Meet the biggest names in top-class professional sailing - past, present and future. Discover the secrets of leadership, determination and teamwork from round-the-world sailors forged in the toughest test of a team in sport - The Ocean Race. Hosted by Nia
World-renowned yacht designer Juan Kouyoumdjian explains just how much work and detail goes into the design of the IMOCA 60, where The Ocean Race Europe IMOCA class was lost and won and where the future lies for foiling offshore boats. This special edition of Off Watch was recorded during The Ocean Race Europe, and a new series of Off Watch will be coming this September.
In this last episode of Season 2 of Off Watch we welcome back Ken Read - Ocean Racer, America's Cup commentator and President of North Sails. Ken gives Niall the inside track on The Ocean Race Europe which combines VO65 and IMOCA fleets for the first time at the end of May, starting in Lorient, France. Ken also gives us his optimistic take on how the sport of sailing is adapting to a new world ⛵️
The Ocean Race Europe is only weeks away so in this double episode we catch up with Yoann Richomme, skipper of Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team, and The Ocean Race veteran and crewmember on CORUM L'Épargne Sébastien Josse. Yoann tells us about the formidable crew he's assembled onboard Mirpuri Foundation Racing team's VO65, and Seb shares some learnings from his illustrious sailing career and gives a preview of foiling IMOCA 60 sailing in The Ocean Race Europe.
Behind every unforgettable story and each iconic image from our race is an Onboard Reporter and Amory Ross is one of the most experienced practitioners of this unique art form. In this episode we get a deep insight into storytelling in some of the most remote places on earth - from the impact of technology and drones, maintaining creativity at sea and capturing rare wildlife encounters. Plus at the end after the interview Niall and Amory hang out and chat about the vibrant French sailing scene. Amory is currently part of 11th Hour Racing Team's crew for The Ocean Race and The Ocean Race Europe.
Bruno Dubois is one of sailing's most influential and successful team builders. In this fascinating episode Bruno gives us candid lessons from failure, analyses the success of French sailing heroes Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier and explains his formula for a winning team. Bruno managed The Ocean Race winners Dongfeng Race Team in 2017-18 and has an extensive background in The America's Cup and SailGP. He's currently lending his knowledge and experience to the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team for their VO65 entry in The Ocean Race Europe, and the next edition of The Ocean Race.
Tracy Edwards is one of The Ocean Race's true pioneers and rule breakers with an unbelievable and inspiring story. In this episode we hear the full story - including the bits she didn't include in the award-winning documentary 'Maiden' about her iconic 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race campaign. Tracy also explains why she never wanted to be a skipper and reveals the sexism that women have faced in the sport of sailing.
Abby Ehler has sailed in The Ocean Race three-times and is a seasoned boat captain dealing with repairs in less than ideal circumstances. As a woman working at the top of the sport of sailing both on and off the water Abby also dedicates her energy to The Magenta Project, developing pathways and generating opportunities for women in performance sailing. In this chat Abby and Niall get into some of her experiences keeping boats together in the Southern Ocean, the secrets of successful team building, and the challenges of women in sport.
This week we take a wonderful journey back to the Whitbread years, and also to some extremely cold climates with legend of The Ocean Race Skip Novak. Skip competed in four editions of the Whitbread Round the World Race before deciding to follow his passion for exploration and adventure at high latitudes with his company Pelagic Expeditions. We relive Skip's near-death experience aboard Drum with rock star Simon Le Bon, learn how sailing can bring people together across political and social divides, and hear about exploring polar environments affected by climate change.
SEASON #2 of OFF WATCH starts today with a dramatic story of survival that captured the whole of the sporting world.
Simon 'SiFi' Fisher is one of The Ocean Race's most accomplished navigators with five laps around the planet and plenty of stories to tell over a distinguished career. SiFi explains how he communicates with a crew, how to come back from adversity and we hear about life at the extreme onboard 11th Hour Racing Team's bone-rattling foiling IMOCA 60.
This week we get a special insight into coaching and psychology in elite sport. Anje-Marijcke van Boxtel is a leading business and sports psychologist and has worked behind the scenes with Bouwe Bekking and Team Brunel for two editions of The Ocean Race
Tony Rae has an incredible resume by any standards - he's competed in The Ocean Race five times, winning twice, and sailed in The America's Cup seven times. He's also carried the heavy responsibility of being one of the race's trustworthy onboard medics. In this extensive interview Tony re-lives hitting a reef aboard Team Vestas Wind in 2014, we learn the secrets to good leadership, why New Zealand produces so many top-class sailors and he tells us a little-known secret about fellow Kiwi sailing legend Grant Dalton.
Annemieke Bes is an Olympic silver medallist for the Netherlands
For Dutchman Simeon Tienpont, sailing in The Ocean Race was a childhood dream. In this interview Simeon explains how he went on to lead AkzoNobel to a stunning 24-hour speed record in one of the race's great stories. Simeon also talks about the technical knowledge required by top sailors, building a VO65, and shares memories of Hans Horrevoets.
Richard Mason is uniquely qualified to give the inside track on the past, present and future of The Ocean Race. Originally from New Zealand
This week we welcome Bianca Cook - a veteran of the 2017-18 edition of The Ocean Race with Turn the Tide on Plastic, and now setting her sights on the 2022-23 edition as skipper of her own team - NZ Ocean Racing. ⛵️
Joan Vila is one of the world's top navigators, and has an incredible sailing resume having won the America's Cup three times (more than any other Spanish sailor
Our guests this week need little introduction - Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Peter and Blair are an Olympic gold medal winning pair in the 49er, America's Cup winners in 2017 with Emirates Team New Zealand, and of course they both sailed in the last edition of The Ocean Race - Peter on Team Brunel, and Blair aboard MAPFRE. Niall grills them on the tough moments in their successful partnership, Pete's media technique, pushing the limits of foiling in the America's Cup and we learn about their ambitious new charity Live Ocean which aims to protect and restore the oceans.
This week we have a short catch up with Emily Nagel all about sailing aboard 11th Hour Racing Team's IMOCA 60 as training crew during a recent transatlantic. Emily gives us her expert opinion on the differences between IMOCA and VO65 sailing, foiling across the Atlantic and life onboard when there's no space for bunks!
Kick off your shoes and sit back as we revisit the first ever Whitbread Round the World race in 1973 with sailor and yacht designer Butch Dalrymple-Smith. Butch was a crew member aboard the winning Mexican yacht Sayula II under the legendary skipper Ramón Carlín, and he takes us back to an amateur era of legends and adventure, glasses of wine after your watch, and onshore scrapes with the law.
To celebrate 47 years since the start of the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973, we talk to our special guest Enrique Carlín who was not only a crew member onboard the Mexican winner Sayula II, but also the son of the skipper and owner Ramón Carlín. Enrique talks about setting off on an an adventure into the unknown as an inexperienced crew, serving under his pioneering father, and how the race has changed in almost half a century.
As one of the select few people to sail in The Ocean Race as an Onboard Reporter responsible for capturing the race around the world, James Blake has a unique perspective on this event. Added to that, his father Sir Peter Blake is a sailing legend in not only The Ocean Race but the America's Cup. James explains the challenges of building relationships with the sailors, maintaining objectivity and storytelling in extreme conditions.
Time to get your geek on as we run the numbers with sailor and Performance Analyst Rosco Monson, who explains how data collection and analysis is pushing the limits of performance in offshore sailing. Rosco was part of Team AkzoNobel during the last edition of The Ocean Race and takes us inside the key decisions in racing navigation, how data is making sailors go faster, and what the next edition might hold.
Charles Caudrelier was the winning skipper of the 2017-18 edition of The Ocean Race, leading Dongfeng Race Team to the closest victory in the race's history. In his most open interview yet, Charles relives the highs and the lows from his career, discusses his 'complicated' relationship with navigator Pascal Bidégorry and lets us in on the secrets that made the Chinese / French team faster than the rest.
If you want to understand the stresses and strains of being a sailor - and skipper in The Ocean Race, this episode is a must watch. British sailor and adventurer Dee Caffari was the skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic in the 2017-18 edition, and she gets deep into the drive, the insecurities and the psychology of top-class ocean racers, and she and Niall discuss everything from team management, dealing with imposter syndrome and being a female skipper in The Ocean Race. ⛵️
Today we're going to take you to yacht design school
Niall speaks with Race Chairman Richard Brisius and Managing Director Johan Salén about changes to the next edition of The Ocean Race. As part of a 10-year plan, the next edition of the Race will start in 2022, with a potential European Race in the summer of 2021, and future Race start dates in 2026 and 2030. ⛵️
This week we are fortunate enough to welcome six-time Olympian Santiago Lange to Off Watch and hear about his remarkable life and career. Santi tells Niall about dragging a dinghy around Europe by train, his adventures in The Ocean Race and America's Cup, and finally his incredible recovery from cancer to take gold for Argentina
Libby Greenhalgh is a sailor, navigator, meteorologist and advocate for increased opportunities for women to compete in top-class sailing through The Magenta Project. On this week's Off Watch episode Libby takes us inside the campaign with Team SCA in 2014-15, and remembers John Fisher, her crewmate aboard Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag who was tragically lost overboard during the last edition. Libby also opens up about the responsibilities of being a navigator, and she gives strong advice to the organisers of The Ocean Race about equality rules for the next race.
Rick Tomlinson is a photographer and sailor whose relationship with this race runs deep. He first stepped onboard a Whitbread boat as a sailor back in 1985 with Drum, as a crewmate of Duran Duran star Simon Le Bon. From there Rick pioneered the role of capturing life onboard as a photographer, taking some of The Ocean Race's most iconic images. In this conversation with Niall, Rick takes us through his career in sailing, and discusses life before digital cameras and satellite communications onboard, and whether he was the first drone photographer.
Bouwe Bekking is an authentic ocean racing legend. His career spans 35 years and eight laps around the world, from his debut in the 1985 Whitbread Round the World Race to his most recent entry in the 2017-18 edition as skipper of Team Brunel. There's nobody who knows this race better. In this interview Bekking opens up about getting his start in the Whitbread era, disaster aboard Movistar in 2005-06, what keeps him coming back time and time again, and why you should never put him on a crew with David Witt.
This week our guest is Annie Lush, a two-time competitor in The Ocean Race, and British Olympic sailor. Annie talks about getting her start in offshore racing with the all-female Team SCA, sailing with Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel in the last edition and breaking her back in the Southern Ocean, and she tells us about the thrill of crewed IMOCA sailing with Offshore Team Germany.
Emily Nagel was the youngest female sailor to compete in the 2017-18 edition of The Ocean Race, and one of the youngest sailors in the race's history. She opens up to Niall about being part of the Bermuda Youth America's Cup team, fulfilling her dream of sailing around the world in The Ocean Race, and the psychological pain of missing a leg of the race through injury.
This week Niall talks to Irish sailor Damian Foxall who has competed in The Ocean Race six times including a winning campaign with Groupama in 20011-12.
How would you deal with a sudden crash in the middle of the ocean in pitch black night? How does it feel to have a camera pushed in your face in the middle of a crisis? And how does a six-time competitor in The Ocean Race live with sea sickness? We put all these questions and more to Chris Nicholson in this week's episode of Off Watch.
In this edition of Off Watch, we speak to Spanish sailing icon Xabi Fernández. An Olympic gold medalist, a five-time Ocean Race competitor, and three-time America's Cup competitor, the humble and understated Spaniard has done it all, including leading MAPFRE to a second place finish in the 2017-18 edition of The Ocean Race, the best ever result for a Spanish team. But it wasn't easy, and in this conversation, Xabi takes us back through his career and how he found himself in the middle of one of the closest and most memorable race finishes in history.
In this week's Off Watch podcast, we speak with Francesca Clapcich. The Italian sailor is a two-time Olympian who joined the Turn the Tide on Plastic crew in the 2017-18 edition of the race. Now, she's looking to put together her own team for the next edition of The Ocean Race, and with the Grand Finale touted for Genoa, Italy, local interest is high and her ambition is resolute. Learn more about what Francesca discovered about herself in her inaugural ocean race and find out who would be her dream pick to join her team.
This week we speak with Yoann Richomme, who was named skipper of The Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team in February. The French sailor explains his background in one of the toughest proving grounds there is for offshore sailors - the Figaro circuit, where he is a two-time champion - and his passion for one-design and fully-crewed racing.
In this episode of Off Watch, we speak to Carolijn Brouwer, a three-time competitor in The Ocean Race, who sailed to victory with Dongfeng Race Team in that epic final leg of the last race, finishing in her home port of The Hague. But before she was an offshore sailor, Carolijn was an incredibly accomplished dinghy sailor in the 470, Laser Radial, Europe and Tornado class, winning World Sailor of the Year in 1998 and racing in the Olympics in 2000, 2004 and 2008. We learn about how she transitioned into the offshore game and get insight into how Dongfeng Race Team won the last edition of The Ocean Race.
A conversation with Ken Read: In a wide-ranging interview we speak to the President of North Sails about his storied career, from youth champion to America's Cup and Ocean Race skipper and dive into his approach to leadership and managing crisis situations. We also explore the link between sailing and business and get his opinion on the latest updates from The Ocean Race. ⛵️
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