Samantha Davies Interview
• So what’s so good about sailing? Why do it?
It’s great because it’s outdoors – I love doing sports outdoors – and I think it’s amazing to think you can sail around the world harnessed entirely by the wind, the waves and just natural forces.
• What’s the best way to start sailing?
For a beginner, the fact that you can harness the power of nature to go forward is a talent in itself. The best way to learn is to start sailing in a small dinghy. It’s great sailing with a crew and being a part of a team, and I love that – it was a real buzz when I first started. To have a job and to do it really well, even if we didn’t win the race, I’d be really proud if all the manoeuvres we had done were perfect.
If you’re learning to sail for the first time, it’s really good to get close to the water and get in a double- or single-handed dinghy. It’s completely safe because there’s not so much power and the loads are small so you can’t hurt yourself, the worst you can do is fall in. And sometimes it’s best learning by your mistakes and the best thing is to fall in so you can discover what not to do and get over your fear. Just get out there and learn the basic principals.
Even when you learn to sail dinghies, one of the first things you learn to do is to sail without a rudder, which is the thing that you use to steer the boat, because you can actually steer the boat using just the sails and your body weight alone. Achieving that is the closest you can be to having full control of the boat – it’s a crucial lesson. Once you can control a boat without, basically, its steering wheel, you’ve mastered the art of sailing. That’s a great thing to know: if you go out and something happens, you know you’ll always be able to get back to shore.
• How did you get into sailing?
I was born in Portsmouth and grew up in Hayling Island. I got into sailing because my mum and dad had a powerboat when I was born and they decided that it was too dangerous to have a baby on board, so they got a sailing boat instead. Sailing’s been in my family for generations; my granddad was a submarine commander and the other granddad was powerboat racer – it’s in my blood.
My parents taught me to sail and it’s because of them that I’ve got to where I am today. They kind of got me involved early and from a very young age I was navigating our boat through rocky channels – they trusted and listened to what I told them without question, so that gave me great confidence. It was a great kind of lifestyle and I loved it – we’d be eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding in a force seven gale with the boat keeling over in huge waves. They were worried that as soon as I was old enough to never go sailing, I’d give it all up, but the complete opposite happened.
• Does your family still sail a lot?
Once we left home, my parents sold everything – the house, the car – and now they live on a boat they built themselves. They’ve basically built their dream and live on board a boat at no fixed address. They’re somewhere off the coast of Sweden at the moment. I’ve got one sister who’s an ex-national synchronised swimming champion. It’s also another of my hidden talents, I used to do it too, but she was better than me – she got into the Hampshire team. My family has always been involved with water. When I was at university in Cambridge I did four years of rowing.
• So where do you spend most of your time now you’re a professional sailor?
Well, I’m part of an elite squad of offshore single-handed racers and our team is based in Port le Foret. It’s an elite squad: we do group training – I’ve got a physical trainer who I share with five other skippers – we do weather training – lessons where we study in a classroom – and we also do a lot of on-the-water training with debriefs. Some overnight stuff, some day stuff during the week – it’s quite structured. It’s an amazing place with all the top sailors in France and the world. You get to speak with the best, train with the best and learn each other’s secrets before we race!
• How did you get into it? Is there an entrance test?
I started with the squad three years ago (in 2004), and I was really surprised [to get in] as it’s very French and funded by local authorities and local sponsors so I wasn’t sure they’d accept a foreigner in to the team. I had to fill in an application and then a selection committee, which meets once a year, take one group of people every year. And they don’t take many because there’s a limit to numbers, so I was really really honoured when I got into the squad. They were happy as well because they knew I was serious and had a fulltime sponsor, Skandia, (sponsor of Cowes Week), so they knew I’d be able to put 100 per cent into training and be there all the time. That’s the real emphasis of the squad: we put everything into it and train together as a team, so that the whole team climbs up the ladder, in terms of performance, and then once we get to the race, we fight it out between us. But already, we’re one step ahead of everyone else. So I was just completely ecstatic about that.
• You’ve broken or been part of a crew that’s broken several world records, is that right?
I’ve been part of crew with Tracy Edwards, which broke four world records in four months, including the 24-hour record, which is the one I’m most proud of because it’s one very prestigious record. The 24-hour record is when you cover the biggest distance ever in 24 hours in a straight line, it’s been broken since… twice.
The record we still hold is the around Britain and Ireland record. As far as I know it hasn’t been re-broken, yet. That was in a Maxi Catamaran and since then, people have built bigger, faster machines so the records keep going up and up and up. The more money you have, the bigger boat you build.
• Since you’ve hit the professional sailing scene, you’ve been compared to Ellen MacArthur, what’s that like?
I always say I’m not like her because I really like the competition. Before Roxy, I raced in the Figaro class – all the boats in this class are built to the same design, they’re all identical [unlike Open 60 class, where the boats can be adapted within strict rules, to optimize their performance] – and there’s 50 boats on the start line. I love being that close to boats with the competition, strategy and tactics and all of that. And I know Ellen just loves going away from everyone and everything.
She loves sailing, she’s really competitive but in a different way and I like racing for racing. To sail around the world against the clock for me would be really hard, I like to see the other boat next to me and that just drives me on – that motivates me – or even if I can’t see them with my own eyes, I can see them on the screen [satellite], I can plot their position, and that’s what drives me to race.
• You worked for Ellen as a member of her shore crew at one point, what did you have to do?
I worked with her because the first and only time I sailed around the world was a record attempt as part of an all-female crew with Tracy Edwards. We were on a record-breaking pace and had gone more than two thirds around the world and we dismounted – it was a complete nightmare to get to land because we were the furthest away from land than you could ever be in the whole world. I’d just left university to go and do that, so when I came back I had a bit of time on my hands and I just happened to bump into Ellen in Hamble.
She told me (this was before she was famous) about her ambitions to do La Route du Rhum [a 3,510-mile race between Saint Malo in France and Pointe à Pitre on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe]. She had a terrible boat, which was falling apart, and I thought ‘wow that’s amazing’ and said: “if you ever need any help, here’s my number call me”. I got called and started working trying to sort out this hideous boat for her.
At this time, Mark Turner found Kingfisher, the sponsor, which enabled us to charter a much better boat. It was full on because we didn’t have much time, but it was amazing because that’s what made me discover short-handed sailing. [Short-handed is single or double-handed sailing, rather than in a crew.] It’s almost a different sport of sailing. And I just thought ‘wow this is brilliant, I wonder if I can do this?’ And the only way to find out was to try.
That was in 1998 and I did my first transatlantic race in 2001. I was lucky because I found a boat and a sponsor, the first Transat I did was called the mini-Transat because the boats are only 6.5 metres long. It’s small projects and small budgets, which means you can do it yourself if you can’t afford to pay people. To qualify to enter the race you have to sail 2,000 miles, to show you’re capable of going the distance. Some of those races were in the Mediterranean so then I had to find a car and a trailer and drive across Europe with my boat in the back. It’s not just about the sailing, it’s about managing whole projects, the logistics and everything. You almost feel that you’ve done it, when you finally get to the start line!
• And what do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
Getting to where I am now: being the skipper of Roxy, an Open 60, on a Vendee Globe project – I’m entered – it’s confirmed, which is great. Everything I do I try and get better and better and that’s my goal, it’s not one specific thing, or one race – some people just dream about doing the Vendee Globe, and that’s the only thing [they want to do], but I just want to get better and better and progress. At the moment it’s hard to look beyond the Vendee Globe because it’s such a big race, but I can and I do because it’s not the end of what I’m trying to achieve. It’s just another race in my career.
• You have an engineering degree, do you use it as a professional sailor?
Yes, I worked for a yacht designer between school and university, so that was a really good eye-opener into the world of boat design… I thought it was an exact science, but it’s more an art. [Having the degree] means I do understand what’s going on when I pull a rope. And when I hear strange noises, I’m happy I have my engineering head – I know where to go and look, to try and make a diagnosis if it’s a serious problem, or if it’s something I should stop and repair immediately.
• Sounds like you couldn’t really do with out?
No, it’s something that people who don’t have an engineering degree kind of learn through experience. Compared to athletes, who would train with a personal trainer and prepare and do everything they can, sailors have to worry about their boat too – it’s not just me, there are two engines: myself and my boat.
Sometimes I feel like I should be training more, but I just can’t fit in everything in a day, because we’ve got quite a small team and I want to know everything about the boat, so I actually have to go and work on the boat.
• What sort of skills or traits do you need to be a successful professional sailor?
Patience, motivation and determination. To do what I’m doing you need endurance, because the race is long and you can have days and days when the race is really tough – the Vendee Globe is around three months, non-stop without any assistance. An ability to learn quickly is important too.
• Sailors are notoriously superstitious, are you?
Well, I don’t like sailing with bananas on board. I think that stems from when old merchant ships carrying bananas and bananas rotting and creating gases which caused the ship to explode and sink. And also when I was match racing with Shirley Robertson OBE [double Olympic gold medallist], we had one kit bag for everyone and in the end we had to ban bananas, because they would always explode and everyone’s clothes would get covered!
Follow Sam Davies’ progress…
Roxy sailor Sam Davies will compete in the Trans Jacques Vabre in November. Follow her journey at www.roxysailing.com
It’s great because it’s outdoors – I love doing sports outdoors – and I think it’s amazing to think you can sail around the world harnessed entirely by the wind, the waves and just natural forces.
• What’s the best way to start sailing?
For a beginner, the fact that you can harness the power of nature to go forward is a talent in itself. The best way to learn is to start sailing in a small dinghy. It’s great sailing with a crew and being a part of a team, and I love that – it was a real buzz when I first started. To have a job and to do it really well, even if we didn’t win the race, I’d be really proud if all the manoeuvres we had done were perfect.
If you’re learning to sail for the first time, it’s really good to get close to the water and get in a double- or single-handed dinghy. It’s completely safe because there’s not so much power and the loads are small so you can’t hurt yourself, the worst you can do is fall in. And sometimes it’s best learning by your mistakes and the best thing is to fall in so you can discover what not to do and get over your fear. Just get out there and learn the basic principals.
Even when you learn to sail dinghies, one of the first things you learn to do is to sail without a rudder, which is the thing that you use to steer the boat, because you can actually steer the boat using just the sails and your body weight alone. Achieving that is the closest you can be to having full control of the boat – it’s a crucial lesson. Once you can control a boat without, basically, its steering wheel, you’ve mastered the art of sailing. That’s a great thing to know: if you go out and something happens, you know you’ll always be able to get back to shore.
• How did you get into sailing?
I was born in Portsmouth and grew up in Hayling Island. I got into sailing because my mum and dad had a powerboat when I was born and they decided that it was too dangerous to have a baby on board, so they got a sailing boat instead. Sailing’s been in my family for generations; my granddad was a submarine commander and the other granddad was powerboat racer – it’s in my blood.
My parents taught me to sail and it’s because of them that I’ve got to where I am today. They kind of got me involved early and from a very young age I was navigating our boat through rocky channels – they trusted and listened to what I told them without question, so that gave me great confidence. It was a great kind of lifestyle and I loved it – we’d be eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding in a force seven gale with the boat keeling over in huge waves. They were worried that as soon as I was old enough to never go sailing, I’d give it all up, but the complete opposite happened.
• Does your family still sail a lot?
Once we left home, my parents sold everything – the house, the car – and now they live on a boat they built themselves. They’ve basically built their dream and live on board a boat at no fixed address. They’re somewhere off the coast of Sweden at the moment. I’ve got one sister who’s an ex-national synchronised swimming champion. It’s also another of my hidden talents, I used to do it too, but she was better than me – she got into the Hampshire team. My family has always been involved with water. When I was at university in Cambridge I did four years of rowing.
• So where do you spend most of your time now you’re a professional sailor?
Well, I’m part of an elite squad of offshore single-handed racers and our team is based in Port le Foret. It’s an elite squad: we do group training – I’ve got a physical trainer who I share with five other skippers – we do weather training – lessons where we study in a classroom – and we also do a lot of on-the-water training with debriefs. Some overnight stuff, some day stuff during the week – it’s quite structured. It’s an amazing place with all the top sailors in France and the world. You get to speak with the best, train with the best and learn each other’s secrets before we race!
• How did you get into it? Is there an entrance test?
I started with the squad three years ago (in 2004), and I was really surprised [to get in] as it’s very French and funded by local authorities and local sponsors so I wasn’t sure they’d accept a foreigner in to the team. I had to fill in an application and then a selection committee, which meets once a year, take one group of people every year. And they don’t take many because there’s a limit to numbers, so I was really really honoured when I got into the squad. They were happy as well because they knew I was serious and had a fulltime sponsor, Skandia, (sponsor of Cowes Week), so they knew I’d be able to put 100 per cent into training and be there all the time. That’s the real emphasis of the squad: we put everything into it and train together as a team, so that the whole team climbs up the ladder, in terms of performance, and then once we get to the race, we fight it out between us. But already, we’re one step ahead of everyone else. So I was just completely ecstatic about that.
• You’ve broken or been part of a crew that’s broken several world records, is that right?
I’ve been part of crew with Tracy Edwards, which broke four world records in four months, including the 24-hour record, which is the one I’m most proud of because it’s one very prestigious record. The 24-hour record is when you cover the biggest distance ever in 24 hours in a straight line, it’s been broken since… twice.
The record we still hold is the around Britain and Ireland record. As far as I know it hasn’t been re-broken, yet. That was in a Maxi Catamaran and since then, people have built bigger, faster machines so the records keep going up and up and up. The more money you have, the bigger boat you build.
• Since you’ve hit the professional sailing scene, you’ve been compared to Ellen MacArthur, what’s that like?
I always say I’m not like her because I really like the competition. Before Roxy, I raced in the Figaro class – all the boats in this class are built to the same design, they’re all identical [unlike Open 60 class, where the boats can be adapted within strict rules, to optimize their performance] – and there’s 50 boats on the start line. I love being that close to boats with the competition, strategy and tactics and all of that. And I know Ellen just loves going away from everyone and everything.
She loves sailing, she’s really competitive but in a different way and I like racing for racing. To sail around the world against the clock for me would be really hard, I like to see the other boat next to me and that just drives me on – that motivates me – or even if I can’t see them with my own eyes, I can see them on the screen [satellite], I can plot their position, and that’s what drives me to race.
• You worked for Ellen as a member of her shore crew at one point, what did you have to do?
I worked with her because the first and only time I sailed around the world was a record attempt as part of an all-female crew with Tracy Edwards. We were on a record-breaking pace and had gone more than two thirds around the world and we dismounted – it was a complete nightmare to get to land because we were the furthest away from land than you could ever be in the whole world. I’d just left university to go and do that, so when I came back I had a bit of time on my hands and I just happened to bump into Ellen in Hamble.
She told me (this was before she was famous) about her ambitions to do La Route du Rhum [a 3,510-mile race between Saint Malo in France and Pointe à Pitre on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe]. She had a terrible boat, which was falling apart, and I thought ‘wow that’s amazing’ and said: “if you ever need any help, here’s my number call me”. I got called and started working trying to sort out this hideous boat for her.
At this time, Mark Turner found Kingfisher, the sponsor, which enabled us to charter a much better boat. It was full on because we didn’t have much time, but it was amazing because that’s what made me discover short-handed sailing. [Short-handed is single or double-handed sailing, rather than in a crew.] It’s almost a different sport of sailing. And I just thought ‘wow this is brilliant, I wonder if I can do this?’ And the only way to find out was to try.
That was in 1998 and I did my first transatlantic race in 2001. I was lucky because I found a boat and a sponsor, the first Transat I did was called the mini-Transat because the boats are only 6.5 metres long. It’s small projects and small budgets, which means you can do it yourself if you can’t afford to pay people. To qualify to enter the race you have to sail 2,000 miles, to show you’re capable of going the distance. Some of those races were in the Mediterranean so then I had to find a car and a trailer and drive across Europe with my boat in the back. It’s not just about the sailing, it’s about managing whole projects, the logistics and everything. You almost feel that you’ve done it, when you finally get to the start line!
• And what do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
Getting to where I am now: being the skipper of Roxy, an Open 60, on a Vendee Globe project – I’m entered – it’s confirmed, which is great. Everything I do I try and get better and better and that’s my goal, it’s not one specific thing, or one race – some people just dream about doing the Vendee Globe, and that’s the only thing [they want to do], but I just want to get better and better and progress. At the moment it’s hard to look beyond the Vendee Globe because it’s such a big race, but I can and I do because it’s not the end of what I’m trying to achieve. It’s just another race in my career.
• You have an engineering degree, do you use it as a professional sailor?
Yes, I worked for a yacht designer between school and university, so that was a really good eye-opener into the world of boat design… I thought it was an exact science, but it’s more an art. [Having the degree] means I do understand what’s going on when I pull a rope. And when I hear strange noises, I’m happy I have my engineering head – I know where to go and look, to try and make a diagnosis if it’s a serious problem, or if it’s something I should stop and repair immediately.
• Sounds like you couldn’t really do with out?
No, it’s something that people who don’t have an engineering degree kind of learn through experience. Compared to athletes, who would train with a personal trainer and prepare and do everything they can, sailors have to worry about their boat too – it’s not just me, there are two engines: myself and my boat.
Sometimes I feel like I should be training more, but I just can’t fit in everything in a day, because we’ve got quite a small team and I want to know everything about the boat, so I actually have to go and work on the boat.
• What sort of skills or traits do you need to be a successful professional sailor?
Patience, motivation and determination. To do what I’m doing you need endurance, because the race is long and you can have days and days when the race is really tough – the Vendee Globe is around three months, non-stop without any assistance. An ability to learn quickly is important too.
• Sailors are notoriously superstitious, are you?
Well, I don’t like sailing with bananas on board. I think that stems from when old merchant ships carrying bananas and bananas rotting and creating gases which caused the ship to explode and sink. And also when I was match racing with Shirley Robertson OBE [double Olympic gold medallist], we had one kit bag for everyone and in the end we had to ban bananas, because they would always explode and everyone’s clothes would get covered!
Follow Sam Davies’ progress…
Roxy sailor Sam Davies will compete in the Trans Jacques Vabre in November. Follow her journey at www.roxysailing.com
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