Jersey sailor crowned Class 40 champion

Friday 01 December 2017

He might not have gotten the results he hoped for in the Transat Jacques Vabre but the 3d place finish didn't stop Phil Sharp from winning the Class 40 championship, finishing with a total of 871 points, 247 more than his runner-up, Massimo Juris.

Phil and his zero-emission boat, Imerys Clean Energy, finished on the podium in all five races of the championship, with two victories, two second places and a third place in the 13th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre with his teammate Pablo Santurde.

The sailor could soon celebrate another title as he was recently shortlisted for the 'Pro Sailor of the Year' award in the Yachts and Yachting Awards 2018.

This is definitely a warm welcome back for the sailor who touched firm ground again last Thursday after 17 days, 15 hours 58 minutes and 41 seconds on the water. The sailor spoke to Express to look back on the race and the 4,539 miles he covered, sometimes in difficult conditions.

Cast your VOTE! @Phil_Sharp_ has been nominated as 'Pro Sailor of the Year' in the 2018 Yachts and Yachting Awards  Support Phil & his outstanding efforts  VOTE & SHARE  https://t.co/uHTC3wr5CE

— Phil Sharp Racing (@PhilSharpRacing) 27 November 2017

While him and Pablo were first to cross the starting line off Le Havre and managed to retain their lead, albeit intermittently, 12 days out of 17, the duo sadly finished in third position, five hours after the winning crew, V&B.

A slightly disappointed Phil explained: "It was so close. There was always a very few miles in between the other boats. It wasn’t until the last few days that there was a bit more separation, otherwise it was just neck in neck the whole way and it was quite stressful.

"The worst was seeing the other boats slowly eating our lead, creeping up at the back of us when we were in the South Atlantic. There was nothing we could do about it, it was just a question of them having a much more powerful boat. Sometimes, they were getting nearly past us and we were pushing the boat right to the ragged edge. It was very, very wet and we felt very uncomfortable because it felt as if something was going to break on the boat. We were really driving it right to its maximum. During the night, one of the boats overtook us and they were going at a blistering pace. We realized there was really nothing we could do, we couldn’t’ match them on speed so we tried to beat them on tactics.We tried to head offshore where we hoped to find better wind but in the end it didn’t materialize."

Pictured: Phil Sharp and Pablo Santurde arriving in All Saints Bay, in Salvador de Bahia.

The duo also had to deal with technical hiccups. They sailed without weather data for most of the race, got held back by a mountain of sea weed and almost ended up on their side one dreadful night. Phil recalled: "It was a really exhilarating low point  or more just a dramatic experience. It was particularly windy, between 30 and 35 knots. The boat was getting so fast and we really felt like we were pushing it to its limit. I was on deck, on watch. It was pitch-black you couldn’t see anything. The autopilot was steering.

"We came up this wave and it must have been a pretty big wave because when the boat landed, there was such a loud bang, I was sure we had broken something. I was sure the structure of the boat that broken. When we landed the autopilot went berserk and the boat crash-dived, we very nearly ended on our side. I managed to just grab the steer in time before the boat lost control completely. The shock had been so great that the autopilot had been removed from the inside of the boat."

Despite a result that was lesser than expected, the sailor has not been completely put off by the Transat, which covers the historic coffee route between France and Brazil. He said: "The one consolation from not winning is that I will be very motivated to come back again to take on this race and put our efforts on the top of the result lists.

"We really tried everything in this race and who knows what could have happened if we didn’t end up on that large amount of weed in the first week? It was really difficult losing all that massive chunk of lead in such a short space of time and then it was almost like the race reset. After that, we were all close together and we were all back in touch and we didn’t manage to escape again until the doldrums and the Equator."

Pictured: One particularly very windy night, Imerys Clean Energy almost ended up on its side. (Jean-Marie Liot)

While there were some low points, the duo also enjoyed some high ones. Exiting the doldrums - otherwise known as a sailor's worst nightmare - in the lead was one of those. "It was such a frustrating time of very tricky winds. Sometimes we would be stopped for hours and then we would have a thunderstorm come through with Force 7 or 8winds. We would be completely pummeled with some brutal winds. It was very stressful because the winds were so changeable and unpredictable.

"We slowly lost our advantage. We were in the lead when we went in the doldrums and we were in fourth place the night before we exited the doldrums. Then we had some particularly hideous weather that last night, really changeable and very tiring, we didn’t get a wink of sleep. We thought we had lost miles because the weather had been all over the place. But then we downloaded the positions the next morning and saw that we had basically leapt ahead everyone to the east of us. We were back in the first place with a 10-mile advantage and we couldn’t believe it, it was an incredible feeling to be back!" Phil said.

Another highlight involved a little pick-me up drink, just past the Equator. Phil added: "Getting to the Southern hemisphere in the lead and having a nice taste of a dram of whisky was quite nice. It was about 30/35 degrees inside so the whisky had been on the boat boiling when I poured it out into our cups but despite that it tasted good. It was a slightly refreshing point."

[Classement @AssoClass40 - 12h]

1⃣ @PhilSharpRacing #Imerys à 1 188.87
2⃣ @VandBOfficiel à 20.39 nm
3⃣ @TeamAina151 à 20.43 nm
La suite du classement https://t.co/4UKxqdMdgt #TJV2017
pic.twitter.com/QSBrknELTF

— Transat JacquesVabre (@TransatJV_fr) November 18, 2017

The duo also enjoyed a caipirinha upon arrival. "It was waiting for us on the pontoon, it was perfect finish. They had big plates of fruit, which is honestly the one thing you are missing on the boat, fresh healthy food. I couldn’t have asked for a better arrival, apart from winning."

Now that the Transat, which was Phil's last race of the year, is finished, it is time for the sailor to rest, before putting his mind to the next season. "There is some fine tuning to do still for next year. But for now, we deserve to party hard and relax hard. The transat was very draining. It's like two and a half weeks of expedition where you are living really rough and  sleeping very badly, three to four hours a night on average. It was psychologically challenging.

"On the other hand, we had a really good grip on solar panel. It was a very satisfying project to deliver solar result in an international race. We have proven we can be there at the front even if we don’t have the fastest boat. The next thing will be to try and acquire a more competitive platform to be able to sail consistently as our current boat is getting old."

Lead photo: Jean-Marie Liot.