Sailing with Pip Hare last week reminded me of my father’s sailing mantra: ‘It’s all about drag.’ I have many memories of fine-sanding the bottom of my dinghies and the excitement of discovering graphite paint.

As crew on my Mirror dinghy, my father was incredibly patient in demonstrating its effect, from lifting the centreboard where we could, healing the boat to reduce wetted area and lying in the bottom during light airs to reduce windage.

During last week’s trip with Pip, her yacht Medallia suddenly came to life and erupted into another dimension. She had reached that sweet spot where the foils lift her nose and she enters an upward speed spiral of diminishing drag and increasing apparent wind.

The grin-inducing power surge is remarkable and I’m mesmerised by the foil tip as it slices through the wave tops. There are five of us on board including my long-time friend and speed sailor Paul Larsen. A major refit, introducing the latest foil package to Medallia, has lifted Pip’s ambitions from a Corinthian entry in the last Vendée to the professional league.

There is a lot to learn and so it was fascinating to join this explorative sail. Pip is small of stature but you can see from her thousand-yard stare that a long, burning streak resides within. This, coupled with a life-long passion for sailing, is a potent combination.

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She will need it for, as Medallia comes to life, spray immediately starts to machine gun down the deck. Pictures would have the boat gracefully gliding on its foils but the images belie a brutal
ride. In its insatiable hunger for speed the romantic relationship between sailor and craft is dulled. The skipper is there to serve and suffer the god of speed’s many whims.

Life is lived, much like in the trenches, sheltered under a cockpit canopy to avoid the spray and bone-breaking waves that sweep the deck. The ride is so violent that helmet and body armour is becoming the norm.

A voracious appetite for miles means that life is either humping heavy sails or hunched over a screen in search of the best route to take as weather rather than land mass dictates the course.

It takes a rare person to measure up to this and last year presented Pip with a moment of truth from which there was no hiding. Would Pip be able to pick up the reigns of this new steed during a single-handed transatlantic qualifier? Great things weren’t expected at this early stage but green shoots of potential were certainly required.

Pip ticked all the boxes, her moon shot for the Vendée is on the right trajectory. Unfortunately a couple of hefty sponsors were forced to withdraw due the financial downturn. Completely committed and trapped between the immovable anvil of the start and the ugly hammer of cash flow things are tough. She will start the race but faces the prospect of crossing the line with old sails.

The thought of this British Boudica of the seas hamstrung from the start is unconscionable and I hope you will join me in supporting her in by putting your name on the boat at: piphare.com

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