The forgotten introduction
So, you’ve started reading these blogs about my offshore sailing that begin in 2021, but there’s something missing. At no point have I ever really introduced myself and the events that lead up to the 2021 season.
I guess its better late than never to try to quickly explain everything the years leading up to 2021
The beginning
Hi, my name’s David (I should start somewhere) and this whole sailing thing started as an accident.
My Mum loves running and my Dad used to Fence. Dad, bless his heart did try to get me into fencing, and as a kid I attended many holiday camps where fencing was taught. There was one slight problem, I didn’t much enjoy being stabbed. Attending inner city state school meant that violence was the norm during school, a necessary evil to get an education. Outside of school? Being stabbed didn’t interest me.
I did try running and I do still enjoy it. I’m proud of my half marathon and 10k PBs (my 5k PB is touchy subject). But there lay the problem I only really ‘like’ running, I don’t love it. I enjoy being outside, surrounded by nature and I like to push myself beyond my comfort zone but there’s something missing.
Dad was a ward clerk at a hospice in Hillingdon, one day he took a different route to work, discovering a tiny sign sticking out of a bush, with “HOAC” written on it. Hillingdon Outdoor Activity Centre runs watersports holiday camps. For the convenience my parents suggest I try learning to sail. Theory being if I enjoyed it, I could easily be dropped off before and after work making it the perfect school holiday activity.
At the end of the weeklong course, there was a race, maybe it was skill, probably it was luck, but I won it. From memory it was the first thing I ever won in any sport. It was suggested to my parents that I should try the Saturday Optimist racing at the club (for my non-sailing friends, an optimist is a very small sailing boat that more closely resembles your bathtub than a boat). I wasn’t great and finished a few times while I got used to racing against people with several years of experience. Come the season end, regular racing meant time on the water and some good progression. I was lucky enough to win the Under 16 trophy aged 9 at the club’s Autumn Regatta, a trophy taller than I was at the time.
The racing optimist and the DVD.
To be honest, I was happy racing at HOAC, I had some amazing friends and the racing was fun! I was content in this West London paradise.
One day, my friend Tom turned up with a “racing Optimist” a spaceship that weighed 10% of the bathtubs at the club and went 5 times the speed. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. Around the same time my parents bought me a copy of Yachts & Yachting for my birthday, and it had DVD of Conrad Humphreys 2004/2005 Vendee Globe. Maybe my parents’ biggest mistake, as it opened my eyes to the world of possibilities beyond this little lake.
The escalation
Luckily, the club (Queensmead Sailing Club) bought a racing optimist and let me use it, so Tom and I would spend our weekends racing against each other. Despite us both being 10 years old, our (friendly) rivalry was strong and we pushed each other hard. Quickly it became a problem for the club. Our rivalry was so intense, and we’d pushed each other so hard that by age 11 we would regularly beat the “grown-ups”. Who started inventing rules to make it harder for us to win.
My ‘First’ (actually QSC’s )boat, racing oppi 4408 ‘Beetlejuice’. I never understood the meaning of the name. Somehow despite our weekly races Tom and I never got a photo together.
Tom’s dad Brian suggested we should try out for the GBR Southeast squad; we were both selected. 2 years later Tom qualified for the Intermediate National Squad and me the development program. The following year we were both in the National Squad. I think the “grown-ups” at the club were happy to be rid of us.
The end
I was lucky to progress through the ranks of national racing as I grew up, helped along the way by Greenwich Leisure Limited and Gill Marine. My time in dinghy’s came to an end, aged 18 with 4 torn tendons in my arms. This ironically sustained at my favourite racing venue Pwllheli, North Wales at the qualifiers for the Laser Radial World and European championships. 3 years of no sailing followed as the injury left me unable to even brush my teeth. I guess this was my first experience of heart break, how could a sport I love so much cause that much pain.
Winter training somewhere on the Solent.
That injury did mean I went to university and make friends who were innocent to my love of for sailing and the lengths I am willing to go, to get my fix for racing boats. It’s created a bizarre paradox I met some of my closest friends during this time, all of whom had no idea of this side of me.
The comeback
After university, arms now functioning I got a message from a friend asking if I wanted to do an offshore race. A race that started in one country and finished in another, that sounded fun. This led me to joining the crew for the 2017 Rolex Fastnet race. I loved being offshore, loved racing for days and days at a time and really loved racing at night. 17th at 2017 Fastnet, good, but we knew we could do better. 2019 Fastnet race? Even better, despite the weather gods not playing to our boat’s strengths. A quick check of the results, we’d finished highest non-pro team. A prize that yes, we invented.
2020, what if, what if we’d been able to keep the team together, where we could have gone and achieved. Like most plans they got COVID’ed.
Without any real sailing, that silly DVD from Conrad Humphreys entered my head and inspired by childhood friend Jack Trigger’s Route du Ruhm result, I toyed with the idea of solo racing. The logic was that it’s COVID proof, being alone on a boat. Moving to France filled the ‘need for adventure’ void left by 2020.
That year I attempted to teach my self the dark magic of marking a solo ocean racing project happen. Reading every article, asking anyone who dared to give me 5 minutes of their time.
That leads me to the start of these blog series back in 2021, the first of which can be found here!
My first solo offshore sailing race! Somehow amongst the favourites, FRA27 - some guy called Tom Laperche