Mini Skippy Trans Atlantic Sailing

Sailor Julian Adamson prepares to race in the Mini Transat 2021 – a solo event that will see him travel 4,000 miles across the sea in a 6.5-metre yacht

JANUARY is a time when many of us set ourselves tasks for the year ahead, be it to get more exercise, to eat less carbs or to finally get around to writing that book which, it is often said, we all have inside of us.

There are surely few Islanders, however, who have a challenge lying ahead quite as daunting as that of Julian Adamson: namely, to compete in – and, hopefully, win – the Mini Transat 2021.

For the uninitiated, the biennial event is a solo transatlantic race in which participants sail from France to the Caribbean in yachts no bigger than 21 feet. The next contest will see Jersey-born Julian journeying over 4,000 miles, alone, aboard his 6.5-metre yacht, Mini Skippy.

‘The Mini Transat starts in September and takes place in two parts, going first from France to the Canaries and then onto the Caribbean,’ says the ambitious 27-year-old, who formerly worked as a chartered accountant for KPMG Channel Islands.

‘We wait in the Canaries for a month in order to let the hurricane season pass. [The hurricane season] essentially ends in December and we’ll be leaving the Canaries at the end of November, so there is a possibility of encountering a hurricane, although it’s much less likely than earlier in the season.’

We’ll return to the subject of the Mini Transat 2021 – and hurricanes – shortly, but first I asked Julian when, where and how he caught the sailing bug?

To find out more about Julian Adamson, visit his new website: gbr946.myportfolio.com. Alternatively, you can visit his page on Facebook: GBR 946 Mini Skippy.

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‘I got my first taste for sailing at St Michael’s when we would go on school sailing courses on Laser Picos from St Aubin’s Fort,’ he says. ‘Then, after school, I went off-Island to Winchester College and did some team racing there, sailing from Calshot in Firefly dinghies. I wasn’t extremely focused on sailing at this point and sailing sessions at Winchester were few and far between, but then I did a summer job at Freeport Marine and I became very interested in the Tour des Ports de la Manche. I remember seeing the 110-strong fleet of yachts rafted up in St Helier Harbour.’

Over the subsequent two years, Julian would race two or three legs of the Tour des Ports aboard Morrina IV, before he then embarked upon his first offshore race in 2014 in the St Helier Yacht Club’s Race to Biscay, which at that time ran from Jersey to La Rochelle.

‘This really inspired me to get into sailing,’ he says. ‘I went to uni in Switzerland to study French and Spanish and it was there that I really got into offshore sailing.’ Studying foreign languages in landlocked Geneva might not seem the most likely of environments in which
to jump into offshore sailing, but, as anyone who has visited the Swiss city will know, the mighty Lake Geneva offers an effective substitute for the ocean. ‘There is a regatta training centre, which is funded by the Ville de Genève and sponsored by local businesses, and they offer training four times a week, specifically training for racing. And so I signed up.’

Yet despite its imposing size, Lake Geneva can’t possibly compare to sailing upon the wider oceans, and when it comes to the Mini Transat 2021, Julian is in no doubt as to the task that lies ahead.

‘It’s a huge expedition,’ he says. ‘Certainly, coronavirus and Brexit haven’t helped in terms of training for it. I’m a member of two training centres in France, Lorient Grand Large and the Pole Mini 6.50 La Turballe, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to attend many training sessions because I’ve been here in Jersey.’

He continues: ‘Thankfully, they have offered a fair amount of content online. I’ve been able to have a lot of weather training, with seminars run by two legends of the weather-routing world: Christian Dumard and Jean-Yves Bernot. And there have been sessions on weather strategy – how to recognise weather patterns, how to look at the clouds, and so on.

‘Also, we’ve received training on where to get forecasts because those allowed satellite communications. It’s very restricted, with no mobile phones allowed on board either, or at least not when we’re racing. The VHF radio is essentially our only communication device and with that you can talk to boats that you can see and to coastal stations that are a fair amount further away. On a good day with the right conditions you can hear the Falmouth Coastguard from Jersey – that’s over 120 miles’ distance – but that’s certainly not every day.’

As a result of such restrictions, those competing in the Mini Transat must primarily rely on their barometers
in order to keep track of and avoid hazardous weather conditions.

‘We all have a barometer and being able to interpret what it says is absolutely essential, especially in terms of picking up any warning signs.’

For evidence of what can go wrong, Julian cites his own boat, Mini Skippy, which suffered serious damage when its previous owner sailed it in the Mini Transat 2019.

‘He managed to finish the race despite having a hole in the front compartment
of the boat,’ says Julian. ‘This section of the boat is a crash box, which is designed to be sealed from the rest of the boat so that if you hit something front on, you don’t sink the boat – and he hit something front on. He doesn’t know what it was, but it caused the crash box to fill with water. So when I first turned up to see the boat arrive in Martinique, there was a big hole in the front of it. It was less than ideal, because then the boat had to go back to the yard that built it and it was really quite an extensive repair – they had to cut it out, take a moulding of another boat, reprepare a piece and then seal the new piece onto the boat, while also avoiding making it too strong because if it doesn’t flex like the rest of the hull, then it’s going to break. But they did a really, really good piece of work – you can hardly see it now.’

This is fortunate because, as Julian explains, if and when something does go wrong on a solo expedition, it is entirely up to the individual captaining the boat to seek a solution.

‘There is a huge level of commitment, but you have to trust yourself. If something goes wrong, then it’s on you
to fix it. You can’t stop and say, “I want
to get off” – you’ve got to get to port first and there is a huge thrill in knowing that you’ve done that, but it’s a big challenge. You know that you’re responsible for both the boat and your own safety, and you have to operate all of the sails, and then you also have to do all the normal things, such as eating, sleeping, and so on. It’s all very intense.’

As Julian acknowledges, a solo voyage requires a certain type of mindset, and those embarking upon such expeditions must be prepared to spend consecutive days or even weeks in almost complete isolation. It is an experience that has both its ups and downs.

‘I think there are amazing times,
but then there are also times when it’s absolutely horrid,’ he says. ‘The amazing times are when you’ve got the spinnaker up and you’re surfing 15-to-17 knots and the sun is shining – it’s just glorious. Amazing. You feel like you’re on top of the world. But then there are the times when you’re beating upwind into a massive swell, crashing over waves, and you’re not going anywhere fast – and that’s less great.’

Another potential problem for many sailors – be they newcomers or seasoned pros – is seasickness, a topic that is often considered off-limits.

‘People don’t generally talk about it, or at least offshore sailors don’t – it’s a bit of a taboo subject. I have been and do still get seasick, although the more I sail, the less susceptible to it I get, so if I spend
a lot of time not sailing and then I go sailing, I might get seasick. There are also things like being dehydrated, not having eaten enough, getting cold – they’re all factors that mean I’m more likely to get sick.

‘Seasickness is your body thinking you’re being poisoned because it’s sensing different things and it doesn’t understand the mixed messages. It’s what happens with certain poisons and so your body goes into a mode where it’s trying to defend itself. They’re automatic responses and, for me at least, the first thing I
notice is my temperature control goes completely out of the window – you get cold, you get hot. Your body is trying to heat up or massively cool down in order to fight a poison which isn’t there, and then, obviously, as it gets worse, you want to throw up – you want to get it out of your body.’

With increased knowledge of how and why the body reacts the way it does, Julian says there are methods by which the effects of seasickness can be alleviated.

‘As I’ve come to understand what my body is trying to do, I’ve found one of
the best strategies is to keep eating or drinking, just a little at a time. Have water regularly, and eat – even if it’s just silly things, like a cracker with no taste. Just the fact of eating it makes me much calmer and stops me from feeling sick. At certain times I have felt myself starting to get sick, then I’ve eaten and the feeling has gone away.’

All of which brings us back to hurricanes. Encountering one is, thankfully, a highly unlikely occurrence, but, nevertheless, exactly what should those competing in the Mini Transat do should one appear on the horizon?

‘Well, if you see a hurricane, then it’s already far too close,’ laughs Julian. ‘The effects of a hurricane can be felt 300, 400, even 500 miles away, so it’s not even that you have to see it [to feel its effects].

‘In the northern hemisphere, the strategy is to sail as fast as you can on the starboard tack, so with the wind coming from the starboard side of boat, and that will get you out of the way of
the hurricane. There is what is known
as the “dangerous semi-circle” and the “navigable semi-circle”, and essentially you want to be on the southern side of the hurricane, because then you’re sailing away [from it].

‘A sign to look out for on the barometer is if the pressure starts dropping, because in the tropics the pressure is essentially constant. So if it drops by more than three millibars then it means there is very likely a tropical storm approaching. You can tell roughly where you are in relation to it by the wind direction you have, and it is then up to you to decide which way to go.’

For now, Julian is going to continue training for the Mini Transat, ever mindful of the importance of not underestimating the ocean – or as he
put it to the JEP late last year: ‘The sea is intense, the sea is real; it demands honesty and responsibility, and although not always hospitable, and sometimes downright hostile, it provides the treasures of freedom, peace and beauty.’

To find out more about Julian Adamson, visit his new website: gbr946.myportfolio.com. Alternatively, you can visit his page on Facebook: GBR 946 Mini Skippy.