Comment: At the Sharp end

Thursday 22 February 2018

Islander Phil Sharp is one of Britain’s most accomplished offshore sailors. Along with crewmate Pablo Santurde, the 36-year- old finished third recently in the Transat Jacques Vabre, one of the longest transatlantic races on the sailing calendar.

Sailing at this level is big business and Phil’s success is dependent on corporate support. Fortunately, it’s a sport that business is keen to align to: not only is it visual, exciting and – with modern technology – easy to follow, it also requires key business skills at their rawest: like teamwork, attention to detail and perseverance.

Express went to find out what we could learn from Phil:

Phil Sharp is back in Jersey after a gruelling 17 days, 15 hours, 58 minutes and 41 seconds at sea, racing 4,539 nautical miles from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia in
Brazil. The Transat was a tough, tough race: despite a podium finish, Phil was disappointed to see his and Pablo’s well-earned lead out of the Doldrums wither in the final few days, as two more powerful boats overtook him.

Back in his home island for a short spell – he spends most of the winter among a strong sailing fraternity in La Rochelle – Phil has time to reflect. “In the end, it was simply down to not having a fast-enough boat. We had optimised the sail package quite heavily but our boat [Imerys Clean Energy] was three years older than the two that overtook us. We knew that these more powerful boats would be quicker in the strong, reaching conditions after the Doldrums; we just didn’t know how much quicker. They had 15% more power in their hull shape, which translates to at least half a knot in boat speed. Sometimes, it just comes down to how much horsepower you have on the home straight.”

Looking at the race as a whole, Phil and Pablo led the fleet for 12 of the 17 days – an incredible achievement with an older, albeit very familiar, boat. Much of that was down to something we can all relate to: teamwork. “On the water, we had a watch system so we were almost doing two solo watches, but if we were changing sails, Pablo was much better at some tasks and I was better at others. In terms of the manoeuvres and the sail changes, I was usually at the back of the boat and Pablo at the front. We tried to have some consistency in the roles we played. It took us half the race to get our system working well and when we did, it was enormously satisfying.

“With any decision-making, it was important to have two heads involved rather than one. At the end of the day, one person has to make the call but drawing on the advice and opinion of another experienced skipper was incredibly important. We didn’t have a pecking order but it was more a case of respecting each other and our
differing skills and experience.

Pictured: Phil and Pablo celebrating after the Transat. (Phil Sharp Racing)

“We got together because I saw Pablo as a guy who was good at consistently sailing the boat fast, while I love strategy: the meteorology and trying to second-guess what the weather is going to do. It was a good fit. We never had disagreements with the strategy; it was more a case of Pablo might question something that I’ve done and raise some really interesting points. That might lead to a change in strategy with a different risk profile. It was a compromise, which always worked well. If you don’t listen and are not prepared to amend your plans, it will invariably cause problems because, in a relationship of trust, that other opinion will be reasonable and thought through.”

Of course, the team worked because they – and their supporters – were fully aware of another important lesson: prepare, prepare, prepare. “70% of the result of a race is down to the preparation, which is a commercial challenge as well as a technical challenge because you can’t get a fast boat unless you have the budget in the first place. We didn’t have the budget of the other teams, which is why we had an older boat. We optimised our boat heavily but our inevitable downfall was the fact that we didn’t have the most up-to- date platform. With this is mind, we are now planning on getting a quicker and more innovative boat.

“When it comes to race strategy, we looked at probabilities and climatology data from previous years a couple of weeks before the race to indicate what is ‘normal’
for that race route. A few days before, the forecast is a lot more accurate so that’s when we looked at our strategy in a lot more detail. Counter intuitively, that can mean going off-course quite heavily in order to seek out a favourable weather system. It is an interesting game.

“It can also be a longer-term investment. Yes, you are managing risk against your competitors – you certainly don’t want to be doing twice as many miles as them –
but it very satisfying to be one step ahead and get into that favourable weather system first. A lot of time in racing, the rich get richer. It wasn’t particularly the case in this race but it’s important to have a low-risk strategy to keep things clean but having the knowledge to get a jump at the start.

“You definitely have high-risk sailors and low-risk sailors. I’ve seen sailors who are always one side of the fleet; never in the middle. Some of them simply aren’t confident in their boat speed so they’ll try to do something a little risky – and more often than not they will get nailed at some point because their planned scenario
didn’t play out. And then you get the other sailors who think if they stay with the fleet, they will maintain a consistent speed and perhaps finish second or third. With sailing, you need to have a certain degree of confidence and willingness to take risks to get an advantage.

Pictured: The Imerys Clean Energy setting off for the Transat from Le Havre. (Phil Sharp Racing)

“As the Transat was so long, our strategy was to keep things clean, not take big risks and stay at the front of the fleet. By ‘keeping clean’, I mean pushing the boat in its
sweet spots – which in our case was downwind in relatively strong winds – and not beyond its limits. We played it safe in some tough conditions early on in the race and
a couple of boats did suffer damage in the first weather front. It is important to have a game plan but also keep a close eye on your competitors so your tactical choices don’t end up as too extreme. It is always good to put yourself in control of the fleet as early on in a race as possible. It is part of the psychological battle, to show that you mean business.

“The other boats might see you going two knots faster and think: ‘What the hell is going on?’ They can almost be sitting there in a state of shock while you’re putting miles on them and getting that early advantage. It gives you more power, in terms of covering them and controlling them during the race. With sailing, you have to think four dimensions all the time and position yourself for what is going to happen in order to be in the right place when it does happen.”

But not everything went Phil’s way, which is another lesson we can learn: to cope in adversity. “It is important to keep your emotions to yourself, even when you’re sailing single- handed. When I did the Transat Bakerly last year on my own, there was a lot going wrong and I was swearing at myself to begin with. But after a few days, I realised that there was no point because no one else was listening and no one else cared. You just have to get on with the job and look at it in a favourable light. Being cross and negative doesn’t get you anywhere. Crap as the situation may be, a positive mind-set is the best option.”

Pictured: Toasting Neptune on the equator with Bruichladdich Classic in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2017. (Phil Sharp Racing)

Something else that Phil had to deal with – which affects us all from time to time – is extreme tiredness. Ocean racing is not for someone who needs ten hours of sleep a
night. “It is very difficult keeping yourself awake when you are really tired; you have to listen to your body. It is a fine balance because when you’re not driving the boat for speed, you have to navigate, you have to eat, you have to help with sail changes and you’ve got to sleep. So, your two hours of sleep can quickly be one. And if that’s happening five or six times a day, you’re getting a maximum of six hours and a minimum of three every 24 hours.

“When you’re tired, you really lose the ability to think ahead and make sense of multiple sources of information. Complexity becomes your enemy. Many times,
when tired, I’ve struggled to make sense of something but then after just 20 minutes of sleep, a nightmare decision suddenly seems quite simple. A lack of sleep is really dangerous and something to be avoided at all costs.

“You have to have a routine to provide structure and consistency. If you have a watch system, for instance, and change roles every two hours, it’s a false economy
to be ‘nice’ and let your crewmate have a few more minutes in bed because he might do the same and before you know it, you’ve lost your consistency and, the next thing, you’re not sure who’s watch it is next. When you’re seriously tired, and changing watch frequently, it’s amazing how easy it is to forget.”

Pictured: Sailing through the doldrums. (Phil Sharp Racing)

Through the stress of hard ocean racing, it’s no surprise to hear that thoughts of a comfy bed, meeting loved ones again and a cool beer at the end are seriously
motivating factors for Phil. Crossing the line first, however, trumps them all. “I am totally driven by winning – to the extent that I think coming second will be a massive failure. Of course, it’s not always the case but if you want to win, you have to have that mentality. There is a huge amount of opportunity and advantage through winning. The secret is to not pressure yourself too much but, first and foremost, you have to have belief that you can do it.”

Fuelled by that desire to win, 2017 has been Phil’s most successful year yet. He anticipates, however, that the best is yet to come – not only in terms of winning but
also developing the carbon neutral concept of his ‘Energy Challenge.’ “We are in a good place to step up to the ‘big league’ of round-the- world sailing, which is sailing an Imoca 60. These are the innovative foiling monohulls, which when at full speed can create as much lift as the boat itself. This means that the boat effectively loses contact with the water, which reduces drag significantly. We hope to go into a partnership with an existing boat for the Barcelona World and, in parallel, be developing a new boat, if we can find more funding. That boat will be for the next Vendée Globe, which starts in August 2020.

“When it comes to our use of pioneering renewable technologies, we are doing it on a step-by- step basis: our deck solar panels, with their fantastic grip, were innovative this year, and next year we are working towards using hydrogen fuel cell technology to store renewable energy. We want to harness renewable energy from the boat, store it as hydrogen and use that in a fuel cell to generate power for the propulsion system. Clearly, we wouldn’t use that in the race but we want to demonstrate something that would work in the marine world.

Now between races, Phil’s role is team leader as opposed to skipper. “I like the contrast between sailing and the business side and, in fact, I’d say the onshore work is harder. It might sound stupid but when you’re in a race, all you have to do is sail fast and go the right way. The business side is certainly a challenge but, at the end of the day, if you have the dream and the willpower, then you can hopefully encourage people to come along with you to share the opportunities.”

This interview features in the latest edition of Connect magazine here.