you're not gonna have many medical
(19:04):
issues on board because we're far awayfrom any sort of doctors or any sort
of medical help. So I mean, generally I take a base layer of
clothing for one per week, sowe're gonna be going for about ten to
twelve weeks. That'll be ten totwelve base layers and then the outer layers.
I've generally got one full set andthen one spare in case one gets
(19:25):
wet or ripped or something happens toit. But it's yeah, espect trying
to keep it to a minimum.But because we're going for three months and
because we're fairly isolated. You saidto little be a little bit careful as
to how much risk you're wanting totake on all those subjects. And also
the other thing is when we leave, we don't know if it's gonna be
a quick race which will take sixtydays, or a long waste which will
take one hundred or somewhere in themiddle, so you need to be a
(19:48):
little bit ready for both eventualities aswell. Sam, would capsizing be the
absolute worst thing that can happen orare there other equally terrible thing? Said
would pretty much take you out ofthe race outside of health issues, of
course, Well, I mean thenumber one thing is not fully in the
order, which is it's not reallya health issue, but it comes quickly
(20:11):
one. But yeah, I meanit's staying on the boat and making sure
you stay on the boat because you'reon around no one's going to come back
to get you. And then capsizing. The boats are pretty robust, they're
designed for that. It can happen, it's fairly rare. Mostly it becomes
after a technical something breaks, sothe key underneath the boat breaks or something
breaks, and that will mean theboat will find itself upside down. But
(20:32):
generally it's it's just trying to stayon board and that's the number one issue,
and then technical issues. And socan you talk about maybe a situation
obviously you haven't done the von AGlobe yet, but a situation in which
on one of your races, everythingwas just going against you. It's just
the weather wasn't cooperating. It justwasn't your day. What was that?
(20:56):
Like? I mean, the worstcase I ever had was fallny in the
water. There were it was adouble handed race, the two of us
on board actually, which was whatsaved me and him. But yeah,
so I fell off and I spentforty minutes swimming while the other guy was
looking for me, and I waslucky enough that he found me. But
I mean that was I was.I mean, that was a race when
(21:18):
I was twenty one. I wasAnd I went into that being like I'm
I'm that happens to other people,that has happened to me. I'm too
good for that, like in vergof Commas, And yeah, I got
brought back to reality pretty quick.And I mean, I'm not sure I
saw your life flash before your eyes. Is maybe a little bit bit two
over it. But I had fortyminutes in the water to think about life
(21:38):
and think about what I was doing. And there was a significant moment when
I thought that was that was it, it was game over. I was
not going on. So, Imean, that was definitely the worst,
the worst moment I've ever had atsea, and I count myself very,
very lucky to have got away withwith a close call as opposed to having
to pay pay the price for it. So and then two days later we
(22:00):
won the race. Talking about emotionalroller coaster, Yeah, no, no
doubt. And you know, youknow, from someone that's not in the
sport, you know, it isvery naive of me to think when you
said you fell in the water,truthfully, I thought that meant anywhere between
thirty seconds to two minutes. Whenyou said forty minutes, I can't believe
it. Like, what is themost difficult part about when someone falls in
(22:22):
that you try to pull them,try to pull them back in. So,
I mean, what came to mecame into mind spread away was all
like the safety learning and stuff wedo, all the safety practices we do,
and the number one thing is whenyou fall in the water, you're
the size of my head. Soyou've got someone on a boat with waves
which were at stage three four metershigh, so over ten feet, looking
(22:45):
for something in the size of afootball. So you need to make yourself
visible because it's basically impossible to find. So I had a knife in my
pocket. I cut the bright yellowhood off my jacket and so I had
something like fluorescent to wave at him. And then it's about saving energy because
the guy threw me something and itwas like, Okay, I want to
swim for that with all my life. I want to give all the energy
I have to go try and getthat. But there's a point we need
(23:07):
to decide pretty quickly. I needall the energy I can get, and
waste the energy to get something whichI'm very unlikely to be able to achieve
is dangerous because I couldn't need toswim here for forty minutes and I don't
know that yet, So be carefulwhat you do with energy. And I
mean, all that training kind ofcame into me and was like, okay,
need to make yourself visible, needto save energy, and basically worked
around that. That was kind ofhow we kept myself going. And then
(23:30):
I had I mean a massive thoughtprocess is too. I mean there was
a moment when I when I actuallyhad my EDG jacket with nose zip on,
so I had to take it offmy head like that. And so
I took it off my head andthen I brought my head back out and
I couldn't see the boat, andI had a massive realization at that point.
I was like, hang on aminute, I can't see the boat.
It's impossible he can see me,Like this is like I'm done,
(23:52):
like it's And that was the difficult. And there was another point when he
was coming back towards me and Ibasically I had to really if I've been
saved, I've seen him. Wemade eye contact. Thank god, this
thing is over and he turned awayand went the other way. He hadn't
seen me, and there I wasthere where I was like this is like
no. That was like the mostdifficult moment I've ever lived, I think,
(24:14):
And I was just like looking,I was convinced that he had seen
me and this thing was over itand he's just turned away and he hadn't
seen me at all. That thathas to be like just a gut punch,
right, Oh yeah, I meanit's horrible. I mean there were
points when I though about, I'vegot a knife. Is it better that
I end this rather than waiting forit to Like, what's what's the way
to suffer the least? Was thequestion I was asking myself. Unfortunately I
(24:36):
didn't do anything, but I don'tthink I would have done, because you
believe until the very end. Butyeah, I mean it was, you
know, some dark thoughts going throughyour head. And I mean even talking
about it now, I've got myskin that's shivering up like it's like it's
I was very, very lucky,and I try not to think overthink it,
but but have some good lessons learnedthat day. Yeah, And that's
(24:56):
exactly what I want to touch on, because you know, for of this
upcoming race that you're going to donext year, you kind of have to
take all these lessons and all theseraces that you've done over the years,
and you've kind of have all theseexperiences that have you know, developed your
skill set and you can apply itto the Vonde Globe. What are some
(25:18):
of the let's say more notable racesthat have prepared you for the Vonde Globe.
I mean, it's like a combinationof lots of different ones and sailing
with some awesome people, whether it'sAlex someonhe I was seventeen, or whether
it's all the people I've settled itsince then and learning from all these experiences.
It's a sport where experience is huge, but you can be competitive to
(25:41):
an older age because it's not justphysically dominated, and experience will make up
for maybe being a bit weaker,a bit slower. So sailing with all
these people who has been huge,racing across the Atlantic, and I guess
the most recent one was I didthe Ocean Race the Winter Just Gone,
which is on a boat very similarto my boat today, and we dealed
(26:02):
the course but with stopped So wewent from Spain and we stopped in the
Cape Verdie, South Africa, Braziland then North America and Europe. So
we did the same course but withstops on the almost exactly the same boat,
and we were five people on boardor four sailors and the media man.
But we're four people on board,and just to do that means I
kind of got a dry run ofwhat's next to you with pretty much the
(26:25):
same tools, but with other peopleI met. I mean in eighteen months
time when I'm down in the SouthernOcean and to be able to think that,
oh, we've already done this,and I've already done that, and
I've seen how people have done itbefore. It's just huge to help me
to prepare for the race. Yeah, no, I can imagine it.
And like you know, I've watchedI'm a huge survivalist fan and I love
(26:47):
learning about that. I'm a hugeoutdoors person and anyone that you know,
any survivalists, can tell you it'sso different when you're doing it with other
people that can kind of show youthe way, and then you do it
by yourself and it's a totally differentballgame. But you know, sounds like
you were more than equipped to takethis on and you know, I'm rooting
for you. But one thing thatI want to kind of shift into a
more maybe positive aspect is let's talkabout a very positive experience when you've been
(27:14):
sailing, whether it's in the racingworld or maybe outside of it, what
has been one of your most notableor best experiences. I mean, I
guess like most of a sort ofpeople that like to push up, push
the limits, and push ourselves iswhen you achieve something which you've been pushing
hard to achieve. It's it's Imean, the satisfaction is huge because you
(27:34):
know it's not just like as itjust happened by accident. It hasn't like
you've had sacrifice. You had timeto get there. So this ocean race
that we did last year, wewon. We won the first two legs
and that was like we never expectedthat. We just kind of turned up.
I was like, Okay, let'ssee how it goes and we'll do
the leg one and see where weare. Oh, we won it.
That's good. And then we didthe leg two when it happened again and
(27:56):
the leg three became second, andwe were like, oh this is that
was That was I mean reassuring tobe racing against some of the best in
the world on a good boat,for sure, but we were but we
were happy to I mean I was. I was proud to be chosen by
that team, to be part ofone of the better teams, and then
to be able to perform was was, I mean, a proud moment I'm
really happy of. And then thenthe fact that we left from South Africa
(28:19):
to go around to Brazil the longway around the world and we spent five
weeks at sea and we had noidea what it's going to be like,
and we saw some pretty pretty fullon conditions and had some pretty big challenges,
but we maybe it to the endand managed to finish second and and
definitely didn't embarrass ourselves. So thatwas I mean, setting ourselves big challenges
and making them happen and getting allthe way to the end is Yes,
(28:42):
it's kind of why we do it, and that's that's when we appreciate it.
I guess we joke sometimes that it'slevel one and level two fun and
level one fun is I'm enjoying it. I'm having fun now, a level
two fun is it will be funand two months time when we're talking about
what's happening right now, yeah,fair enough. And you know, I
do want to talk about the racingteam, and we will. But one
(29:03):
question that I'd be remiss if Ididn't ask, can you win? For
these multi day and multi week races? Can you tell me what the day
to day looks like in a twentyfour hour period, like how much of
it are you doing? What?How much rest are you actually getting?
So for the single handed racing,so the von Globe next year. Our
aim in terms of sleep is minimumfive hours of sleep per day, and
(29:26):
that's not in one go, andthat would be between forty four to thirty
minutes and an hour and a halfdepending on where we are in the world
and how stable the wind is.And you aim to cumulate minimum five hours
and up to seven hours sleep ina twenty four hour period. And then
a lot of it is dictated bythe weather. Sometimes when will be changing
sales ten to fifteen times a day, and then sometimes when you'll be on
(29:49):
the same sale for a week,and so it's dictated a lot by generally.
Then there's a campart that's when youstart doing all your repairs. You
repair anything that's broken, You dolots of checks and needs to checking everything.
The idea is to try and seeproblems before they become too too serious.
(30:11):
So is there a rope that's rubbingsomewhere or something that's starting to crack,
you can you can fix it orrepair it before it becomes a big
issue. And then when you're goingthrough a storm, it's just management and
making sure you're not taking too muchrisks at the right time. So I've
kind of got around your question alittle bit, but I guess a lot
of time is spent. So it'sfive to seven hours spent sleeping, it's
(30:33):
probably five to seven hours spent lookingat navigation, looking at computer, making
sure you're going the right way,analyzing how it's going. It's probably another
five to seven hours spent performance.So it's changing sales, trimming the sails,
trimming the foils, making sure theboat's going fast. And then the
little bit extra, which is whichis either repairing something if it's broken or
(30:56):
or or working on stuff, whichor checking things in cases. I mean
the very vaguely put, but thoseare the main ideas, is navigation,
speed and keeping yourself in the boatone in one piece. And Sam,
do you get position reports on thedaily or weekly basis for a race like
the vond Globe where you know,hey, you're in second place X amount
(31:18):
of miles behind someone. So I'mnot totally sure what it's going to be
the next race. A previous race, it was every three or four hours
you had a position of where allthe boats were, and it's it's always
it's this little balance between I meanYvonne Globe when it was invented forty fifty
years ago was someone would send amessage effects which you go via a ship
(31:38):
and maybe arrive at land. Andoh I heard last week he was off
South Africa. And now we've allgot what'sapp on board and you can call
mom and say how Mom, howis dinner last night? So it's it's
evolving quickly. The world has changeda little bit. Yeah, incredible,
incredible. You mentioned a little bitabout you know the team and how you
(31:59):
feel so lucky to have joined suchan experienced team. You joined Thomas's to
our racing team earlier this year,back in January. I believe he's actually
competed in the Vonde Globe, includinga six place finish in twenty twenty.
How has that transition been and howdoes it help or how has he helped
(32:20):
you become a better racer sailor soI mean for me, it's almost a
dream come true scenario. Like Isaid, I mean, working to do
is on the Globe race for twentyodd years and the fact that Toma,
now who won the he came sixand the last one day Globe, but
he I mean he spent most ofthe race in the top three and the
two major races of our circuit,so the trans at Antique race single handed
(32:43):
last year and double handed the yearbefore, he won them both. So
for me to be able to takeon my first von Ney Globe campaign in
this class, in this boat,which are pretty complex in house with Toma
and with his team, which nothe boat since it was launched four years
ago, and it's a boat whichis the reference of the the last edition
of boats. There's a new newboats and new for this edition. But
(33:05):
to be able to come in andpick up a proven boat with the team
that know it well and work withTom I working for it, I mean,
it's like you couldn't dream a betterscenario. It's never happened before in
terms of normally a team will comethey'll buy, okay, the best boat
in the fleet, but they'll buyit and then there'll be one hundred independently
to sort out their own problems,and we're fully in house and it's I
(33:25):
mean, honestly, it's a dreamcome true in terms of taking on my
first race under these conditions. Soit's I mean, Toma has helped obviously
a lot, because he's got toexperience in his whole team, which no
the boat have helped a lot andhelped my team to transition over to the
new boat. And now the factthat when we go sailing, we go
sailing with two boats, so thenew boat and the old boat. Where
(33:45):
the old boat is a known factor, we know where it's performance lies with
the rest of the fleet. That'smy boat. And then Thomas new boat
means that it helps him as wellbecause he can every training session, we
can go out and we have adirect comparison rather than having to through data,
you can really find what's going better. So the whole idea of the
project is we make if we're bothbetter, then the whole project will be
(34:07):
better together. So I mean,yes, it's a it's a really dream
scenario for me to take on myfirst race and I don't know what the
future is, but I count myselflucky to be where I am today.
Yeah, well said you know,his boat is called for the people and
your boat is named for the planet. Can you talk a bit more about
the project and the initiative behind thenames. Yeah, So the project was
(34:30):
put together with the two main sponsorsof the projects. As Advance was the
main sponsor of TOMA for the lastthree or four years and they had a
project and they called linked out linkedout. It's a bit with LinkedIn,
but the aim was to get peoplewho are out who have unemployed, so
people live on the street and thepeople who are out of employment for various
(34:52):
reasons back into employments again giving thema network again. So it's kind of
a play on words with the wholeLinkedIn, it's linked out and get them
back into employment. My old sponsor, or, the sponsor I've been working
with the last four years, isLater and with them we focused a lot
on the on the planet and alsothe people side of things, and using
our project to promote new technologies wecan reduce carbon footprints. And we had
(35:16):
a trim ran and there was basicallyhardly any women. There were trime runs
before, and we opened up possibilityfor them to come discover it through our
project. And so the two partnersmet and they came together and they were
both keen on having building a projectwhere it wasn't necessarily just putting the name
of the partner and big on theboat, which is what most people do,
but using it to vehicle and topromote their messages and their positive work
(35:38):
on people and planet and whether it'swith linked Out, whether it's with technology,
and so that was that was built. The we sell for People and
Planet movement, and so it's Imean it's still being built. It's still
being defined at the moment. Butthe I mean the Thomas boats, the
people boat is causing it is promotinga cause called Entourage, which is the
people that built the linked Out,So they'll continue doing that throughout the vehicles.
(36:01):
And I'm working with a company calledTeam for the Planet, and Team
for the Planet is a it's basicallya crowdfunding investment group where people invest in
them. So you can put inone euro, one dollar, one pound
or up to millions of your companiesand there are an open source I mean
the easiest is to watch the videoon their website. But basically they'll invest
(36:24):
in startup companies whose aim is toreduce greenhouse guesses which can be measured,
and then they only invest in companieswhether the technology will be open source afterwards
that can be upscaled bigger, andthen if you so, then they give
you back a dividend. And yourdividend isn't in money, you're a divent
its carbon. So if you've givenone euro they can tell you how many
(36:45):
tons of carbon you've saved with thatone euro. And so they've invested in
nine or ten different startup companies atthe moment, and it's very French based
at the moment. They plan togo international, but it's the aim is
to use the project in the boatto build their notoriety and build the number
of people investing in them and theimpact they can have. So the real
main aim is between Advent and Laytonis to use the project to build majority
(37:09):
for these causes no notable and we'lldefinitely make sure we put in the link
to both initiatives and both partners sothat people are listeners can learn a little
bit more about them. Can wetalk, just as we're wrapping up here
a little bit about the future ofthe sport and what can be done to
reduce environmental impacts since you've briefly touchedon it, and I'm not trying to
(37:31):
insinuate that this sport is a massivepolluter or anything like that, but steps
can always be taken to improve environmentalconditions. And it sounds like this in
this conversation that it's already taking placein this community. I mean, it's
I guess it's the world on thewhole is coming to terms with the impact
(37:51):
that we have on the world andhow can we reduce that. And the
sailing is no different. There isa we're pushed by the wind, but
there's no point pretending that makes usscreen and that we're perfect. Everywhere you
look there's impact and we're no exceptionto that rule. And for sure we
can do better and we're working ondoing better. And there's I mean,
(38:12):
there's different ways of doing about itthis where as a group, there's individually
and it's I mean, we're wewant to make a difference. We want
to make an evance which is goingto go further than Look I use my
reasonable water bottle. I'd to savethe planet. Look at me, I'm
great? And actually, how canwe change the whole sport? In terms
of the construction of the boats,they're built in the carbon. Today's when
you build one boat, they builda mold for a boat which is built
in carbon. So you double thefact that the amount of carbon use just
(38:36):
to build one boat. And there'sand obviously carbon is not the best product
in the world. And the wayswe can recycle carbon so that old boats
can become new boats, to letthem to throw them in the bin.
And and it's I mean, itis the solution. I don't know it
and it's I can find. Whatis encouraging is that the whole world of
offshore selling is is aware and they'retalking a lot about it at the moment
(38:58):
and trying to find the best wayof doing it. I mean that we
did a case study on the racewe did three or four years ago.
The biggest impact of our project wasthe shore crew flying to the finish in
the Caribbean. So for the wholeyear project, the boat was obviously a
massive impact, but bigger than thatwas just a flight from the crew to
the Caribbean to go see the arrivalof the boat over there. So I
(39:19):
mean that just brings you back tothe questions, Okay, how many people
do you need to send out whatis a necessary amount? And then shipping
the boat back on the cargo shipor sending it back which has got some
risks on it, and is askingyourself the right questions and working in the
right direction to make sure we canreduce the impact. It's I mean,
it's a big tasket and for everyone, and I mean we're no, accepting
to that for sure. Yeah.No. And at the end of the
(39:42):
day, like I said, itsounds like this discussion is already happening in
the offshore sailing community, and Iapplaud everyone for it. But Sam,
we are a travel podcast and we'dlove to ask you a few rapid fire
questions before we end our conversation.Are you ready? Yeah? Hit me
damn. What has been your favoritesailing trip for leisure or competition? Where
(40:04):
did you go? So? Myfavorite trip has been setting to Hawaii and
we did a race called the TranspectRace, which left from Los Angeles finished
in Maui, and so that tripwas pretty amazing. Your favorite country?
You've traveled to Hawaii? No,as I spent at the end of the
race. I spent a week inon Hawaiian Islands, and I spent four
(40:28):
days on Big Island, and thatwas just the most amazing experience I ever
had, walking up the mountain andthen going to see the volcano and then
night diving in Manta Rays, andthat was I mean, that was something
I'll never forget and I wish,I hope one day I'll have the opportunity
to go back to Big Island.Oh, I'm sure you will. Favorite
dish or cuisine. My favorite dishor cuisine was there? Something I actually
(40:52):
haven't had for a very long timeis eight oul food, which is vegetarian
food which rest is Arrestedfarians eat ina lot. By I mean, I
got introduced to it at the Caribbeanand it's a mixture of flavors and curries
and it's and it's just it's I'venever found it in front, but it's
something i'd like to eat to getyet that sounds delicious. And that's an
(41:15):
original answer, by the way,we haven't had that on the show yet.
Favorite beverage abroad alcoholic or otherwise kingwhich is a soft drink, a
grapefruit based fizzy drink which I usedto drink loads when I was younger in
the Caribbean, and likewise, youcan't find it in Europe. So I
like to find some of that.Again, Where would you like And then
last question, where would you liketo go sailing? Next? Certainly around
(41:39):
the world for leisure. I knewI knew you were going to say that.
That's why I threw that in there. Last second. For leisure,
I'd like to go to the Pacific. I've never been into the Pacific and
cruising in the Pacific Islands and inFrench Polynesia, and I've had a few
friends that have been there and itjust sounds amazing. So if I can
(42:00):
get out there with the family,that would be a be a special special
moment. And Sam, listen,I've learned a lot. I've really enjoyed
this conversation. I know I'll berooting for you and tr Racing and Soulo
our listeners. But if they wantto know a little bit more about you,
where can they learn more about you? The team? Yeah, I
mean the best channels is social media. So this Instagram, Facebook, which
(42:22):
is my name Sam Goodchild or goodChild Sam, And yeah, it's get
in touch. We're always happy toshare our sports, our passions. So
yeah, I don't know, theyget in touch and it's it's always it's
always nice to meet great people.It's just part of the benefits of traveling
so much and having a having aproject which gets us to some of the
different countries. And if you wantto learn a little bit more about us,
(42:44):
you can find us on our websiteat www dot gtspodcast dot com,
on Instagram and Facebook, at Globetrotterspodcast and Twitter at globtrot pod, which
we're not too involved in, butwe'll change that. Editing on this podcast
was done by myself. We'll catchyou next week. Thanks for listening.
Welcome back to the Clobetrotters podcast,the show that brings me divers storytelling,
awful discussions on ethical issues, andinvestigations into how you can make the most
of an adventure without breaking the bank. I'm your host, Jonathan Oteo.
If you've been tuning in recently,you might have noticed a pattern in our
episodes. Lately, They've revolved aroundextreme sports and traveling around the world to
(00:37):
compete in some of the toughest raceson the planet. This week will be
no different. Today we'll be speakingwith Sam Goodchild, a competitive racer for
Thomas Ryon tr Racing team and skipperof the sailing vessel for the Planet.
Sam will be competing in the twentytwenty four edition of the Vonde Globe.
(00:57):
For those that aren't familiar with thisrace, it is a solo, NonStop
race around the world, commonly referredto as the Everest of the Seas.
At a young age, Sam's familyleft Bristol to live on a sailing boat
in the West Indies until he wasfifteen. Pretty cool. During this time,
he discovered what the Von de Globewas by reading about it in one
(01:19):
of his father's magazines. As allkids do, and since then he's been
driven to one day compete in thislegendary race. At eighteen, he decided
to quit school and enter the worldof sailing full time. He has worked
with some of the biggest names inBritish sailing, including Alex Thompson and Mike
Golding. Sam is now thirty fouryears old and has enjoyed an extraordinary amount
(01:42):
of success early on after entering intothe Emoka class, currently leading the world
rankings thanks to three podium finishes andwinning two legs in the Ocean Race,
a race that is crewed around theworld would stopovers. Sam, It's a
pleasure to have you on the show. Hey John, thanks not giving me
through. It's a bit difficult tohear someone talking about you like that,
(02:04):
but thanks. Sorry kind same.We're going to spend a large portion of
today talking about the Vonda Globe andthe team and collective you're a part of
that is championing initiatives for people onthe planet. But I want to start
at the beginning. You were bornin Bristol, but at a very early
age your family chose to leave allof that behind and live on a sailboat.
(02:25):
Pretty much until you were fifteen,What was that experience? Like,
I guess it's difficult to speak ofit as an experience because at the time
I didn't know anything else, Sofor me, it was normal. I
guess when I started to realize thatit was maybe a bit unique was when
I moved back to England when Iwas fifteen. I went to boarding school
and then I met a bunch ofpeople and they're like, oh, You're
(02:46):
so lucky. You grew up inthe West Indies living on a boat,
and I was like, oh,I spent fifteen years wanting to move back
to England and bind the skateboard Icould see in the magazines and play rugby
and football and all the sports youplayed. So that was k when I
probably started to realize that there wasa bit of difference. But no,
no, I mean it's unique.And now I've got my own kids and
(03:07):
I've grown up a bit, youcan of appreciate a lot more what actually
that means to live it and toexperience that. Yeah, no, definitely.
And now that you are a competitiveracer, do you meet other people
that have similar upbringings or are youone in a thousand? I mean,
yeah, I've met a bunch ofpeople that have been brought up on boats.
But I mean it's it's not likeone specific path who if you get
(03:30):
brought up on boats, you turnyou end up being a professional sailor over
the years that it's it's fairly rare, and I was very lucky and fortunate
to have that, so I tryto remember that from time to time.
Awesome, incredible at age we're speedingup. At age sixteen, you cross
paths with Alex Thompson, a britwho is a legend in the sport of
(03:51):
sailing. Can you talk a littlebit about him and the impact he had
on your life as a person andas a competitor. Yes, I would
part of a what they called theAcademy at the time, helping young people
get into offshore sending or get intoselling just as a whole. And Alex's
team he's done four or five onthe globes now and at that stage he'd
(04:15):
done one or two. But hehad a massive team sponsored by Hugo Boss
and part of their team was todo a round the world tour with a
boat to take clients from Hugo Bossand partners and basically Hugo Boss taking them
sailing, and as part of thatproject, they said, oh, well,
we'll open up two spots on everytrip for this boat to come discover
(04:36):
what it is sailing on an offshoreracing boat. So my first trip with
them, when I was still atschool during school holidays, was to sail
from England across to what we endedup in Halifax in Canada, and then
down to New York. And soyeah, I discovered that was my first
big crossing. It was a bigtransatantic crossing on a race boat. So
I mean for me, it wasjust a eyes open to a whole new
(04:58):
world which I'd read about but neverscene. And now I suddenly started meeting
these people and meeting people that werelearning or earning their living and living a
life from from what was my passion. And I mean that that showed me
that it was possible and it wasn'tjust a dream, and that if I
if I kept hanging around these peopleand asked enough questions, they'd finally let
me come do with it more.And that's that's how it turned out.
(05:20):
And how what was the length ofthat first experience going from going over to
Halifax and down in New York?What is the time frame that we're talking
about here, So Halifax, ittook us. I think it was fourteen
days exactly. It was about twoweeks, and I think it was exactly
two weeks, and it was inMay, and it were it's not normally
(05:40):
the best time in the year tocross Atlantic, going across from east to
west, because there's all I mean, it's it's late in the season,
but there were still some winter depressionscoming across Atlantic, and the water is
still pretty cold, and it's generallygoing into the wind and and the golf
stream, so it's it's not it'snot what you'd be advice to do as
(06:01):
your first crossing. And I thinkmy parents were pretty scared that I'd do
that and never wanted to go sendingagain. And it was pretty hardcore,
but I guess that's what that's whatmade me like it and think that it
was difficult, but I still enjoyedit, so that made me want to
go further. Now that's incredible.As we mentioned before to our listeners,
(06:21):
the Vonde Globe is a solo,NonStop, roughly twenty six thousand nautical mile
race around the world, and itis a race it's commonly referred to as
the Everest of the Seas because it'swidely known as one of the most challenging
and extreme sporting events. Why doyou want to compete in this race?
(06:41):
I mean, I guess I likepushing myself, like pushing the limits.
I like taking on something which Ihave no idea how I'm going to achieve
it. I have no idea howit's possible. But break it down into
small pieces and we'll get there.I mean, I think basically twenty years
ago, when I was really mydad's magazine, I was reading about the
Vonde Globe in two thousand and fourand I said, that looks what I
want to do that and someone saidthat's impossible, it's too difficult, and
(07:03):
I was like, Okay, challengeaccepted. So here we are nineteen years
later and a year away from,if all goes to plan, getting to
the start line. So it's it'sbeen a I mean, it's been my
life. Really, It's not justbeen a hobby on the side. It's
become my life and dictated a lotof what I do. But it's but
it's it's kept me driven to belike I want to achieve this, and
(07:24):
it's going to be difficult. It'snot gonna be easy. It's going to
take a lot of different things.But I'm ready to work hard and make
the sacrifics and and well, Ihaven't done it yet, so we'll see,
we'll see how it goes. ButI'm going in the right direction.
You said something that stood out tome. You said that I'm going to
take it piece by piece or stepby step, you know, from the
(07:45):
outside looking in this, to me, it does seem so daunting and impossible
because I'm thinking about the entire adventureof it right just circumnavigating the globe.
But it sounds like from your perspective, you're only thinking about one step to
the next. So keeping the problemssmall, is that fair to say?
(08:05):
Oh? Yeah? And on somany different levels as well. I mean,
there's just getting to the start lineas a mission. Like I said,
I've been wanting to do it fortwenty years, and i haven't been
like half asked about it for twentyyears. Trying to get here. I've
been kind of really trying to makeit happen, and it's taking twenty years
to get there. And then there'sthe actual the whole adventure and the competition
(08:28):
side of things where you have tobreak it down to little steps. Because
if you leave France and attempt toNovember next year, being okay, I'm
going to go say around the world, Miami is to be here in three
months, I think mentally you justcrumble, or I would anyway. And
so even with the small races,it's just really like break it down,
no, of course, and thatmakes a lot of sense, right,
just to put it into context abouthow difficult this race is for our listeners.
(08:50):
A little over one hundred people havefinished this race since it was first
held back in nineteen eighty nine whenit was known as the Global Challenge.
In fact, more people have actuallybeen to outer space than people who have
successfully completed this grueling around the worldrace, and even just people doing it
outside the sport, right, it'snot too many more that I've traveled around
(09:13):
the globe and solo NonStop. Canyou talk about how difficult it is to
simply finish the race, let aloneyou know, get to the starting line.
Yeah, I mean that's of allthe advice I've gotten, all the
people I've spoken to and listen to, that, I mean, the number
one advice is to finish first.First, you have to finish because it
is it is twenty six thousand miles, it's almost three months at se NonStop,
(09:37):
and you're not at any outside assistance, So you can't phone someone and
say, oh, I've run outof fuel can you come help me?
Or I've ripped my sale or brokenmy mass, like if you need a
problem, which if you have aproblem that needs outside assistance, it's game
over and that's it. So itis really about being as prepared as possible.
And it's a race as well,so you can't just go everything safe.
You have to find that right balancebetween competition and endurance. So it's
(10:01):
yeah, it's not going to bestraightforward, but that's I mean, with
thirty people in the team, okay, with two votes, with thirty people
getting ready for that basically aiming forthat one race next year, and it's
we're all full time and we're allpretty busy. Yeah, can we talk
a little bit more about the actualadventure of it before we start diving into
(10:22):
maybe a few of the nuances ofthe actual race. You know, on
a personal level, do you everjust get caught up in the moment and
you think about where you are inthe world and what you're really achieving and
doing. I mean, you're justsuch a small blip in this massive blue
ocean. How do you reconcile withthat or how do you think about that?
(10:45):
Yeah, I mean, I meansometimes you do, like and I
try and force myself to do it, but you get so dragged into the
whole performance side of things. Butthere's a moment when you're like, I'm
we're literally here in the middle ofthe ocean, like you say, just
to drop, Like you can seeus from a satellite miles from anything,
and we're on a boat which isbeing pushed by the wind surfing waves,
and we're going to sell around theworld or across the Atlantic or wherever we're
(11:07):
going, and it's pretty cool,like not everyone gets that opportunity, and
we're lucky, so so enjoy itwhile you can't. I remember, it
makes me think of a little story. We were selling around the world on
around the World record attempt five orsix years ago. We were going past
the equator in the middle of nowhere, and someone says, oh, it's
that cloud on the moon. It'sa bit weird. And we looked up
(11:28):
and we were in the process ofexperiencing a full lunar eclipse and no one
was aware of it on board,No one knew it was coming. We
had zero light pollution because we werein the middle of nowhere and just a
clear sky and not a cloud insight, which is why everyone was like,
what's that weird cloud? There's noclouds And we just watched the lunar
eclipse in the middle, in themiddle of nowhere, halfway through a record
(11:50):
attempt, and it's just like themoments like that, it's like, well,
we're really lucky and pretty special.Yeah. Another question, just as
a as a competitor, do youdo you find it difficult to balance your
desire to win versus knowing when tostrike. From everything that I've read and
seen about the Vonda Globe, itseems that this race is equal parts ability,
(12:11):
intuition, strategy, and really guts, like you got to have some
Gohnis Yeah, yeah, for sure, I mean it is. It is.
It is something where it is allabout trying to find the right balance
the whole time. Like this,we're setting on quite big, powerful boats
with lots of lots to do allthe time, and you're constantly trying to
assess what time should I strike attack, Like you say, what time should
(12:35):
I be trying to rest and getsome food in and be ready for the
next next activity? What time shouldI be repairing something, checking something,
looking at the weather, the strategy, the all that sort of things.
And it's constantly about I'm only oneperson. We've only got twenty four hours
on a day. I need tokeep going for three months, so I
have to sleep and eat and beworking like a have to keep the machine
(12:56):
going, if you like. Andso yes, it's just trying about finding
that right balance of what is theright time and what is the priority at
this moment that's going to help youwin the race. Because sometimes it is
going as fast as possible. Idon't think, just go fast. And
sometimes it's slowing now or fixing somethingor accepting that now's the time to take
the compromising and going for a sleepbecause you're going to need the energy later.
(13:18):
So it's it is a sport whereit's literally just designing priorities all the
time. And that's I mean,that's why I enjoy it because there is
no one way of doing it.There are thousands a way of doing it.
You just have to try and findwhich works for you. What is
the top speed that you're hitting andat your worst, how slow are you
moving? I mean slow we're pushedby the wind. So there's times when
(13:39):
there is no wind, so thespeed is sorry, there's times where there's
no wind and we're going zero knots. And there's times when our max speed
is is just under forty knots.So that is in mars parows it's a
little bit more so it's like fortyfive miles an hour and kilometers an hour
(14:01):
it's just under double so or somethinglike seventy five kilometers an hour. So
yeah, it's compared to land landmachines, it's not very fast, but
I mean it's normally in a seastate of big wave, so it's it's
it's fast enough. Can that befrustrating when you are hitting zero knots where
just you know, weather isn't cooperatingwith what you're trying to achieve, And
(14:24):
how do you medig or how doyou kind of deal with those emotions in
the race environment? Oh? Yeah, for sure. I Mean there's there's
times when the boat's going zero nutsand you expect it in a way,
and if everyone else is going zeronuts, it's kind of okay. When
it really gets frustrating is when you'regoing zero nuts and they aren't. And
I mean the way to mitigate itis navigation. So you have to choose
(14:46):
your route as where you're going.And sometimes that will be going to a
place so there's no wind and you'rewaiting for the new wind to come in
and you're expecting it. And sometimesyou'll be sitting under a cloud expecting to
have loads of wind and there'll benothing, and that's really frustrating. So
it's more it's all about ex spectationsreally. I guess if you if you're
expecting it, it's okay. Ifyou're not expecting it, then it's difficult.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthe route that you need to take
(15:07):
for the von day globe. Iknow that you have a loose or maybe
their strict guidelines about what necessarily youhave to cross or hit or go around
before it's for it to count.So I mean, in short terms,
and there's a map behind you,it's practical. We leave France, you
go south down the Atlantic, soyou leave Africa on the on the left,
(15:31):
the America's north south and Central Americaon the right at the bottom,
you turn left, so you leaveSouth Africa on your left, you go
past Australia, past New Zealand,leaving Antarctica on your right. So you
go round Antarctica, and then whenyou get across the Pacific, you go
around Cape porn so south tip ofSouth America, back up the Atlantic,
across the equator, and you finishback in France again. So if you
(15:52):
put, if you were to putthe world on a flat map, you
go round the round out Tactica andyou come back again. But I mean,
it's it's a bit weird to thinkyou go, you turn left and
you come back from the right,but it's takes it takes a bit of
time. But that's I guess that'sgoing around the world. No, no,
no. And the reason that Iwanted you to kind of outline it,
outline it for you know, ourlisteners, is because I want to
(16:12):
segue into this next next question forpeople who are not sailors, are too
familiar with the von the globe isI really want to learn what the approach
is from a skipper who's doing arace of this magnitude. When we're talking
about you know, food, clothing, weather, boat maintenance and maneuvering,
just the things that you need tothink about, and we could talk about
(16:33):
each one of those a little bit, like just starting off with food and
clothing for for this, how minimalistor robust are you with these supplies?
So, I mean, the firstthing to know is you don't have any
outside assistance, so you can't belike, oh, I forgot the I
forgot my ninetieth days worth of food. I need to go back and pick
(16:56):
that up. So you have tolive with all the food you're going for
and that's what as well. Sofood, we're taking all the food with
us. It's about one hundred andfifty kilos of weight, so that's what
three three hundred pounds. I'm notvery good at pounds, but yes,
one hundred and fifty kilo is worthof weight about that and yeah close.
(17:18):
So that's so that's food. Wetake it with us, and every everything
we try and go as light aspossible because we've got a boat where the
basically the lights for it is thefaster it goes in most conditions, so
we're trying to take as little weightas possible, so we take a lot
of rehiderated food which is just wherewe add hot water. The advantage for
us is we have a water makeron board, so we take in salt
(17:38):
water from the seed, take outthe salt we have. Fresh water obviously
uses energy, So when you comeinto the energy side of things, we'd
look at how we create energy,whether it's solar or hydro power, or
we've just got a diesel generator onboard, so diesel you have to take
diesel with you. Hydro power youneed to be going faster in the wind,
and solar power needs to be inthe sunlight. So we have a
(17:59):
few differ ones to be able tohave some backups if there's a problem.
And so yes, I mean it'sreally about trying to take what you need
to make sure you're going to beable to perform. So you need to
have enough energy and how you needto be able to function. At the
same time, it's trying to beas light as possible so you don't penalize
the performance. And that makes alot of sense. Right as we were
(18:21):
talking about, you know, themarathon then where they have to carry everything.
Dehydrated food tends tends to be thethe best way to go about it.
Just in terms of weight. Nowabout clothing. You know you talked
about how you have your bed onboard. Is it just two changes of
clothes, one one for the raceand one for when you ever you're going
(18:41):
to sleep or is that not evensomething you take into consideration. Like,
So I mean for clothing that it'strying to find that the balance of hygiene
because there's no showers on board,so we I mean, we can like
wipe out like baby wipe to keepyourself a little bit clean, but you're
not We're not going to watch.So you need to be careful in hygiene
because there's obviously a medical side netmaking sure you're not gonna have many medical
(19:04):
issues on board because we're far awayfrom any sort of doctors or any sort
of medical help. So I mean, generally I take a base layer of
clothing for one per week, sowe're gonna be going for about ten to
twelve weeks. That'll be ten totwelve base layers and then the outer layers.
I've generally got one full set andthen one spare in case one gets
(19:25):
wet or ripped or something happens toit. But it's yeah, espect trying
to keep it to a minimum.But because we're going for three months and
because we're fairly isolated. You saidto little be a little bit careful as
to how much risk you're wanting totake on all those subjects. And also
the other thing is when we leave, we don't know if it's gonna be
a quick race which will take sixtydays, or a long waste which will
take one hundred or somewhere in themiddle, so you need to be a
(19:48):
little bit ready for both eventualities aswell. Sam, would capsizing be the
absolute worst thing that can happen orare there other equally terrible thing? Said
would pretty much take you out ofthe race outside of health issues, of
course, Well, I mean thenumber one thing is not fully in the
order, which is it's not reallya health issue, but it comes quickly
(20:11):
one. But yeah, I meanit's staying on the boat and making sure
you stay on the boat because you'reon around no one's going to come back
to get you. And then capsizing. The boats are pretty robust, they're
designed for that. It can happen, it's fairly rare. Mostly it becomes
after a technical something breaks, sothe key underneath the boat breaks or something
breaks, and that will mean theboat will find itself upside down. But
(20:32):
generally it's it's just trying to stayon board and that's the number one issue,
and then technical issues. And socan you talk about maybe a situation
obviously you haven't done the von AGlobe yet, but a situation in which
on one of your races, everythingwas just going against you. It's just
the weather wasn't cooperating. It justwasn't your day. What was that?
(20:56):
Like? I mean, the worstcase I ever had was fallny in the
water. There were it was adouble handed race, the two of us
on board actually, which was whatsaved me and him. But yeah,
so I fell off and I spentforty minutes swimming while the other guy was
looking for me, and I waslucky enough that he found me. But
I mean that was I was.I mean, that was a race when
(21:18):
I was twenty one. I wasAnd I went into that being like I'm
I'm that happens to other people,that has happened to me. I'm too
good for that, like in vergof Commas, And yeah, I got
brought back to reality pretty quick.And I mean, I'm not sure I
saw your life flash before your eyes. Is maybe a little bit bit two
over it. But I had fortyminutes in the water to think about life
(21:38):
and think about what I was doing. And there was a significant moment when
I thought that was that was it, it was game over. I was
not going on. So, Imean, that was definitely the worst,
the worst moment I've ever had atsea, and I count myself very,
very lucky to have got away withwith a close call as opposed to having
to pay pay the price for it. So and then two days later we
(22:00):
won the race. Talking about emotionalroller coaster, Yeah, no, no
doubt. And you know, youknow, from someone that's not in the
sport, you know, it isvery naive of me to think when you
said you fell in the water,truthfully, I thought that meant anywhere between
thirty seconds to two minutes. Whenyou said forty minutes, I can't believe
it. Like, what is themost difficult part about when someone falls in
(22:22):
that you try to pull them,try to pull them back in. So,
I mean, what came to mecame into mind spread away was all
like the safety learning and stuff wedo, all the safety practices we do,
and the number one thing is whenyou fall in the water, you're
the size of my head. Soyou've got someone on a boat with waves
which were at stage three four metershigh, so over ten feet, looking
(22:45):
for something in the size of afootball. So you need to make yourself
visible because it's basically impossible to find. So I had a knife in my
pocket. I cut the bright yellowhood off my jacket and so I had
something like fluorescent to wave at him. And then it's about saving energy because
the guy threw me something and itwas like, Okay, I want to
swim for that with all my life. I want to give all the energy
I have to go try and getthat. But there's a point we need
(23:07):
to decide pretty quickly. I needall the energy I can get, and
waste the energy to get something whichI'm very unlikely to be able to achieve
is dangerous because I couldn't need toswim here for forty minutes and I don't
know that yet, So be carefulwhat you do with energy. And I
mean, all that training kind ofcame into me and was like, okay,
need to make yourself visible, needto save energy, and basically worked
around that. That was kind ofhow we kept myself going. And then
(23:30):
I had I mean a massive thoughtprocess is too. I mean there was
a moment when I when I actuallyhad my EDG jacket with nose zip on,
so I had to take it offmy head like that. And so
I took it off my head andthen I brought my head back out and
I couldn't see the boat, andI had a massive realization at that point.
I was like, hang on aminute, I can't see the boat.
It's impossible he can see me,Like this is like I'm done,
(23:52):
like it's And that was the difficult. And there was another point when he
was coming back towards me and Ibasically I had to really if I've been
saved, I've seen him. Wemade eye contact. Thank god, this
thing is over and he turned awayand went the other way. He hadn't
seen me, and there I wasthere where I was like this is like
no. That was like the mostdifficult moment I've ever lived, I think,
(24:14):
And I was just like looking,I was convinced that he had seen
me and this thing was over itand he's just turned away and he hadn't
seen me at all. That thathas to be like just a gut punch,
right, Oh yeah, I meanit's horrible. I mean there were
points when I though about, I'vegot a knife. Is it better that
I end this rather than waiting forit to Like, what's what's the way
to suffer the least? Was thequestion I was asking myself. Unfortunately I
(24:36):
didn't do anything, but I don'tthink I would have done, because you
believe until the very end. Butyeah, I mean it was, you
know, some dark thoughts going throughyour head. And I mean even talking
about it now, I've got myskin that's shivering up like it's like it's
I was very, very lucky,and I try not to think overthink it,
but but have some good lessons learnedthat day. Yeah, And that's
(24:56):
exactly what I want to touch on, because you know, for of this
upcoming race that you're going to donext year, you kind of have to
take all these lessons and all theseraces that you've done over the years,
and you've kind of have all theseexperiences that have you know, developed your
skill set and you can apply itto the Vonde Globe. What are some
(25:18):
of the let's say more notable racesthat have prepared you for the Vonde Globe.
I mean, it's like a combinationof lots of different ones and sailing
with some awesome people, whether it'sAlex someonhe I was seventeen, or whether
it's all the people I've settled itsince then and learning from all these experiences.
It's a sport where experience is huge, but you can be competitive to
(25:41):
an older age because it's not justphysically dominated, and experience will make up
for maybe being a bit weaker,a bit slower. So sailing with all
these people who has been huge,racing across the Atlantic, and I guess
the most recent one was I didthe Ocean Race the Winter Just Gone,
which is on a boat very similarto my boat today, and we dealed
(26:02):
the course but with stopped So wewent from Spain and we stopped in the
Cape Verdie, South Africa, Braziland then North America and Europe. So
we did the same course but withstops on the almost exactly the same boat,
and we were five people on boardor four sailors and the media man.
But we're four people on board,and just to do that means I
kind of got a dry run ofwhat's next to you with pretty much the
(26:25):
same tools, but with other peopleI met. I mean in eighteen months
time when I'm down in the SouthernOcean and to be able to think that,
oh, we've already done this,and I've already done that, and
I've seen how people have done itbefore. It's just huge to help me
to prepare for the race. Yeah, no, I can imagine it.
And like you know, I've watchedI'm a huge survivalist fan and I love
(26:47):
learning about that. I'm a hugeoutdoors person and anyone that you know,
any survivalists, can tell you it'sso different when you're doing it with other
people that can kind of show youthe way, and then you do it
by yourself and it's a totally differentballgame. But you know, sounds like
you were more than equipped to takethis on and you know, I'm rooting
for you. But one thing thatI want to kind of shift into a
more maybe positive aspect is let's talkabout a very positive experience when you've been
(27:14):
sailing, whether it's in the racingworld or maybe outside of it, what
has been one of your most notableor best experiences. I mean, I
guess like most of a sort ofpeople that like to push up, push
the limits, and push ourselves iswhen you achieve something which you've been pushing
hard to achieve. It's it's Imean, the satisfaction is huge because you
(27:34):
know it's not just like as itjust happened by accident. It hasn't like
you've had sacrifice. You had timeto get there. So this ocean race
that we did last year, wewon. We won the first two legs
and that was like we never expectedthat. We just kind of turned up.
I was like, Okay, let'ssee how it goes and we'll do
the leg one and see where weare. Oh, we won it.
That's good. And then we didthe leg two when it happened again and
(27:56):
the leg three became second, andwe were like, oh this is that
was That was I mean reassuring tobe racing against some of the best in
the world on a good boat,for sure, but we were but we
were happy to I mean I was. I was proud to be chosen by
that team, to be part ofone of the better teams, and then
to be able to perform was was, I mean, a proud moment I'm
really happy of. And then thenthe fact that we left from South Africa
(28:19):
to go around to Brazil the longway around the world and we spent five
weeks at sea and we had noidea what it's going to be like,
and we saw some pretty pretty fullon conditions and had some pretty big challenges,
but we maybe it to the endand managed to finish second and and
definitely didn't embarrass ourselves. So thatwas I mean, setting ourselves big challenges
and making them happen and getting allthe way to the end is Yes,
(28:42):
it's kind of why we do it, and that's that's when we appreciate it.
I guess we joke sometimes that it'slevel one and level two fun and
level one fun is I'm enjoying it. I'm having fun now, a level
two fun is it will be funand two months time when we're talking about
what's happening right now, yeah,fair enough. And you know, I
do want to talk about the racingteam, and we will. But one
(29:03):
question that I'd be remiss if Ididn't ask, can you win? For
these multi day and multi week races? Can you tell me what the day
to day looks like in a twentyfour hour period, like how much of
it are you doing? What?How much rest are you actually getting?
So for the single handed racing,so the von Globe next year. Our
aim in terms of sleep is minimumfive hours of sleep per day, and
(29:26):
that's not in one go, andthat would be between forty four to thirty
minutes and an hour and a halfdepending on where we are in the world
and how stable the wind is.And you aim to cumulate minimum five hours
and up to seven hours sleep ina twenty four hour period. And then
a lot of it is dictated bythe weather. Sometimes when will be changing
sales ten to fifteen times a day, and then sometimes when you'll be on
(29:49):
the same sale for a week,and so it's dictated a lot by generally.
Then there's a campart that's when youstart doing all your repairs. You
repair anything that's broken, You dolots of checks and needs to checking everything.
The idea is to try and seeproblems before they become too too serious.
(30:11):
So is there a rope that's rubbingsomewhere or something that's starting to crack,
you can you can fix it orrepair it before it becomes a big
issue. And then when you're goingthrough a storm, it's just management and
making sure you're not taking too muchrisks at the right time. So I've
kind of got around your question alittle bit, but I guess a lot
of time is spent. So it'sfive to seven hours spent sleeping, it's
(30:33):
probably five to seven hours spent lookingat navigation, looking at computer, making
sure you're going the right way,analyzing how it's going. It's probably another
five to seven hours spent performance.So it's changing sales, trimming the sails,
trimming the foils, making sure theboat's going fast. And then the
little bit extra, which is whichis either repairing something if it's broken or
(30:56):
or or working on stuff, whichor checking things in cases. I mean
the very vaguely put, but thoseare the main ideas, is navigation,
speed and keeping yourself in the boatone in one piece. And Sam,
do you get position reports on thedaily or weekly basis for a race like
the vond Globe where you know,hey, you're in second place X amount
(31:18):
of miles behind someone. So I'mnot totally sure what it's going to be
the next race. A previous race, it was every three or four hours
you had a position of where allthe boats were, and it's it's always
it's this little balance between I meanYvonne Globe when it was invented forty fifty
years ago was someone would send amessage effects which you go via a ship
(31:38):
and maybe arrive at land. Andoh I heard last week he was off
South Africa. And now we've allgot what'sapp on board and you can call
mom and say how Mom, howis dinner last night? So it's it's
evolving quickly. The world has changeda little bit. Yeah, incredible,
incredible. You mentioned a little bitabout you know the team and how you
(31:59):
feel so lucky to have joined suchan experienced team. You joined Thomas's to
our racing team earlier this year,back in January. I believe he's actually
competed in the Vonde Globe, includinga six place finish in twenty twenty.
How has that transition been and howdoes it help or how has he helped
(32:20):
you become a better racer sailor soI mean for me, it's almost a
dream come true scenario. Like Isaid, I mean, working to do
is on the Globe race for twentyodd years and the fact that Toma,
now who won the he came sixand the last one day Globe, but
he I mean he spent most ofthe race in the top three and the
two major races of our circuit,so the trans at Antique race single handed
(32:43):
last year and double handed the yearbefore, he won them both. So
for me to be able to takeon my first von Ney Globe campaign in
this class, in this boat,which are pretty complex in house with Toma
and with his team, which nothe boat since it was launched four years
ago, and it's a boat whichis the reference of the the last edition
of boats. There's a new newboats and new for this edition. But
(33:05):
to be able to come in andpick up a proven boat with the team
that know it well and work withTom I working for it, I mean,
it's like you couldn't dream a betterscenario. It's never happened before in
terms of normally a team will comethey'll buy, okay, the best boat
in the fleet, but they'll buyit and then there'll be one hundred independently
to sort out their own problems,and we're fully in house and it's I
(33:25):
mean, honestly, it's a dreamcome true in terms of taking on my
first race under these conditions. Soit's I mean, Toma has helped obviously
a lot, because he's got toexperience in his whole team, which no
the boat have helped a lot andhelped my team to transition over to the
new boat. And now the factthat when we go sailing, we go
sailing with two boats, so thenew boat and the old boat. Where
(33:45):
the old boat is a known factor, we know where it's performance lies with
the rest of the fleet. That'smy boat. And then Thomas new boat
means that it helps him as wellbecause he can every training session, we
can go out and we have adirect comparison rather than having to through data,
you can really find what's going better. So the whole idea of the
project is we make if we're bothbetter, then the whole project will be
(34:07):
better together. So I mean,yes, it's a it's a really dream
scenario for me to take on myfirst race and I don't know what the
future is, but I count myselflucky to be where I am today.
Yeah, well said you know,his boat is called for the people and
your boat is named for the planet. Can you talk a bit more about
the project and the initiative behind thenames. Yeah, So the project was
(34:30):
put together with the two main sponsorsof the projects. As Advance was the
main sponsor of TOMA for the lastthree or four years and they had a
project and they called linked out linkedout. It's a bit with LinkedIn,
but the aim was to get peoplewho are out who have unemployed, so
people live on the street and thepeople who are out of employment for various
(34:52):
reasons back into employments again giving thema network again. So it's kind of
a play on words with the wholeLinkedIn, it's linked out and get them
back into employment. My old sponsor, or, the sponsor I've been working
with the last four years, isLater and with them we focused a lot
on the on the planet and alsothe people side of things, and using
our project to promote new technologies wecan reduce carbon footprints. And we had
(35:16):
a trim ran and there was basicallyhardly any women. There were trime runs
before, and we opened up possibilityfor them to come discover it through our
project. And so the two partnersmet and they came together and they were
both keen on having building a projectwhere it wasn't necessarily just putting the name
of the partner and big on theboat, which is what most people do,
but using it to vehicle and topromote their messages and their positive work
(35:38):
on people and planet and whether it'swith linked Out, whether it's with technology,
and so that was that was built. The we sell for People and
Planet movement, and so it's Imean it's still being built. It's still
being defined at the moment. Butthe I mean the Thomas boats, the
people boat is causing it is promotinga cause called Entourage, which is the
people that built the linked Out,So they'll continue doing that throughout the vehicles.
(36:01):
And I'm working with a company calledTeam for the Planet, and Team
for the Planet is a it's basicallya crowdfunding investment group where people invest in
them. So you can put inone euro, one dollar, one pound
or up to millions of your companiesand there are an open source I mean
the easiest is to watch the videoon their website. But basically they'll invest
(36:24):
in startup companies whose aim is toreduce greenhouse guesses which can be measured,
and then they only invest in companieswhether the technology will be open source afterwards
that can be upscaled bigger, andthen if you so, then they give
you back a dividend. And yourdividend isn't in money, you're a divent
its carbon. So if you've givenone euro they can tell you how many
(36:45):
tons of carbon you've saved with thatone euro. And so they've invested in
nine or ten different startup companies atthe moment, and it's very French based
at the moment. They plan togo international, but it's the aim is
to use the project in the boatto build their notoriety and build the number
of people investing in them and theimpact they can have. So the real
main aim is between Advent and Laytonis to use the project to build majority
(37:09):
for these causes no notable and we'lldefinitely make sure we put in the link
to both initiatives and both partners sothat people are listeners can learn a little
bit more about them. Can wetalk, just as we're wrapping up here
a little bit about the future ofthe sport and what can be done to
reduce environmental impacts since you've briefly touchedon it, and I'm not trying to
(37:31):
insinuate that this sport is a massivepolluter or anything like that, but steps
can always be taken to improve environmentalconditions. And it sounds like this in
this conversation that it's already taking placein this community. I mean, it's
I guess it's the world on thewhole is coming to terms with the impact
(37:51):
that we have on the world andhow can we reduce that. And the
sailing is no different. There isa we're pushed by the wind, but
there's no point pretending that makes usscreen and that we're perfect. Everywhere you
look there's impact and we're no exceptionto that rule. And for sure we
can do better and we're working ondoing better. And there's I mean,
(38:12):
there's different ways of doing about itthis where as a group, there's individually
and it's I mean, we're wewant to make a difference. We want
to make an evance which is goingto go further than Look I use my
reasonable water bottle. I'd to savethe planet. Look at me, I'm
great? And actually, how canwe change the whole sport? In terms
of the construction of the boats,they're built in the carbon. Today's when
you build one boat, they builda mold for a boat which is built
in carbon. So you double thefact that the amount of carbon use just
(38:36):
to build one boat. And there'sand obviously carbon is not the best product
in the world. And the wayswe can recycle carbon so that old boats
can become new boats, to letthem to throw them in the bin.
And and it's I mean, itis the solution. I don't know it
and it's I can find. Whatis encouraging is that the whole world of
offshore selling is is aware and they'retalking a lot about it at the moment
(38:58):
and trying to find the best wayof doing it. I mean that we
did a case study on the racewe did three or four years ago.
The biggest impact of our project wasthe shore crew flying to the finish in
the Caribbean. So for the wholeyear project, the boat was obviously a
massive impact, but bigger than thatwas just a flight from the crew to
the Caribbean to go see the arrivalof the boat over there. So I
(39:19):
mean that just brings you back tothe questions, Okay, how many people
do you need to send out whatis a necessary amount? And then shipping
the boat back on the cargo shipor sending it back which has got some
risks on it, and is askingyourself the right questions and working in the
right direction to make sure we canreduce the impact. It's I mean,
it's a big tasket and for everyone, and I mean we're no, accepting
to that for sure. Yeah.No. And at the end of the
(39:42):
day, like I said, itsounds like this discussion is already happening in
the offshore sailing community, and Iapplaud everyone for it. But Sam,
we are a travel podcast and we'dlove to ask you a few rapid fire
questions before we end our conversation.Are you ready? Yeah? Hit me
damn. What has been your favoritesailing trip for leisure or competition? Where
(40:04):
did you go? So? Myfavorite trip has been setting to Hawaii and
we did a race called the TranspectRace, which left from Los Angeles finished
in Maui, and so that tripwas pretty amazing. Your favorite country?
You've traveled to Hawaii? No,as I spent at the end of the
race. I spent a week inon Hawaiian Islands, and I spent four
(40:28):
days on Big Island, and thatwas just the most amazing experience I ever
had, walking up the mountain andthen going to see the volcano and then
night diving in Manta Rays, andthat was I mean, that was something
I'll never forget and I wish,I hope one day I'll have the opportunity
to go back to Big Island.Oh, I'm sure you will. Favorite
dish or cuisine. My favorite dishor cuisine was there? Something I actually
(40:52):
haven't had for a very long timeis eight oul food, which is vegetarian
food which rest is Arrestedfarians eat ina lot. By I mean, I
got introduced to it at the Caribbeanand it's a mixture of flavors and curries
and it's and it's just it's I'venever found it in front, but it's
something i'd like to eat to getyet that sounds delicious. And that's an
(41:15):
original answer, by the way,we haven't had that on the show yet.
Favorite beverage abroad alcoholic or otherwise kingwhich is a soft drink, a
grapefruit based fizzy drink which I usedto drink loads when I was younger in
the Caribbean, and likewise, youcan't find it in Europe. So I
like to find some of that.Again, Where would you like And then
last question, where would you liketo go sailing? Next? Certainly around
(41:39):
the world for leisure. I knewI knew you were going to say that.
That's why I threw that in there. Last second. For leisure,
I'd like to go to the Pacific. I've never been into the Pacific and
cruising in the Pacific Islands and inFrench Polynesia, and I've had a few
friends that have been there and itjust sounds amazing. So if I can
(42:00):
get out there with the family,that would be a be a special special
moment. And Sam, listen,I've learned a lot. I've really enjoyed
this conversation. I know I'll berooting for you and tr Racing and Soulo
our listeners. But if they wantto know a little bit more about you,
where can they learn more about you? The team? Yeah, I
mean the best channels is social media. So this Instagram, Facebook, which
(42:22):
is my name Sam Goodchild or goodChild Sam, And yeah, it's get
in touch. We're always happy toshare our sports, our passions. So
yeah, I don't know, theyget in touch and it's it's always it's
always nice to meet great people.It's just part of the benefits of traveling
so much and having a having aproject which gets us to some of the
different countries. And if you wantto learn a little bit more about us,
(42:44):
you can find us on our websiteat www dot gtspodcast dot com,
on Instagram and Facebook, at Globetrotterspodcast and Twitter at globtrot pod, which
we're not too involved in, butwe'll change that. Editing on this podcast
was done by myself. We'll catchyou next week. Thanks for listening.
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