© On Edition
Sam has become the first British sailor to finish the Artemis Transat, finishing the race in a very creditable fifth place. Aboard her IMOCA Open 60 Roxy, Sam crossed the finish line at 23:00:51 GMT (19:00 local time) last night making her solo passage from Plymouth in a time 15 days, 10 hours, 00 minutes and 51 seconds. For the last 24 hours, Sam battled a biting and gusty 25 to 35 knot headwind, but crossed the line with a huge smile.
For most of the race Roxy, the winning boat from the last two Vendee Globes, has led the race's B-division for the older generation boats.
Davies had a tough start to the Artemis Transat. On the first night she discovered her radar to be inoperative. A trip up the mast on day four confirmed there was no chance of repairing it as the waterproof sealant had decayed allowing water to corrode the elements. At that point Davies knew she would be 'sailing blind' unable to identify shipping or the threat of icebergs on the other side of the Atlantic. Undeterred Davies raced on handling the diverse weather conditions of the North Atlantic from frustrating patches of no wind to full-on 40 knots.
On day 11 her race could have ended after a collision with a whale: "It was really scary as I have never hit anything before," she wrote at the time. "I checked the keel immediately and everything seemed fine. Back on deck, I pulled my daggerboard up to check it and realised that it was damaged and cracked. Now I can't put it all the way down, so I have to use only half of it. The crash freaked me out a bit, and for the rest of the day I couldn't stop thinking about hitting something. So that night I sailed a bit nervously and reefed down sooner than usual, as Roxy was doing speeds of 18+ knots and it was all a bit much."
The trauma of this incident cost two places and she knew she had had a lucky escape - in a similar race leader Michel Desjoyeaux had sustained far more serious damage to Foncia's daggerboard that had forced him to retire. However dogmatically Davies managed to recover the places. This she achieved in just 24 hours. It was then a case of holding her nerve through to the end.
"I'm really happy to be first of the old boats," Sam commented upon her arrival last night. "It was a bit frustrating as we were stuck in high pressure (no wind) system for the last couple of days. The competion between the old boats was really intense but I was not going to let them go - they were not going to pass. And fortunately the conditions at this time suited Roxy more than the other two boats, so I managed to sail faster and past again. There is a good race going on out there still.
"My worst moment in this race was the night where I hit a whale, quite hard, doing 13 knots. Luckily the damage to my daggerboard was quite localised, but as a result I didn't do very well during the 24 hours following the incident. I was thinking: What if I hit something else? What if I damage the keel??? It makes you think back to reality and realise sometimes what we do is quite dangerous. It was the only night I didn't enjoy."
Sam's 'old Finot Cup' rivals crossed the finish line soon after her. Taking six place was Yannick Bestaven in the former Aquitaine Innovations, Cervin EnR. Bestaven arrived 4.5 hours after Davies. Bestaven in turn was followed into Boston one and a half hours later by Arnaud Boissieres on Akena Verandas (ex-Sodebo/VMI).
