First rung of the ladder

Fourth home, Hannah White describes the highs and lows of her OSTAR

After a tricky start to her solo sailing career, including participation in the OSTAR four years ago when she was forced to retire with autopilot problems, finally Hannah White has got her first notch on the board finishing fourth on elapsed time, despite her 32ft long Figaro 2 Puresolo being one of the smallest boats in the fleet.

“I am absolutely over the moon, really chuffed,” she commented when thedailysail caught up with her yesterday. “I feel a little bit like I am punching above my weight and I shouldn’t really be here. I went out to see Barry, Luca, Oscar and Jerry in and I should have been finishing with those guys, not 24 hours ahead of them.”

In terms of her route, Hannah definitely sailed ‘her own race’, for example banging the northern side of the course once out of the Western Approaches. “We had some pretty tough weather in that low pressure system, which came in very early. I knew that there was another system behind that and there was going to be a good chunk of speed I could get by making the transition from north to south. To be honest, there was no gain in me going north or staying where I was. The gain was in coming back down south again. And it was nice to get a bit of separation from the fleet. I was keen to get my distance and get into my own race and get my head into the right place and going north worked really well for me. Then as the breeze came around I was able to go on to a westerly route and I popped the kite and I had a terrific 18 hours sailing, really really fast sailing, and slotted back in further in front than if I’d just followed the leader.”

There was then yet another depression she had to deal with to the south of Newfoundland and as the others succumbed to upwind conditions on the southern side of this Hannah was able to steer Puresolo again on a more northerly course towards its centre, reaching in one side and reaching out the other.

“That is defintely where I made my biggest gains," she says. "I spent a lot of time trying to set the boat up for good reaching conditions and I got four or five days of it with the boat just flying. It was perfect. I made a lot of gains there and up as very close behind the 40s for a while.”

Meanwhile her chief competition, Katie Miller in her Figaro 2 bluQube had taken a very different tactic, generally sticking to the south side of the race track. “Her decision to go south, at the time I thought she was going to pull it off, but I think she went too far and stayed down there. She lost her radar on day two and was keen not to go over the Grand Banks. In hindsight I went across the Grand Banks with no radar and it was a pretty horrendous experience.

“I had no intention of going any further south than maybe just south of the rhumb line. I ended up going a lot further north. It was always my intention to do a vague rhumb line route.”

She and Katie Miller did exchange a few emails. “She emailled me after a day and said she had massive spray hood envy. She had a shocker with the boat leaking and has been wet from day one. I was wondering around in my socks downstairs dry as a bone. I think she struggled with that side of it, being wet and cold a lot of the time. But she has sailed a good race, she is going to make it and it is her first Altnatic crossing ­and se has done it on her own. So fair play to her. She’s done a good job.”

So did she enjoy it? “Largely. Yes and no. There were some really horrible times, a few occasions where I’d phone up my mother or boyfriend and say ‘don’t ever let me do this again’. But even last night in the bar we were talking about the next one. I don’t think the bad times and the rubbish times can ever overshadow the extraordinary sense of achievement you get from doing something like this. Especially for me where I’ve had a lot of false starts in the past, so getting here it is an even bigger hurdle I had overcome. So I am on cloud nine and I intend to stay here for a very long time!”

Her race was not without issues, including another autopilot ram failing, giving her a sense of deja-vu. “After having had to abandon this race four years ago because of autopilot problems, I couldn’t believe it. The ram packed up on day four. Luckily I had a spare and I was able to wire in a new one and keep an eye on that. Until 200 miles before the end, it was absolutely fine and then it started playing up again. But we are here in one piece, and by and large I was so impressed with the NKE electronics and the pilot did a terrific job. There was never one moment when I thought that the pilot couldn’t handle it and that is a really reassuring place to be. A few years ago I would have really freaked out and thought 'it was game over', but you have to keep your cool about you and go ‘this is fine, we can get through this, we can sort it’. Thankfully I was able to fix everything, so I was really pleased. And once you fix something you get an even bigger sense of achievement and your confidence grows and it gets easier and easier.”



Mid-Atlantic following the gybe after her long run south, she also had to make two ascents of the mast. “I did a shocking gybe and got the worst wrap in my spinnaker you could imagine, so I had to go up the rig to unclip the halyard and untwist it. Then I came down and got the kite down, undamaged thankfully, but the halyard managed to get stuck at the top of the rig in the groove of the Tuffluff. So I couldn’t hoist a headsail, and I had to go up again and prise that out. But it was all fine in the end. I got up and got down and I was pretty stattered by the end ,but it was job done and no damage at all - so I was very happy with that.”

But the darkest moment of the race came on her way into the finish. At this point she seemed set to better Mary Falk’s 35ft class record on QII, but this was until she ran into a giant wind hole. “It was just horrendous. By and large I would rather have the s**t kicked out of me than being becalmed. It was just awful - stuck in the most awful hole. You download GRIB file after GRIB file and there is just nothing for miles around. It just formed on top of me and engulfed me in this nightmare of no wind. You think you are going to be there forever. It lasted about 36 hours. You get bits and pieces, but every time the breeze picked up to 6 knots and it was amazing, then it dropped off again and it was just awful. Then the breeze filled in again and I managed to get some good miles in the final two days. But the record wasn’t meant to be.”


Shamelessly plugging Liz Earle products

As to life on board Hannah says she’s fine with the sleep deprivation. “I finished the race and wasn’t massively tired, considering I hadn’t really slept for the last three days of the race.”

However she admits she is bad when it comes to eating or at least preparing meals. “I think I have lost the best part of a stone. But I put on quite a lot before the race, knowing that I would lose it. But it is fine - I have my summer figure! I am not good at eating. I had some lovely food on board, but I found it really difficult to be bothered to prepare anything to eat and it is so, so important. So it was basically the Haribot diet for me. I am good at realising when I am low on energy and saying I need to eat something now. I found eating much harder than I found the lack of sleep.”

From here she has to set off to deliver Puresolo back to Europe in 10 days time. This she will do two handed with a friend and will probably include a stop-off in the Azores en route home. She then has to return her chartered Figaro 2 to its owner, Liz Wardley. “Then I need to take stock and see my sponsors and make a plan.”

Her sponsor, Puresolo, an online music download and sharing website, seem to be happy. Hannah performed some outstanding mid-Atlantic karaoke for their benefit and is particularly pleased with her rendition of ‘Summer Loving’ the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John duet from Grease, where teddy George took the male part.

“It is so nice to have a fun sponsor and someone who you can just have a laugh with. There were a few times when I got the microphone out on deck and sung some songs and it puts a smile on my face and that is a good thing. You feel a bit stupid at the time - but why not, it is fun. When you are on your own for a couple of weeks, it makes you laugh and that is important. Puresolo loved it and it was lovely to work with such fun people.”

Racing-wise her plans are up in the air, depending upon what opportunities arise. “I’d love to do a two handed hot race as I’ve done my fair share of cold racing this year. I’d like to do Route du Chocolat or TJV - a doublehanded race would be really fun. My confidence is high now. I’ve proved that I can do I and I want to build on it. It would be a shame to call it day now.”

A fourth place in the OSTAR, just behind the larger Class 40s should hopefully be the ticket she needs.