Dave Harries, 17-18 RTW

Welcome to the latest in an ongoing series of guest posts from my fellow 17-18 Clipper Race crewmates and current 15-16 crew members! This is a chance for them to tell you all a little bit about themselves, why they chose to sign up for Clipper, and share some of their experiences.  Keep an eye on this space - there are THREE more in the works already!

Now, over to Dave Harries who will be sailing RTW in the 17-18 race - enjoy!

Hi! Why am I writing here, well Caitlin asked me to write a guest blog. I’m Dave, and will be doing the full circumnavigation in Clipper Round the World Race in 2017/18. I work in the oil industry and have recently returned to the UK after 3 years working mainly in Saudi Arabia but also Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea (absolutely loved South Korea, fantastic food and the people were so friendly). It seems so long ago now, but I was following the 2013/14 Race online from Saudi Arabia, via race viewer and several Facebook groups and also reading Team Spirit, written by Brendan Hall, the winning skipper of the 09/10 Race onboard Spirit of Australia. I would highly recommend reading this book, not just for those considering taking part in the Race but also those already signed up for the Race. Anyway, early in 2014 I took the plunge and applied. Why apply for the Race? I didn’t want to get to 70 or 80 years of age and think “what if…”, so applied and somehow got accepted. I decided to do round the world, as I knew I would find it incredibly difficult to leave the boat after doing 1 or 2 legs. I enjoy pushing myself, the week after my interview I was taking part in the London to Brighton ultramarathon. The Race will help push the limits of what I am capable of. It’s not just the challenge of taking on Mother Nature with the ocean crossings but also getting on with my crewmates and dealing with the inevitable arguments that will arise from being in a confined space. And asmuch as I love cooking, I’ve never tried cooking on a bucking bronco leaning over at silly angles, so that’ll be umm interesting lol. As for sailing background, inspections onboard oil tankers doesn’t really count lol Once I’d been accepted onto the Race I did the RYA Crew Competency course off the Pembrokeshire coast in South West Wales. This was great fun and helped give a good grounding in points of sail and some of the knots used (especially the all-important bowline lol). This was a great way of getting experience and confidence onboard, albeit a much smaller yacht. As good as the crew competency course was, it doesn’t really prepare you for life onboard a Clipper yacht. Level 1 training in September 2015 out of Gosport was great fun, even if we didn’t have as much wind as we’d hoped for. At least it was a ‘gentle’ introduction to taking it in turns cooking for everybody onboard and some of the day-to-day aspects of sailing the boat, just think cleaning out the bilges. The training involves a lot of learning by repetition, from the knots involved, again the bowline (you’ll be doing lots and lots of those) as well as the round turn and 2 half hitches (that’ll keep your bunk at the right angle lol) to sail changes, anchoring an man overboard exercises. Although there were only 8 of us onboard for level 1 training, you get a good sense of how cramped it would be with a full crew onboard, and how difficult it could be moving around, walking over the sails just to get to your bunk (that’s were having a waterproof bag comes in handy to leave your stuff in, dropping wet gear down, something will always get the bunks wet). One word of advice, get involved with everything and ask questions, we were lucky on level 1 with 2 previous race skippers onboard (1 of whom is now the skipper onboard Team ClipperTelemed+), so there were lots of questions not just on the sailing aspect but also kit and what to expect on different legs. One thing you’ll definitely get involved with is the deep clean at the end, the more people doing it the sooner it gets done. Our incentive was to book a table at the pub for a final meal that wasn’t onboard the boat (plus a few climbed the mast too). The big surprise for me during level 1 training was how much drinking was involved, and how it’s not much fun being on the grinders with a hangover! lol Roll on Level 2 training in May 2016.

The bunks, sails and rope locker

Sunrise in Gosport

Sunset on the Solent