Happy New Year everyone! This year 2010 is going to be the most important year in preparation for the round the world yacht race. The race starts in autumn 2011, giving me one and half years time to shape up physically, mentally and financially. The preparations have started with paperwork, being closely followed by training and frequent practice. My most challenging task this year will not be training, but finding personal sponsors to cover race fees totalling £40,000 British pounds.
Paperwork
Everyone participating the Round The World Yacht Race is obliged to take an insurance before being allowed into the training programme. This insurance covers practically everything and anything from injuries to emergency evacuation. Extra cover can be taken to ensure a better pay in case of death (!), personal accidents and cancellations. The cancellation cover is immensely important as it ensures that one can get a full refund of race fees, in case of an injury that prevents participation. For example, one might break a leg just a week before the race starts and therefore be unable to participate. Without a cancellation cover one would kiss the £40K goodbye and limp away to live landlubber life in poverty not only with a broken leg, but also broken heart. As one can imagine, this insurance package is not cheap: it’s roughly £2,300 for the full circumnavigation race and needs to be paid upfront.
Additionally one has to also make sure that all required papers e.g. passport, visas and vaccinations are taken care of well before the race start.
For your entertainment a few numbers revealing the value of a human being according to an unnamed insurance company:
- Accidental death: £20,000
- Permanent total disablement from any occupation: £20,000
- Emergency evacuation expenses: £5 million
- Hijack: £250 each complete day, max. £12,500. (That is up to 50 days! Hijackers, make sure the ordeal takes over 24 hrs and less than 50 days, thank you very much.)
Training
The Clipper Training programme is divided into four levels. Level 1 is an 8-day introduction to basic principles of sailing, good seamanship, personal safety, first aid and sea survival techniques. Level 2 is an 8-day introduction to key racing techniques incorporating a Short Range Radio course. Level 3 is split to a 5-day shore based course of Navigation and Meteorology, continuing further 5 days on the water focussing on offshore sailing. Level 4 brings all learnings together and put them to use in an offshore racing environment.
I will start Level 1 training in the beginning of March. Meanwhile I am trying to figure out an efficient, enjoyable and cheap kind of exercise that improves oxygen intake, muscular power and stamina. I could enjoy trail running, but London does not offer very exciting environment for that. Dancing is enjoyable, but expensive and not perhaps as efficient as possible. Gym is not my idea of an enjoyment, actually I’m avoiding them like plague. Good sports ideas, anyone?
I would also like to find a (non-religious) meditation technique, because personally I believe it could help dealing with various kinds of people in a cramped boat. I believe it is essential to be conscious of my personal thought processes and reactions aiming at improved patience – in other words to manage frustration in stressful situations where one has no control over the circumstances. Anything that will help building and keeping good relationships in difficult environment is warmly welcome! It’s all for the common good.
Sponsors
Any day now I should receive a sponsor media kit from Clipper Ventures. The kit is a proof of my status as an official crew member but also a source of inspirational material, therefore being an essential tool in search of personal sponsors. Based on my best estimates, I will be in shape for sponsor search after Level 1 training, somewhere around mid-March 2010. Should anyone want to discuss about sponsorship options before March, please contact me through the contact form. Thank you!
It gets you a long way.
