From Heartbreak to Headwinds

Level 3 meant two things: finally stepping onto the 70-foot race yachts, and getting introduced to some of the race day routines — spinnaker hoists, Le Mans starts, and a lot more time on the helm. We’d return to port every night, but the days were full throttle.

With all the race skippers and first mates announced, we had a mixed leadership team this time:

Skippers

Ella Hebron (UK): Calm, experienced, and driven — back from circumnavigating as a First Mate in the last edition, now stepping up as a skipper with a focus on building a team through kindness, respect, and unity.

Guy Waites (UK): Cool-headed and tactical, with a solo circumnavigation under his belt from the Golden Globe Race and loads of Clipper experience, including skippering in the 2019-20 race.

First Mates

Ben Birley (UK): Solid, friendly, with recent race experience and a good coaching style.

Diana Vega (Isle of Wight): Practical, no-nonsense, with impressive seamanship from her years restoring and skippering boats.

Crew-wise it was an all-male team, but a top bunch — easygoing, hardworking, and up for a laugh:

Jacko (UK)

AJ (Australia)

Andrew (US)

Mark (UK)

Mick (UK)

Marius (Germany)

First Time on the Race Yacht

Straight away, the 70 felt like a different beast. Everything a bit sleeker, a bit bigger, and thankfully — a bit more user-friendly. All the jammers in one place in the cockpit, two coffee grinders for hoisting sails, and proper helm stations on either side of the boat — meaning you can actually see where you’re going.

Below deck, the bunks are all towards the stern, so hopefully less being launched out of your bunk in big seas. Just when you’d got used to the 68s, we had to relearn everything — but these are the boats we’ll race round the world on, so no complaints.

Drills, Starts, and Spinnakers

No watches this week, just focused drills. Lots of helming, sail changes, and spinnaker hoists. A proper intro to Le Mans starts — where the crew lines up at the stern, engines go off, and it’s a race to hoist sails and get moving.

One of the highlights was during a spinnaker drop, where I was up near the letterbox, helping hug the sail down alongside Jacko as we wrestled it through the gap between the mainsail and the boom. After one of these drops, Jacko turned to me and nicknamed me “the Squirrel,” mostly thanks to my size and speed compared to the “bears” on deck. All good laughs with Jacko, the big Bear — it definitely made for a fun team dynamic.

Lessons in Teamwork and Trimming

Throughout the week we practiced reefing — not our strong point early on, until Marius pulled out the German efficiency, made a reefing timeline, and we nailed it in 3 minutes.

We also spent a lot of time on the spinnaker — hoisting it, learning the wool wrap, trimming, grinding, and gybing with four guys out. My bowlines under pressure were a disaster — something I knew I needed to fix before the race kicked off. Everyone had moments they needed to work on, but the team energy stayed positive the whole week.

Closing thoughts

Another week done, a load of progress made. From Le Mans starts to spinnaker drills, it was great to finally feel what sailing the race yachts is really like. It’s early days, but the group felt solid — supportive, driven, and a good laugh in between. Hopefully a few familiar faces when the real thing starts… maybe even a Bear & Squirrel reunion.

Next up is Level 4 training, but this time it will be after crew allocation — when we’ll finally find out who our skippers and first mates are, and who we’ll be sharing this mad adventure around the world with.

It’s all starting to feel very real now.