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Blog 1 - Cowes Week
4 29/08/2007
bluQube with Johnny Ball at Cowes Week
Johnny and Steve
Hello and welcome to the first in a series of monthly ‘blogs’ from bluQube, sponsors of professional yachtsman Steve White of White Ocean Racing, who will be taking part in the world-famous Vendee Globe challenge in 2008. The idea behind this blog is to provide you with an exclusive insight into the world of a professional IMOCA* sailor, providing a month-by-month account of preparations and events such as Cowes Week, Fastnet and The Silicon Cup as part of a countdown towards the ultimate challenge, the Vendee Globe; a ‘single-handed’ around the world yacht race that starts in February 2008.
More about the skipper
Racing in the ‘Open 60’ class, Steve is a world- ranking professional sailor who only started sailing 10 years ago. In that time he has sailed with some of the legends of the sport including Sir Chay Blyth and off-shore racing supremo Pete Goss. Steve and his wife Kim, along with their children, own and operate White Ocean Racing, which is based in Weymouth.
It’s all in the preparation
If business is all about location, location, location, then International yacht racing is about preparation, preparation, preparation and then once you have fully prepared, you prepare some more. And that’s not all, whilst Steve is preparing he has bills to pay so he also has to get clients on deck and onto the wet stuff to get some cash. All in all it is a 24 hours a day, 7 day a week challenge!
Running up to Cowes Week- Compliance – Boring but necessary
In order to enter the races at Cowes week, Steve had to submit the boat for the IMOCA measurements to ensure that the craft met the stability and safety requirements. Passing these requirements is not normally an issue, what is important however is the tolerance of the pass. The higher the tolerance the more competitive Steve can make the boat by adding new bits such as dagger boards, a trim tab and a taller mast, and optimising existing parts such as the water ballast system. The whole process involves a lot of red tape and is very time-consuming. The yacht was sailed up the Solent on the Monday, completely stripped down, measured and then rebuilt to be sailed back on the following Saturday. It passed! And Steve has enough tolerance to optimise the boat before the Vendee - funds permitting!
Once the compliance issues have been satisfied, the 5 days leading up to Cowes Week were no less stressful. During this time, Steve had to submit all the paper work required for entry into the races, organise the crew, remeasure the boat and sails for another organisation, (this time the ‘RORC’, Royal Ocean Racing Club), order new battens for the mainsail, collect the life rafts from their annual service, fix a broken ballast pump, organise an advertising campaign on Google, sort out the branding on a new sail (A jolly green giant no less), chase outstanding money from previous clients, and get a haircut!
Life was made even more interesting when a corporate client, the life-blood of Steve’s business, cancelled a booking at the last minute, leaving him not only with serious cash-flow problem, but also an empty boat for 5 days of the event! Fortunately after some frantic phoning, Steve was able to fill some of the days. Steve calls this ‘kissing a lot of frogs’. Fortunately, some do turn into ‘corporate’ princes!'
Steve and Kim have each worked 18-20 hours a day this week, managing on a budget that would start most of us thinking about tall buildings and open windows…But, some how they got by, and still found time for their kids. It’s a glamorous life, International yacht sailing!
Cowes Week
Finally it has arrived, the stress of the previous week has been forgotten, the sun is out, the wind is in the sails, well not really, but more about that later and to cap it all there is a celebrity on-board. Yes, through some diligent ‘networking’ Steve’s wife Kim has managed to convince children’s TV star Johnny Ball to help crew the good ship 'Spirit of Weymouth' in a race for local charities.
The next instalment of this blog will focus on Steve’s participation in the Fastnet race.
Subscribe to the next newsletter to find out how he got on….
A quick word from the sponsor bluQube
bluQube is a new breed of accounting software solutions that provides finance professionals with a simple, fast, and easy-to-use solution that gives organisations both better control and increased efficiencies for its whole operation. The decision to sponsor Steve White and his IMOCA Open 60 yacht, ‘Spirit of Weymouth’ was based on the close synergies between the qualities of the bluQube brand and the attributes of sailing and the characteristics and ambitions of Steve White. As part of the sponsorship, bluQube has several hospitality days on the boat, offering the opportunity for customers to experience the unique thrill of sailing a race prepared Open 60 yacht.
*IMOCA is the International 60 feet Monohull Open Class Association. It was established in 1991 and has been recognised by ISAF since 1998. IMOCA is the governing body behind the ocean racing world championship of which races like the Vendée globe, The Route du Rhum, La transat Jacques Vabre or The transat…, and many others, are part.
