American Sailing Hero -- Inspiration Pure and Simple

[Dan Cooney]

It's been over a month since American Rich Wilson, hailing from Rockport, MA, finished the Vendee Globe (solo non-stop around the world) in 121 days. He sailed over 28,000 miles (roughly 44 Bermuda Races) and took ninth place out of 30 starters. He was the oldest skipper at 58 years old, cracked a rib only a few days into the race, and suffers from asthma. He was also the only American entered this time and now only the second American to have ever finished the Vendee. As Rich has said in interviews, it's impossible to describe in words what it was like to have been out there and to have had this experience.

We blogged earlier about him a couple times on this site. What does he have to do with racing to Bermuda in cruising-worthy boats? I speak from the cheap seats, as a crew who has minimal boat-related responsibilities prior to the race but we know that there are Captains out there right now who are spending a lot of time in preparation for the 2009 Marion Bermuda start. There are certificates to validate, life rafts to inspect, crew information to collect, flights to book, NOR's to check thrice, inspections to schedule, weather and stream data to analyze, provisioning to organize, a check-list on getting the boat in the water that is getting longer not shorter, etc. I would venture that most New England based Skippers might have found themselves working on the boat sometime this past weekend perhaps with the cheerful (for, ahem, some) Red Sox radio in the background.

With all that going on in addition to your other roles/lives of work, family, volunteer positions -- you may be getting maxed out. I will update this blog with precise link when Rich's site is available www.sitesalive.com (at the moment it won't come up) but if you go there and navigate to the daily podcast, you will see a link to his finishing press conference -- his last podcast. Just listening to his humble words about the ups and downs of his adventure makes me want to push myself just a little bit harder in everything i do. Rich is my sailing hero partly because he is a human being i can relate to even while his accomplishments are superhuman. If Rich did the Vendee, I can at least get X, Y and Z done this week. A lot of excellent sailors will tell you that the race is won or lost by the time you leave the dock in terms of your level of preparation for the competition. And in the Marion Bermuda race some skippers will say that two-thirds the total effort is done by the time you slip the mooring on Friday, June 19. Keep up the good work and look forward to seeing you in Marion!